Les tours du Vieux-Port de La Rochelle. Par Jebulon — Travail personnel, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46279660

If I were to cite a personal example of how the Fichier Origine—which I praised more than once throughout this Challenge—may prove helpful for identifying new ancestors, Barbe Ménard would be the one. Barbe is my 8th great-grandmother on the maternal side of my great-grandmother Esther Laurendeau, wife of Louis Tourville.

A King’s daughter, she arrived in 1669 in New France at the age of 20. She was from Saint-Martin-de-Ré, department of Charente-Maritime. She married Antoine Vermet the same year at Île-d’Orléans.

Her parents, René Mesnard and Judith Veillon, were married on July 9, 1636, at the parish of Sainte-Marguerite in La Rochelle. For Judith, it was a second marriage. A tailor, René was baptized in 1612 at the same parish. As for Judith, she was baptized in 1613 at the Protestant Temple in La Rochelle.

Pierre Mesnard, a carpenter of Rompsay, and Louise Trinelle, are Barbe’s paternal grandparents; Pierre Veillon and Renée Girard are her maternal grandparents. The latter were married at the Reformed Church in La Rochelle in 1610.

I have a few ancestors who were Protestants from La Rochelle. I am curious—in a few months, I intend to read more on this topic.