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1/28/2026 Historical Research by Janine Guimont Cotugno

Janine is part of the Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society and a friend to Canadiana Fest! This article was first published in “Je Me Souviens”, the quarterly journal of the American French Genealogical Society Fall 2017, Volume 2, Number 2, pp. 12-15

It is posted on this website by permission of the author.

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I’M A MICHIGANDER TOO

Maurice Menard and Madeleine Couc

By

Janine Guimont Cotugno

I grew up in Rhode Island, the product of French-Canadian ancestry.  In the many years of researching my genealogy at the AFGS library, I uncovered generations of ancestors who sailed from France to Canada and whose descendants eventually immigrated to work in the textile mills of New England.  When I moved to Michigan in 2010, I appreciated my adopted state, but was not able to connect directly to its past.  That changed as I learned more about the French who explored and settled the Great Lakes region in the 1600s and 1700s. I kept seeing the name “Michilimackinac” in historical readings, and remembered that I had also seen that very name in my own family tree.  Rummaging through my genealogical database, I discovered that my eighth great- grandparents, Maurice Menard and Madeleine Couc, had married in Michilimackinac, and I’ve learned that it was an important location in the early history of Michigan. Through that connection, I am a Michigander too.

The area called Michilimackinac in the 1600s and 1700s encompassed from what is now St. Ignace, Michigan, at the southeastern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to Mackinaw City, Michigan, at the northern-most tip of the state’s Lower Peninsula. In this area are important straits that connect Lake Huron to Lake Michigan.  Because Michilimackinac was the doorway to the western territories and their vast fur supplies, the French built Fort de Buade in St. Ignace in 1690. That fort closed in 1698, due to the depressed fur market in France. However, between 1712 and 1715, a new battlement, Fort Michilimackinac, was built on the south side of the straits in Mackinaw City. (1)

My eighth great-grandfather, Maurice Menard, married Marie Madeleine Couc, the daughter of Pierre Couc dit Lafleur de Cognac (also sometimes called ‘dit Lefebvre’) and the Algonquin woman, Marie Miteouamegoukoue (Mite8ameg8k8e), most likely at Michilimackinac/St. Ignace.  Maurice, a well-known voyageur (legal fur trader) and Native language interpreter, was born on June 7, 1664, in Trois-Rivieres, the son of wheelwright Jacques Menard dit Lafontaine and Catherine Fortier. Madeleine was born a few years later, around 1669. (2) Her parents’ marriage in 1657 was one of the first marriages between a French settler and an indigenous woman recognized by the Catholic Church in New France. Many of their other children were also active as voyageurs (or spouses of these) and interpreters, frequently under the “dit” name of Montour.     

The date of the marriage between Maurice Menard and Madeleine Couc is not totally clear, as the original early church records from Michilimackinac have not survived. Some secondary sources list a possible marriage date of 1692 (3) (4), but it appears to me that children may have been born before that time.  Sommerville believes the Menard/Couc union probably occurred around 1690. Perhaps they had a “country wedding” (common law) or Native American ceremony, since Madeleine was half Algonquin.  A church blessing could have been later bestowed (perhaps in1692) at the Mission Church at Fort DeBuade.  

Maurice and Madeleine had several children.  I am a descendant of their daughter, Marguerite Menard. Again, multiple sources list several different dates and locations of birth for the children.  Considering what I’ve found in my research, this is my best estimate of the list of Maurice and Madeleine’s children (5):

 Marguerite – b. circa 1690-94, assumed at Michilimackinac

Marie-Madeleine – b. circa 1690-94, assumed at Michilimackinac

Antoine – b. 28 April 1695 at Michilimackinac 

Louis – b. 1697 at Michilimackinac

Pierre – b. 12 March 1701 in Boucherville

Jean-Baptiste –b. 11 July 1703 in Boucherville

Susanne – b.21 July 1706 in Boucherville

Francois – b. 6 February 1709 in Boucherville

Infant Daughter – b. 20 July 1711 in Boucherville; d. 24 July 1711 in Boucherville

With Fort de Buade closed, illegal fur trapping and trading by “coureurs de bois” continued uncontrolled in the Michilimackinac area.  In 1706, at the insistence of the Governor General of New France, a Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Marest returned to St. Ignace with a summer brigade, which included the interpreter, Maurice Menard. Without a fort, the presence of a missionary at least provided the government with detailed reports on the affairs that took place there (6).

In Fr. Marest’s letters to the Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Maurice Menard is mentioned often, especially as it related to dealings with the indigenous peoples.  The following excerpt from the priest’s letter of 14 August 1706 describes Fr. Marest’s respect for Maurice: 

“I thought …that it was not advisable for the Sr. Menard to leave here until we were settled in the fort. I believe you will not disapprove, because it is a question of our safety…You have certainly every reason to be pleased with the Sr. Menard, who is beloved by the savages, who knows their ways, who has no difficulty in answering them, and that with a free and easy manner, ever cheerful. He discovers things which are done secretly, and, certainly, whether he comes here as commanding officer or not, he would render good service here.” (7)

In a subsequent letter from Fr. Marest, dated 27 August 1706, he continues to praise Maurice:

“The Sr. Menard…has certainly done his duty, and has shown in everything, that he is in truth the King’s servant and yours. If anyone should make complaints to you about him I can assure you he would be very wrong.” (8)

Timothy Kent, in his book “Rendezvous at the Straits”, confirms my research and summarizes Menard’s life up to that point:

“Maurice had worked at Fr. De Buade as a soldier, interpreter, and trader during the 1680s and 1690s, marrying Madeleine (Couc) there in 1692 and assisting in the raising of their first four children there, until the official withdrawal of troops in 1698.  While living in Boucherville, just east of Montreal, during the next fourteen years, the family continued to grow, with the addition of five more children…Upon the return of the first few soldiers to the Straits in 1712, Maurice also resumed living there, where he again served as a sergeant, interpreter, and trader.  In time, his family joined him, eventually residing at Ft. Michilimackinac when its construction was completed on the southern shore of the Straits. “(9)

Because Maurice Menard was so respected by the Natives and the authorities, he frequently took part in negotiations between the French government and various tribes.  In many documents, he is listed as “Interpreter for the King”, showing that he was representing the Governor General of New France, and therefore, indirectly the King of France. 

