Pierre CHARRON dit DUCHARME
Pierre Charron

"Pierre Charron, son of Pierre Charron and Judith Martin, emigrated to Canada in 1662 (in 1661 according to some sources) and married Catherine Pillard on October 19, 1665 in Montreal. They had 12 children all of whom reached adulthood and eventually married. Obviously, this was an excellent means to ensure their posterity which now numbers in the tens of thousands established in Québec as well as in Canada and the United States.

Indeed, their four sons, Pierre, Nicolas, François and Jean would perpetuate their name, except that at the outset François adopted the Ducharme surname which was later transmitted to his entire posterity. To our knowledge, in 2004 no descendant of François bears the original name of Charron. This is the reason why the descendants of Pierre Charron and Catherine Pillard are known either as Charron or Ducharme.

A final word about the particular environment of the French colony living along the St-Lawrence river when Pierre and Catherine were married. The population is still rather sparse and spread across three villages : Québec founded in 1608, Three-Rivers in 1634 and Montreal in 1642. According to a historian, Benjamin Sulte, the 1667 census estimates the total population in New France as 3,918 persons. Montreal, where Pierre and Catherine reside, numbers no more than 760 persons, including more than 500 children and singles. Having arrived in Montreal in 1662, Pierre was one of its first 600 inhabitants."

Source: L'Association des Charron et Ducharme
www.genealogie.org/ famille/ charronducharme/ short.html



Learn more about the life of     Pierre CHARRON dit DUCHARME.