INTRODUCTION

The grandfather of our first ancestor, Jacques Doyon, would have married Antoinette Charland (or Chalrand), on February 3, 1579 (contract at Saint-Marcelin in Isère, between Grenoble and Valence).

In France, the original village of the Doyons is Saint-Hilaire-du-Rosier (south-eastern region of France, near the Vercors mountains). His son Jacques, father of our ancestor Jean Doyon, would have married, around 1615, Françoise Couturier (or Cousturier).

All of the Doyons of America are descendants from the same ancestor, Jean Doyon. He would have left as a soldier for the siege of La Rochelle where, once the war was over, he would have settled near there, in the country of Aunis. (Source: Un bel héritage, p. 8 of Father Dominique’s section, written by Father Dominique Doyon)

Jean was born in 1619 in Périgny, France, in the Poitou-Charentes region.

He arrived in Canada in 1644, at the age of 25, where he was a land-clearing and wood sawyer. In 1650, he settled in Château-Richer, became a farmer and married Marthe Gagnon, natural daughter of Mathurin Gagnon and Vincente Gauthier.

From their union were born two girls and four boys: in order, Marie, Nicolas, Antoine, Madeleine, Louis and Thomas. Louis having drowned at the age of 19, the three surviving boys formed the first lineages of the Doyons of America.