Jolicoeur

(Georgeteau)

The original family name was "Georgeteau," but the immigrant ancestor was known as "Georgeteau dit Jolicoeur" and then simply "Jolicoeur." To make matters more complicated, some descendants added new "dit" names like Host. "Jolicoeur" means something like "happy heart" or "heart's content." We even find "Jolicoeur dit Georgeteau" and "Jolicoeur dit Poliquin" in a few records; but all refer to the same family.

The earliest known ancestor is Nicolas Georgeteau, who married Jeanne Louenat. Their son Pierre Georgeteau lived with his wife Isabelle Merlet in the Breton village of Machecoul (parish of Ste-Croix), near the Atlantic coast a few miles southwest of Nantes; it is the 'capital' of the region known as the Pays de Retz. There is a ruined castle (above) once inhabited by the Comtes de Dreux (Cotter ancestors). Pierre and Isabelle were married in February 1686 (his occupation listed as "laborer"). Their son Claude was in born Machecoul in December 1698 and became a corporal in the compagnie de Dubuisson, a regiment of marines stationed in Nouvelle-France during and after the War of the Spanish Succession (he seems to have arrived in 1717). His brother Honoré Georgeteau dit Saint-Pierre (born 1689) was also a marine; but by 1724 he worked as a miller on the estate of the sieur Fafard-Laframboise, and had married Louise-Marguerite Desrosiers in 1723. Claude was no doubt intoduced to his brother's widowed sister-in-law and married her: Marie-Françoise Desrosiers at Trois-Rivières in February 1727. At some point early in their married life, they began using the name Jolicoeur as their surname. Other siblings of Claude and Honoré were Marie (1687), Jeanne (1692), Antoine (1694), Mathieu (1696), and Élisabeth (1700); they remained in France.

Honoré Georgeteau was the father of six children, only one of whom survived childhood. Claude and Marie-Françoise produced two children: François (1727-1728) and Marie-Jeanne (1729, married Joseph Parenteau in 1752; she had already been married briefly to Joseph Gerbault). They were the parents of Marguérite Parenteau, the mother of Maxime Martin. By the 1750s the family was calling itself "Jolicoeur dit Host" or sometimes "Hosteau."