Places of settlement
Parishes, trading posts and towns linked to the Lesieur family.
Le Sieur
Family history and genealogy — from the Lesieur ancestors in New France to Yamachiche, Victoriaville and beyond.
Origin
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Origin of the name
Founders of Yamachiche and pillars of the Mauricie.
The name Lesieur — sometimes written Le Sieur — comes from the French honorific title of the seigneur. The common ancestor, Charles Lesieur, born around 1647 in Normandy, arrived in New France around 1670. On 16 October 1671 in Batiscan, he married Françoise de Lafond, niece of Pierre Boucher, governor of Trois-Rivières — a highly advantageous marriage.
Charles became a wealthy landowner, notary and procureur fiscal; he sometimes used the dit name Lapierre. The couple settled in Batiscan and had nine children. Charles died in 1697 around age 50, leaving Françoise with a family whose youngest was only two. She remarried in 1703 to Louis Fafard (Batiscan), with no further children, and died in 1717 (buried in Montreal).
His sons Charles-Julien and Julien (dit Duchaine) are, with the Gélinas brothers, the true founders of the old parish of Yamachiche (seigneury of Grosbois-Est). The Gélinas made the first clearings, but came to settle at Petite-Rivière d'Yamachiche at the request of the Lesieur brothers.
Spelling “Le Sieur” — The branch of Ange-Aimé Lesieur chose to write the name as two words: Le Sieur. That spelling continues among his descendants, including the Victoriaville line.
Charles’s birthplace — Sources differ slightly: the family document keeps Montebourg (Manche, arr. of Valognes), sometimes confused with La Rochelle; other genealogical accounts give Ozeville in Normandy. Both point to the same region of origin.
Le premier de mai mil sept cent vingt-quatre (1724), le sieur Charles Lesieur et Simone Blanchet, veuve de sieur Julien Duchaine, seigneur d'Yamachiche, par acte passé par devant maître Poulin, notaire, ont donné à l'église une terre de trois arpents de front, située sur le côté de l'ouest de la Grande-Rivière Machiche — à condition que la fabrique fera dire, tous les ans, à perpétuité, dans cette même église et cela dans l'octave de la Toussaint, trois messes basses pour le repos des âmes des donateurs et des personnes de leurs familles. — Inscription framed in the church of Yamachiche (family historical document)
Timeline
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Timeline
The main markers of Lesieur history in Quebec and North America.
≈ 1670 — New France
Charles Lesieur arrives from Ozeville / Montebourg (Normandy). He settles in the Batiscan–Trois-Rivières area.
1671 — Batiscan
Charles marries Françoise de Lafond, niece of governor Pierre Boucher. Marriage contract found in the Trois-Rivières registry.
1674–1715 — Founding of Yamachiche
Charles-Julien (m. Charlotte Rivard-Loranger) and Julien dit Duchaine (m. Simone Blanchet) receive the seigneury of Grosbois-Est, which becomes Yamachiche, with the Gélinas brothers.
1697–1717 — Succession
Death of Charles (≈ age 50). Françoise raises a still-young family on her own, remarries in 1703, then dies in 1717 (Montreal).
1720–1723 — Joseph and the Pays-d'en-Haut
Joseph dit Coulomb marries Marie-Madeleine Adouin (daughter of an Illinois chief). Their son Jean-Baptiste is born around 1721 in the Pays-d'en-Haut. Joseph is killed in July 1723 — letter from Jesuit father DeKereben (23 October 1723).
1724 — Gift to the church
Charles Lesieur and Simone Blanchet give a three-arpent tract to the Yamachiche fabrique, with a perpetual mass foundation.
18th c. — Fur trade
The Lesieur seigneurs of Yamachiche are active in the fur trade. Toussaint joins Athabasca (Peter Pond, Frobisher); François and Joseph are credited as founders of the post that became New Madrid (Missouri).
1747–1756 — Yamachiche
Jean-Baptiste marries Françoise Rivard-Bellefeuille (1747). In 1756 the couple dies on the same day (smallpox), leaving three young children (≈ 8, 5 and 3), raised by the Lesieur and Rivard families.
