The Ouellet genealogy

The media, which surely loves a horserace, may be giving wall-to-wall coverage of the papal election, but it's Charlevoix that links us to the information on how much the Abitibi papabile Marc Cardinal Ouellet is a true pur-laine Québecois. His ancestor Réné Ouellet (or Houellet) was born in Paris 1647, emigrated to Québec in 1663 (age 16 therefore, and very likely an engagé, a hired labourer), married a fille du roi named Anne Rivet three years later, and fathered eleven children by her and a second wife.  The 34,000 Ouellets and Ouellettes in Québec are his descendants.