de Manou, diocèse de Chartres, Perche, France

Vol 7 OFCA Chapter 12 p116

1666 Census of New France, Isle d’Orleans PAGE 69

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

Listed as a founding family of Ile-de-Orléans, Québec

Occupation mason.

He arrived in New France in 1647 and worked for at least three years in the household of the Seigneur Noel Juchereau de Chastellees. He quickly acquired land in Saint Augustin in Québec City (Grand Allee now) and in the seignory of Sillery. Within the next two years Louis acquired new farms in Beaupre and on the Lle 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) Most of the history of French Canada, land was held by "Seigneurs" or land lords who received rents from those who held leases which were bought, sold and passed to heirs much like deeds.

As the children began to establish their own homesteads, the farm was obviously too small, Consequently, the family moved to Sainte Croix de Lotbiniere (above Québec on the south bank of the Saint Lawrence) on a huge holding acquired from the Ursulines of Québec. The sons each had their own holding and some of them took surnames reflecting the characteristics of their land: Desrochers (stony), Desruisseaux (with brooks), Bellefeuille (with trees)

Louis Houde was obviously successful in his business dealing and by way of philanthropy donated the land for the first church of Sainte Croix.


Source: Institut Drouin, Drouin, Volume 1, page 668, 670 671 and Volume 2 page 824

Jacques Paquin posting to Québec Genealogy FB group:

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 after his arrival in New France, on January 12, 1655, he married Madeleine Boucher aged only 13 - she was born on August 4, 1641 in Quebec, daughter of Marin Boucher and Perrine Mallet, originally from Saint-Langis - the Mortagne. Fourteen children were born from their union, nine boys and five girls, two of whom died in infancy. Like his compatriots, Louis Houde settled with his young wife on the Côte de Beaupré, in Château-Richer more precisely. Twelve years later, he was able to settle in Sainte-Famille, on Île-d'Orléans. One last time, in 1682, the family moved to the seigneury of Lotbinière, in the future parish of Sainte-Croix, on an area of ​​nine arpents frontage on the river acquired from the Ursulines of Quebec. The sons share the lots around the parental land and, depending on the location of each, are born the surnames of Desrochers, Desruisseaux, Bellefeuille, etc. In addition to being a well-informed businessman, Louis Houde was not lacking in generosity since it was he who donated the land needed to build the first church of Sainte-Croix. It was there that Louis Houde died after March 23, 1710, the date of writing his will, and before November 17, 1712, the date on which his heirs proceeded to the division of his property. His eldest son Jean, born around 1658, married Anne Rouleau in 1678, daughter of Gabriel, the Tourouvrain pioneer. Louis Houde is the ancestor of all the Houdes and Houles of French America, of the Clair-Leclairs and of part of the Leclercs of Quebec. According to the Statistical Institute of Quebec, the surnames Houle and Houde respectively occupied ranks 80 and 221 of the most common surnames in Quebec in 2005. Photos of the family of Octavia Houle and daughters 1895 and Réjean Houle.