1761 — Pierre, co-seigneur
Pierre Lesieur (son of Charles-Julien), co-seigneur of Yamachiche, dies in 1761. Geneviève Sicard, pregnant, loses the child at birth and remarries the following year to Pierre Lesieur dit Duchesne.
1773 — Yamachiche
Joseph Lesieur marries Madeleine Lesieur (Charles-Julien / Pierre branch). The Victoriaville line runs through this couple.
1824–1868 — Expansion in the Mauricie
The line of Paschal Lesieur (Yamachiche) leads to Hercule (Gentilly, 1868), then to the Nicolet and Baie-du-Febvre area.
1886–1912 — Toward Victoriaville
Joseph Adolphe Camille Lesieur (1886) marries Jeannette Jutras in 1912 at La Visitation. He is the first Lesieur to settle in Victoriaville.
1900–1958 — Branches in America
Donat Lesieur settles in Michigan. In parallel, Ange-Aimé’s branch takes root in Victoriaville — the family house, bought in 1930 by Adolphe Lesieur, has been lived in since 1958.
Today
Louis-Philippe Le Sieur continues the line in the 11th generation with his sons Lyam and Medrick. Other branches of the family live in Quebec, Ontario and the United States.
Families
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Lesieur, Rivard and Girardin
Several branches tied to Yamachiche, around the same seigneury.
From the 4th generation, several children of Charles and Françoise — Charles-Julien, Joseph and Françoise — connect with the Rivard family (Loranger, Bellefeuille, and others). The Lesieur, Rivard and later Girardin families are present together in Yamachiche.
Joseph branch (this line)
Joseph dit Coulomb × Madeleine Adouin → Jean-Baptiste × Françoise Rivard-Bellefeuille → Joseph Lesieur (1754–1813).
Charles-Julien branch (Madeleine)
Charles-Julien × Charlotte Rivard-Loranger → Pierre × Geneviève Sicard → Madeleine Lesieur (1756–1841), co-seigneury of Yamachiche.
Françoise branch → Girardin
Françoise Lesieur × Louis Joseph Rivard-Loranger → Françoise Rivard-Bellefeuille. Later, Josephte Lesieur (daughter of Joseph × Madeleine) marries Charles Girardin — hence documented Girardin branches (e.g. the Hogue / Girardin family).
In short — The “direct line” page below follows Joseph → Jean-Baptiste → Joseph. The other cards recall the Charles-Julien and Girardin branches present in Yamachiche at the same time.
Fur trade
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Fur trade
From the seigneurs of Yamachiche to posts in the West and on the Mississippi.
The Lesieurs of Yamachiche were not limited to the Mauricie. In the 18th century, several sons of the seigneurial family entered the fur trade, from the Pays-d'en-Haut to Athabasca and Missouri.
Joseph dit Coulomb
Trade in Illinois / Wisconsin. Marriage to Madeleine Adouin (Illinois). Violent death in 1723. Direct ancestor of this line.
Toussaint Lesieur
Among the first Canadians active in Athabasca; associate of Peter Pond, then of Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher (after the work of Heather Devine).
François & Joseph
Credited as founders of the post and satellite community that became New Madrid (Missouri).
“The Lesieurs were a prominent family who had held the seigneury of Yamachiche, near Trois-Rivières, Quebec for several generations. Charles Lesieur, the seigneur of Yamachiche during much of the eighteenth century, presided over a large family active in the fur trade.” — Heather Devine, The People Who Own Themselves: Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family (citation also used in the collateral Hogue / Girardin research, 2014)
Line
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Direct line
From founding ancestor Charles Lesieur (1st generation) to the 11th generation — Joseph line.
