INTRODUCTION TO LESSARD FAMILY STORY

By Marcelle Sevigny

My task for this book was to research the Lessard side of the family. I did not know where to begin so I wrote to the parish priest of St. Alexis des Monts, Quebec, looking for Grandpa’s birth and/or marriage certificate. After several letters back and forth, and after deciphering which Joseph Lessard he was, I finally obtained his baptismal certificate along with his parents’ marriage certificate. They were married in 1882. I was then notified that the parish registers only went back to 1872, ten years previous to his parents’ marriage. Having hit that much, I wrote to the Public Archives of Canada in Quebec. They were of no help to me. Then, on a hunch, I wrote to Ste. Anne de Beaupre asking if it was true that the land had been donated by a Lessard. My mother always said it was. To my utmost surprise, I received a friendly and encouraging letter in response from a Father Gérard Lebel who said, and I’ll translate, “There is only one Lessard ancestor as far as I’m concerned. You are related to this ancestor, Etienne de Lessart. But we will have to prove it.” He then asked me to send him all the information I could give him on my grandparents, etc. and so on up the ladder. It took from the 18th of February, 1983, till January 29, 1984, to fill in the rest. Later, Father Lebel wrote to me and said, “After two hours of perspiring over the papers I can give you a complete answer.” Lo and behold — he had all the ten generations completed from my parents up. You can imagine my joy at his discovery!

Fortunately, there is a fair amount written about this first ancestor, Etienne de Lessart. I will try to add a bit to what is written in the book, Our French-Canadian Ancestors, by Thomas J. Laforest.

We know that Etienne de Lessart, ancestor of the Lessard family, was born in 1623 in Normandy (see map). The only thing we know of his origin is the name of his parents, Jacques and Marie Herson, and the name of the village where he grew up, Chambois.

Although there is no record to prove it, it is believed that Etienne de Lessart came to New France around 1645. On the third of June, 1646, he was present at a baptism where he was the godfather. The following year, 1647, he was the messenger of very good news. It was he who announced “the help promised by France” was on its way. The event was announced in these words, “This same day (June 21), Mr. de Lessart returning from Tadoussac brought the first news from France which had been received from Captain Le Fèvre who had arrived at l’Ile Percée ... that five ships were preparing to come; that peace had been made in France.”

The land that Olivier LeTardif gave Etienne was one of the nicest pieces of land (see map D-4). Seduced by the life in New France, Etienne chose that piece of world for his children to be born on. The young girl he loved was born in Paris around 1634. She was 18 years old and already had behind her about 17 years of life in New France. Charles Sevestre and Marie Pichon arrived in New France with three children from Marie Pichon’s first marriage to Philippe Gauthier de Comporté and two daughters of their own. Charles Sevestre was a man estimated to be “well-off.” His descendants were perpetuated to the present day by his daughters.

One account mentions that 12, not 11, children were born of this union (Etienne and Marguerite) of which 8 later married.

Every year, on the feast day of St. Stephen (December 26), Mass is celebrated as was promised by this ancestor in 1651. As for the barn that had been occupied by him and the oldest of his descendants to perpetuity (forever), it was used by Lessards until 1931 when the family sold it for $75.00.

ETIENNE LESSART

by Renald Lessard

Etienne de Lessard, son of Jacques and of Marie Herson, was orginally from Chambois in Normandy. In 1645, at about the age of 22, he left for New France, a distant colony of a few hundred harassed people. On 3 June 1646 we pick up his trail at Trois-Rivieres where he was acting as a godfather. For a period of several years Etienne was associated with Martin Grouvel, a river pilot of Quebec. It is probably this association that accounts for his presence in 1646-47 at Trois-Rivieres and at Tadoussac.

HIS MARRIAGE

On 8 April 1652 at Quebec, Etienne de Lessard and Marguerite Sevestre were betrothed. She was the daughter of Charles, a notable of Quebec, and their union was “in the presence of the recognized witnesses Mr. de Lauson Gouverneur, Mr. de Lauson junior, Fils Senechal, and