Rouen- Par Herbert Frank from Wien (Vienna), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69892669

King’s Daughter Madeleine Niel came to New France in 1667 where she married, on October 24 of the very same year, Étienne Charles dit Lajeunesse, a private from the Carignan-Salières Regiment, Company of Contrecoeur. Madeleine is from the maternal line of my great-grand-mother Esther Laurendeau.

Baptized on June 3, 1652, at the parish of Saint-Gervais in Rouen, department of Seine-Maritime, she was the daughter of Robert Niel and Anne Sourdine. Their marriage—a second for Anne—was celebrated at the same parish on August 4, 1647. Robert was born and deceased in Rouen. As for Anne, she was born in Mont-aux-Malades (Mont Saint-Aignan today).

I visited Rouen at least twice a few decades ago. And what a strange coincidence it is that my ancestor Étienne Charles was born in 1643 in Villejuif, department of Val-de-Marne—also where his parents were married—since I visited friends numerous times in Villejuif.

Madeleine was buried in Saint-François-de-Sales-de-l’Île-Jésus (Laval today) in 1734. As for Étienne, he passed away there in 1724. It is worth pointing out that for the time they died at quite an honourable age.