Before The Kings Daughters, The Filles a Marier 1634-1662

Before the state-sponsored immigration program that sent nearly 800 women known as Filles du Roi to Québec, 262 brave and adventurous women made the journey to New France on their own. Sent by relatives and religious organizations or enlisting on their own account, these women did not benefit from a paid passage and dowry drawn from the King’s treasury, but they did face the same if not worse hardships and dangers. Known as the Filles à Marier or “marriageable girls,” they were the first single women to set foot in the colony since its return from the English in 1632. True pioneers and heroines, they left their homes in France to found new ones in the New World.

This book – the first work dedicated solely to this group of pioneer women – tells their story, collectively and individually. It first examines the much-misunderstood early immigration of women to New France, explaining the need for women in the colony, the difficulties in increasing the population and the unfounded assertions that these women were prostitutes, not pioneers. The book then includes individual biographies of each of these 262 single women and concludes with a table of arrivals per year, an appendix of supporting documentation (marriage and enlistment contracts and inventories), a glossary, index of husbands and a comprehensive index to the book. This is an English language edition.

A must for those with French-Canadian ancestry. We have only a few copies left from Quintin Publications' 3rd and final printing of 2008. After these are sold they will no longer be available.

Product details:
382 pages
Softcover - coil-bound
8.5 X 11"
Published by Quintin Publications, Orange Park, 2008
ISBN 1-58211-932-5 (coil bound)