1st generation
Charles Lesieur
≈ 1647 – 1697 · Batiscan · notary, procureur fiscal · m. Françoise de Lafond
2nd generation
Joseph dit Coulomb
1688 – 1723 · fur trade · m. Marie-Madeleine Adouin (Illinois)
3rd generation
Jean-Baptiste Lesieur
≈ 1721 – 1756 · born Pays-d'en-Haut · Yamachiche · m. Françoise Rivard-Bellefeuille
4th generation
Joseph Lesieur
1754 – 1813 · Yamachiche · m. Madeleine Lesieur (Charles-Julien / Pierre branch)
5th generation
Paschal Lesieur
1798 – 1876 · Yamachiche · m. Adélaïde Roy
6th generation
Hercule Lesieur
1843 – 1931 · Gentilly · m. Flore Beaudet
7th generation
Joseph Adolphe Camille Lesieur
1886 – 1966 · Victoriaville · m. Jeannette Jutras
8th generation
Ange-Aimé Le Sieur
1918 – 1991 · Victoriaville · m. Roselyne Lacombe
9th generation
Jacques Le Sieur
Victoriaville
10th generation
Louis-Philippe Le Sieur
Victoriaville
11th generation
Lyam Le Sieur
11th generation
11th generation
Medrick Le Sieur
11th generation
Madeleine Lesieur (4th) — Daughter of Pierre Lesieur (co-seigneur) and Geneviève Sicard, Charles-Julien branch. The Yamachiche seigneury is tied to this branch.
Branches
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Family branches
Several lines descend from Charles Lesieur and his descendants.
Lesieur (original spelling)
Majority branch in Quebec — Victoriaville, Nicolet, Sherbrooke, Montreal.
Le Sieur (two words)
Ange-Aimé’s branch, from Victoriaville. Descendants in Quebec, Ontario and the United States.
Duchaine / Ducharme
Line of Julien dit Duchaine, seigneur of Yamachiche, tied to the 1724 donors.
Desaulniers · Lapierre · Coulomb
Patronymic nicknames of the sons of Charles Lesieur (1st generation), giving rise to other Quebec families.
Fur trade & the West
Joseph (Illinois), Toussaint (Athabasca), François and Joseph (New Madrid, Missouri) — 18th-century seigneurs and voyageurs.
Girardin branch
Via Josephte Lesieur × Charles Girardin (early 19th c.). Documented collateral branches (e.g. Hogue / Girardin research).
Michigan & New England
Donat Lesieur (1872) settles in Michigan in 1900. Other descendants leave for Massachusetts.
Religious & communities
Several descendants joined the Grey Nuns (Nicolet, Montreal), including Sister Marie Lesieur (6th generation).
Ange-Aimé
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The children of Ange-Aimé Le Sieur
Ange-Aimé and Roselyne Lacombe had nine children. Among them, Jacques Le Sieur.
Gilles Le Sieur
m. Gisèle Poliquin, then Hélène Turcotte · St-Jérôme.
André Le Sieur
m. Renée Bernier · Beloeil.
Suzanne Le Sieur
m. André Baker.
Jacqueline Le Sieur
m. Robert Bruce Witherspoon · Victoriaville.
Charles Le Sieur
m. Hélène Beaudet · Victoriaville.
Marguerite Le Sieur
m. François Hamel, then Jean-Claude Dauphin · Saint-Constant.
Gaston Le Sieur
m. Ginette Pépin · Sherbrooke.
Jacques Le Sieur
Victoriaville. Father of Louis-Philippe, grandfather of Lyam and Medrick.
Bernard Le Sieur
1958 – 1991 · m. Lyne Roux · Victoriaville.
Note — Paul Lesieur (m. Jeannine Laroche) is not a child of Ange-Aimé: he is his brother, son of the same father, Joseph Adolphe Camille Lesieur (7th generation).
Sources
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Sources
Genealogical research on the Lesieur family — F.L. Desaulniers, lawyer and former federal MP (Les vieilles familles d'Yamachiche, ≈ 1900).
Updated by Sister Marie Lesieur (1967) and Marguerite Le Sieur (1 January 2002). Family document current as of 2021.
Archival documents found in the Trois-Rivières registry by M. Meilleur-Barthe, including the marriage contract of Charles Lesieur and Françoise de Lafond (16 October 1671) and the letter from Jesuit father DeKereben (1723).
Heather Devine, The People Who Own Themselves: Aboriginal Ethnogenesis in a Canadian Family — fur trade, Athabasca and New Madrid.
Collateral synthesis: “The Lesieur Connection”, blog As Canadian as can be (Hogue / Girardin, 23 April 2014) — seigneury and colonial account.