Jean Nicolet

Abt 1598 - 1642  (~ 44 years)

• Name	Jean Nicolet
  Born	Abt 1598	Cherbourg, Normandy, France
  Gender	Male
  Died	27 Oct 1642	Quebec
  Notes	He arrived in Quebec in 1618 and was employed as a clerk and trained as an interpreter by the Company of Merchants, the fur-trading monopoly owned by French noblemen. He was assigned to live and work with the natives first on Allumette Island and then near Lake Nipissing; his task was to learn their language, maintain friendly relations and expand the fur trade. His relationship with a Nipissing woman resulted in the birth in 1628 of a daughter, Madeleine or Euphrosine Nicolet, the first known French Canadian Metis child. Nicolet was one of Canada's earliest explorers - the first white man to cross Lake Michigan and the first to explore the Mississippi River watershed, which became Wisconsin. There is a monument commemorating his explorations at Red Banks, Wisconsin. Nicolet returned to to Quebec in 1633 with Madeleine. He married Marguerite Couillard, daughter of settled in Trois Rivières in 1637 as a clerk for the Company of 100 Associates. He drowned in 1642 near Sillery on his way from Quebec to Trois Rivieres. Jean Nicolet, as an early and successful coureur de bois, paved the way for the many explorers later in the 17th century. Madeleine married Jean Leblanc in 1643 and Elie Dussault dit Lafleur in 1663. Both marriages resulted in generations of descendants in Canada and the United States.
  Person ID	I5907	Cullen family tree

  
  

  Father	Thomas Nicolet
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Marie de Lamer
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F1676	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Unknown Nipissing Native,   b. Abt 1610
  Children	1. Euphrosine Madeleine Nicolet,   b. Abt 1627,   d. 30 Sep 1689, Quebec, Quebec  (Age ~ 62 years)
  Family ID	F1161	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Marguerite Couillard,   b. 10 Aug 1626, Quebec, New France ,   d. 20 Apr 1705, Quebec, New France  (Age 78 years)
  Married	07 Oct 1637	Quebec, New France
  Family ID	F1538	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Jean Nicolet memorial statue, Red Banks, Wisconsin

  
  

  Histories

  New France - Forging a Nation An introduction to the founding and development of New France, the role of early explorers and the life of the first colonists. Also presents some of our early French Canadian ancestors and a list of Lapointe and Joanis ancestors who were the first of their generation to immigrate to New France, mostly in the 17th century. A Melding of Cultures, Ancestors of George Turner and Bernadette Joanis, Volume 2: Our Lapointe and Joanis Ancestors, Four Hundred Years of French Canadian Heritage, Mark Cullen, 2018, Chapter 1 plus pp 125-129 and 255