Three months after Jeanne’s death, in February 1717, her sons had the 1705 Agreement ratified. Her youngest son Joseph died in 1755 and was survived by 9 children. Her second son, Pierre Joachim who left 12 children, died in 1759, just before the fall of Quebec to the English. Francois-Robert, her oldest son, lived until 1765, leaving behind 11 children, among them Jean-Baptiste, my ancestor. In all, 32 of Jeanne’s grandchildren survived her and then went on to create thousands of descendants.
When Marie Jeanne received the bequest from her grandmother, she was eight days shy of her 14th birthday. Six years later, on August 31, 1722 she married Joseph Miville, the grandson of Rivière Ouelle pioneers Jacques Miville and Catherine Baillon. Marie Jeanne and Joseph had 12 children, with all but one surviving them. Joseph died on July 30, 1780. Marie Jeanne lived on for two more years and died on April 20, 1782 in Rivière Ouelle.
As for my family, my father’s ancestors stayed in Rivière Ouelle and its surrounding communities for five more generations. My great great grandfather Martial Levesque was part of the exodus of young men from Canada at the turn of the 20th century when he brought his family to the United States. He joined other French Canadians from the same region in Quebec in settling in Nashua, New Hampshire. His children and their children all married French Canadians spouses. It wasn’t until my father’s generation that there was any “intermarriage.” My father’s marriage to my mother in 1943 was one of the first to break the mold.