However, being a government interpreter was at times very dangerous.  In a letter to the Ottawa chiefs, the Governor General of New France, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, wrote the following:

“I know there are well disposed men among you; Chamgonueschi and Makakous are such men, for last year they prevented Maurice my interpreter from being stabbed.”(10)

In 1717, a peace treaty with the Fox tribe was negotiated. Several representatives of the Fox chiefs and their families had been taken from the Green Bay, Wisconsin area and transported down to the St. Lawrence valley to finalize the treaty. (11) During the winter, smallpox raged through eastern Canada and several of the Fox died. We know that Maurice Menard was involved in these events because he is listed as a witness (godfather) to a few of the Fox victims, including the chief, Pemoussa, as they converted to Catholicism before their deaths. (12) In the spring, de Vaudreuil sent the soldier officer, de Louvigny, to deliver one of the survivors back to the tribe. Vaudreuil wrote:

“The two principal hostages of the Fox Indians died of it (smallpox)…As there was some ground for fearing lest the death of these two hostages might disturb the Fox tribe and might be made a ground for breaking the peace…. I sent with the Sieur de Louvigny the chief of the three hostages who had escaped the disease so that he might go and inform his tribe of the good treatment which they received….Sr. de Louvigny sent the men (Maurice) Menard and (Pierre) Reaume, interpreters, and gave into their charge some presents which I had given him to cover the dead hostages. This ceremony was performed by the interpreters as soon as they arrived,…after which the Fox Indians testified that they retained no resentment for the death of Pemoussa and Michiousouigan.” (13) 

One can only wonder what would have happened to Maurice and the other Frenchmen if the Fox had not been so understanding!

We know that Maurice continued in his work at the fort at least until 1736, as he is listed in a contract notarized by F. Lepailleur de LaFerte as “interpreter at the Misilimakinac Post”. When he eventually retired, it was to property in Chambly. (14)  

Maurice Menard died on 9 May 1741 in Chambly at age 76, after more than 50 years of devoted service and many thousands of miles of voyaging the rivers and lakes of North America as a fur trader, interpreter and mediator for the French with the indigenous peoples. Records say that “all the inhabitants (of Chambly) were present as witnesses at his burial.” (15) 

One does not need to be from Michigan nor the Great Lakes area to be descended from these important pioneers. As mentioned above, I am descended from their daughter, Marguerite, who married Pierre Boileau on 5 July 1706 in Boucherville (16) and apparently spent the rest of her life in the St. Lawrence valley. Although a few of the Menard children spent some additional time in the Michigan area as voyageurs, interpreters and inhabitants of Fort Michilimackinac and Fort St. Joseph, records show that most married, resided and/or frequently died in the Boucherville and Chambly areas. (17)  Through these Menard children, you too may be a descendant of this influential couple, Maurice Menard and Madeleine Couc. 

END NOTES

  1. “A Brief History of Michilimackinac”, < http://www.mackinacparks.com/history> (accessed 7/16/2013).
  2. Tanguay, Cyprien.  Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes. Montreal: Eusibe Senecal, 1871. Vol 1, 3 & 5.
  3. Sommerville, Suzanne. “Part 3 – The Couc dit Lafleur de Cognac Children”. All Sources Are Not Created Equal.  CD-ROM. Royal Oaks, M.I.:  French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan, 2009, p. 45-46.
  4. Morin, Gail. First Metis Families of Quebec – 1622-1748. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2012, p. 23.
  5. Ibid, p. 24.
  6. Kent, Timothy F. Rendezvous at the Straits. Ossineke, M.I.: Silver Fox Enterprises, 2004, p.168.
  7. Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society. “The Cadillac Papers”.  Historical Collections, Vol. 23. Lansing: Robert Smith Printing, 1904, p.267-68.
  8.  Ibid, p. 270.
  9.  Rendezvous at the Straits. p. 249.
  10.  “The Cadillac Papers”, p. 584.
  11.  Corkran, D.H. “Permoussa.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. 2. University of Toronto/Universite Laval, 2003. (accessed 1/13/2017), <http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/permoussa_2E.html>.
  12.  “Marie Madeleine Couc & Maurice Menard – Notes from Suzanne Sommerville”. <http://www.leveille.net/ancestery/MadeleineCouc/MauriceMenard.htm>. (accessed 1/4/2014).
  13. “The Cadillac Papers”, p. 588-89.
  14.  “Interpreters”. <http://www.leveille.net/ancestry/interpreters.htm#menard> (accessed 9/5/2013).
  15.   “Marie Madeleine Couc & Maurice Menard – Notes from Suzanne Sommerville”.
  16.  “Marriage Certificate – Pierre Boileau & Marguerite Menard”. <http://www.leveille.net/ancestry/register/M1706PierreBoileauMargueriteMenard.htm>

(accessed 7/11/2014).

  1.  First Metis Families of Quebec, p. 24.

Some corrections made March 2021