1617 Birth
1 July 1617
Manou, Eure-et-Loire, France

Biography
From Rootsweb.com -- 'Note: Louis Houde, son of Noel Houde and Anne Lefebvre was born in 1617 in Manou, diocese of Chartres in the county of Perche, now the department of Eure et Loire. He arrived in New France in 1647 and worked for at least three years in the household of the Seigneur Noel Juchereau de Chastelles. He quickly acquired land in Saint-Augustin, in Québec City (where the Grand-Allee is now) and in the Seigneury of Sillery. He married Madeleine Boucher on January 12, 1655 in her father's home at Chateau-Richer. Madeleine--daughter of Marin Boucher and Perrine Mallet--was fourteen years old. Within the next two years Louis acquired new farms in Beaupré and on the Ile d'Orleans. In 1658, the family was established on land with a frontage of four arpents (about 767 feet) along the river and extending into the island. They remained there over the twenty four years that saw the birth of thirteen of their fourteen children. (For most of the history of French Canada, land was...Read MORE...

Biography
HOULE - alteration of HOUDE, from the Germanic name 'hildo', derived from 'hild' which means 'fight' or from the name 'Audo' which comes from 'aud' which means 'wealth'. Louis Houde, son of Noël Houde and Anne Lefebvre, was born around 1617 in Manou, a French village in the department of Eure-et-Loir, on the border between Thymerais and Perche. He enlisted as a mason around 1647 in the service of the family of Lord Noël Juchereau, Sieur des ChâteletsLouis Houde could have arrived in Quebec on August 6, 1647 aboard the ship La Marguerite, which had left La Rochelle two months earlier. But it was in Tadoussac, the first inland port and last stop before Quebec, that its presence was revealed for the first time. He signs as a witness the report explaining the disappearance on the boat of a man named Charles Gorre who, drunk, threw himself into the sea. It seems that Louis Houde exercises his profession in the city of Quebec because he is quoted on August 27 1653 in Sillery. Eight years...Read MORE...


Quebec Genealogy on Facebook

1650
On June 19, 1650, Louis signed a six year lease to Antoine Brassard for three arpents on the Grand-Allee, between the properties of Nicolas Marsolet and Noel Pinguet. For a certain time, Louis owned some land with a half-arpent in frontage on Saint-Michel cove, across from yet another lot on the cliff, which had been ceded to him in the early 1650's. This site, with one-and-a-half arpents in frontage by 20 in depth, opening on the Grand-Allee, was sold to Nicolas Gaudry dit Bourbonniere on June 28, 1652 for the sum of 600 livres. On December 20th of the same year, for half this amount, Houde acquired land twice as large as the seigneurie of Sillery, from Louis Fontaine. On February 17, 1653, he sold this land to the same Nicolas Gaudry.
THOMAS J. LAFOREST OUR FRENCH-CANADIAN ANCESTORS : VOLUME VII, PAGE 118

1656
The 27th of June 1656, was an important date in the life of the Houde family. On that day, Louis was in luck He procured a piece of land from Claude Guyon. This was no ordinary purchase; it consisted of four arpents in frontage on the Saint-Lawrence River, in the parish of Sainte-Famille, in the seigneurie of Lirac, on the Ile d' Orleans. The Houde family moved there and for nearly a quarter-century the Ile was their home. This land with 72 arpents in depth, was large enough to let Louis welcome his brother-in-law Louis-Marin Boucher dit Boisbuisson, to whom he rented half.

THOMAS J. LAFOREST OUR FRENCH-CANADIAN ANCESTORS : VOLUME VII, PAGE 118

1666 Isle d'Orleans
Louis houde - 49 habittant

Marie Magdelaine Boucher - 24 sa femme

Jean houde - 7 fils

Louis houde - 2 fils

gervais houde - 14 mois fils

Et florant, le febvre - 24 domestique Engaigé
The first census of New France (1666)

1681 Canadian Census Comte de St.-Laurent
Louis Houde, macon, 57
Madelaine Boucher, sa femme, 40
enfants:
Louis, 19
Gervais, 17
Jacques, 14
Marie, 12
Claude, 10
Louise, 8
Louis, 6
Joseph, 3
Simon, 1

Source: Histoire des Canadiens-Francais 1608-1880 by Benjamin Sulte, Montreal, 1882

1682
By the year 1682, the family had outgrown the capability of the land at Sainte-Famille to support them. So, on February 13th of that year, the Houde family decided to leave their beloved island for a newer and larger estate. The Ursulines of Quebec conceded them an immense domain with twelve arpents of frontage in the seigneurie of Sainte-Croix in Lotbiniere. Now the sons could live on their own lots around the paternal house where they could both cultivate the soil and fish for eel. Some of the sons took surnames reflecting the characteristics of their land Desrochers (stony), Desruisseaux (with brooks), Bellefeuille (with trees). On November 9, 1685, our ancestor sold his land on the Ile d' Orleans to Abbot Francois Lamy. This was confirmed by a signed receipt on July 27, 1686. Later on this land was given to the Dames de la Congregation de Notre-Dame in order to provide them with sufficient revenue to support their school. As for the domain at Sainte-Croix, today it is within the...Read MORE...


THOMAS J. LAFOREST OUR FRENCH-CANADIAN ANCESTORS : VOLUME VII, PAGE 118

'In 1712 when he was brought to his final rest, ancestor Louis Houde missed a century of life by very little. 'He knew, from the crest of his ninety-five years, seventy-five grandchildren, of whom thirty-one grandsons bore the name of Houde,' claims Father Julien Deziel on this subject. Few of our pioneers can boast of having done better.'

'...On 29 October 1709, Louis Houde and Madeleine Boucher took an inventory of their wealth. This venerable elderly gentleman, by now an nonagenarian, died sometime during the year 1712. The registries of Sainte-Croix were destroyed for this era and no document exists to verify the exact date of his demise.'

Thomas J. Laforest
Our French-Canadian Ancestors : Volume VII, Pages 116-121