All members
of the numerous Tremblay families of North America are descendants of Pierre Tremblay,
born in 1626 in Randonnai, a small village of Perche, a former province of northern
France. His parents, Philibert Tremblay and Jeanne Coignet were married October 3, 1623 in
Saint-Firmin de Normandel, a nearby village. The same Philibert, a farmer from La
Filonnière, died on November 17, 1642.
The life of adventure attracted
Pierre Tremblay. He was greatly influenced by the speeches of Noël Juchereau, a
recruiting agent for New France, and signed a contract on April 9, 1647. With this
contract, Pierre was hired by Juchereau to work for 36 months in New France. Pierre
settled in the new world and then worked for farmers on the Côte de Beaupré, on the
north shore of the Saint Laurence River.
In autumn of 1657, he met Ozanne
Achon, a natife of Chambon, a diocese of La Rochelle. The couple signed a wedding contract
before notary Aubert on September 19 and the religious ceremony was held on October 2,
1657 in Notre-Dame de Québec church. They had twelve children, ten of whom reached
adulthood. Six daughters became the maternal ancestors of famous french canadian families:
Roussin, Gagné, Savard, Perron, Peymard dit Laforest and Pelletier. Four sons, Pierre,
Michel, Louis and Jacques married and became the founders of the four branches of the
Tremblay family tree.
All his life, Pierre Tremblay
worked the land. On April 4, 1659, he received a land grant in L'Ange-Gardien. On December
1, 1678, Monseigneur de Laval employed Pierre to tend a farm in Baie Saint-Paul. Pierre
also helped his sons obtain land in Petite Rivière Saint-François and Les Éboulements.
The ancestral land in l'Ange-Gardien was given to Jacques, the third son on March 9, 1696
by Ozanne Achon, Pierre's widow.
It recorded Ozanne was buried on
December 24, 1707; at 75 years of age. Pierre, died twenty years previously. There is no
record of his death or burial. Various archival documents suggest his death sometime
between April 1687 and November 1689.
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