Letourneau

or Létourneau

The Letourneau family originates in the parish of St-Sixte in Muron, a village near Rochefort in the Saintonge. The marriage of David (1) Estourneau and Jeanne Dupen is not recorded, but must have happened about 1615. Their son David (2) was born probably in 1616 and died at Château-Richer (above) on May 16, 1670. He married Sébastienne Guerry at St-Sixte on June 10, 1640; later in Canada, their son (the third David, born 1642, married Françoise Chapelain in 1664) gave these names as his parents, but he spelled the surname "Letourneau." This second David had two brothers baptized at St-Sixte: Jacques (1628) and Mathurin (1629); they did not emigrate. With Sébastienne he had at least one other surviving child besides David (3): Jean, born 1647. (There was another Jean and two Maries; all died as infants.) After Sébastienne died David (2) married Jeanne Barreil (July 6, 1654) and it was with her and Sébastienne's son David (3) that he emigrated to Québec in 1658.

David (2) Letourneau and Jeanne Barreil or Baril were the parents of Philippe (born 1657, just before the family crossed the Atlantic) and Élisabeth, baptized at St-Sixte on May 26, 1655. Their son Jacques was born in Château-Richer in 1667; their son Gabriel was born and died there in 1670.

David (1642), Jean (1647), Philippe (1657) and Jacques (1667) all married, and are the ancestors of all later French-Canadian Letourneaus. Their sister Élisabeth (1655) married Mathurin Tessier on September 23, 1670 and is our ancestor via Tessier, Gaudrier and Turcotte.