Olivier Charbonneau

Olivier Charbonneau (France, Aunis 1613 Île de Montréal 20 November 1687 ) was a frontiersman who lived in Old Montreal in New France.

Charbonneau started his working life as a sewer cleaner in Marans, Charente-Maritime. Widowed twice, by Ozanne Lussaud, then by Marguerite Roy in Marans (m. 13 April 1646),

He was one of the first settlers of the Île Jésus (today, Laval). He is the ancestor of 35,000 living North Americans, and ancestor of the entire population of families with the surname Labelle, through his daughter Anne.

There are only two surviving records for the family name of Charbonneau: one for Olivier and his wife, landing in 1659, and another for an unrelated man, Jean and his wife, around 1675. Nothing in the record suggests that the two were closely related. It has been estimated that 97% of the Charbonneau families in North America are descended from Olivier Charbonneau and his wife. Descendants of Jean are fewer in number and in New France have tended to cluster in the Vaudreuil and Soulanges area of Quebec near the Ottawa river.

Migration

In search of a better future, with his wife and their two-year-old daughter Anne, he sailed for New France on the ship "Saint-André" from La Rochelle on 2 July 1659.

Ten years later, on 10 October 1669 in Ville-Marie, the notary Bénigne Basset signed an amnesty of debtors in the hope of encouraging people to live in Ville-Marie. Their debts were enormous, each family's larger than an annual wage. The debt was wiped out by Jeanne Mance and her generous donors.

Charbonneau's family thus is one of the eight founding families of Aunis, and under that amnesty they were bound by contract to migrate to New France.

Island of Montreal

Charbonneau and his wife raised a family at Ville-Marie: Anne (born 1657), Joseph (1660), Jean (1662), Élisabeth (1664), and Michel (1666). who signed the deed of sale. Toussaint Charbonneau, who went on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was married to Sacagawea; their son Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was born on the Expedition, the start to his exceptional life Joseph Charbonneau, Bishop of Hearst and later Archbishop of Montreal Yvon Charbonneau, politician Joseph Thomas Hay, Radio/Television Broadcaster, Actor Ottawa, Ontario son of Mary Melina Charbonneau.

Legend The Avenue Olivier-Charbonneau in Montreal. A statue in his image in Laval, Quebec. The Olivier-Charbonneau berge (or parc) in Laval, in remembrance of the first population of île Jésus. Both in France and in Quebec (until 2010) there are two "Charbonneau associations", the descendants of whom meet regularly. The last meeting of record was in 2007 at St-Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec for the group in Canada. The Olivier-Charbonneau Bridge into Montreal, and Quebec Autoroute 25.