Langevin

dit Lacroix

Our Langevin ancestors originated in the village of Le Lude, halfway between Angers and LeMans in the province of Anjou. There is a major chateau (once belonging to the Counts of Anjou; in the seventeenth century it belonged to the Daillon family, who rebuilt it - photo above). Mathurin (1) Langevin (the surname means 'from Anjou' and is quite common there) was born about 1575, and was married on May 25, 1600 to Françoise Disle (she was about 14). We know of two children: Mathurin (see below) and Nicole, who married Jean Valiquette in Le Lude in 1628 and later went with him to Québec (one son). Mathurin died in le Lude on November 17, 1626.

The younger Mathurin (2) Langevin was born about 1602 and married Marguérite Mahay in October or November 1627 at St-Germain-d'Arcé, some miles away, nearer LeMans. Nothing is known of her background. We know of four children born at Le Lude. The third Mathurin was baptized there on October 30, 1632. René (born 1641) came to Nouvelle-France but never married. His youngest sibling Élisabeth (married René Lanceleur) was born in July 1645. When the family crossed the Atlantic, they brought with them an illegitimate daughter of Mathurin (2) by Renée Marteau.

Mathurin (3) Langevin was in Québec by 1653; there is a record of his recruitment as a laborer at La Flèche (the "Grand Recrue") early that year. On May 5, 1654 he married Marie Renaud (1631-1673), by whom he had no known children, though they were married for nineteen years. After her death at age 42, Mathurin married Marie-Thérèse Martin (daughter of Antoine Martin and Denise Sevestre, apparently unrelated to our other Martin families). They had four children: Antoine (1685-1777, married Marie-Louise Cousineau, 11 children); Charles (married Madeleine Véronneau, 3 children, and Marie-Louise Gareau); Louis (married Jeanne Gateau, 4 children, and Marie-Madeleine Roy, 5 children; she was not from one of our Roy families); and Marie-Madeleine (married Edmond Tessier on June 18, 1697; died February 8, 1749).

See Tessier for Marie-Madeleine's descendants.