Our Huguenot Ancestors

• Their History and Settlement in French Canada

  
  

Notes:

• Introduction
  

• Firsts of all, let me define what is a Huguenot. The Huguenots were French protestants following the Calvin’s doctrine. The origin of the name Huguenots is probably derived from the German word «Eignossen», which means «confederate». The Swiss confederation was the center of Protestantism.

• A question peoples could ask is why did I get interested on the subject of Huguenots in New-France? Like most French-Canadians, I was convinced liked our historians said, that the pioneers of New-France were all Roman Catholics. I started to have doubts after a research for one of my wife’s ancestor at the departmental archive of Normandy in Rouen, France. While I was waiting for a microfilm of the catholic parish of her ancestor, I fumbled around and felled on an old book. That book was a transcription of the register of the protestant temple of Grand Quevilly. To my astonishment, I found the baptism act of the person we were looking for. We also found all the acts concerning that family way down for three generations. I was quite familiar with the history of Protestantism in France, so I decided to start investigate if our historians were telling the truth. The results of my research conduct me to realize that the Huguenot presence in New-France was quite larger then we have been told and that they had played an important part in the discovery and colonization of America. Far most, if the French politics had been different toward the Huguenots, the whole history of New-France could have been changed. This will be the subject of that lecture.