Picture the damp, fog-laden docks of Rouen in 1601, where the Seine's murky waters slapped against weathered wooden piers, and the air hung heavy with the briny scent of salt fish and tarred ropes. Here, Robert LeBer drew his first breath amid the clamor of merchants haggling over bolts of cloth and the distant clang of shipbuilders' hammers. A man of callused hands and quiet resolve, he married Colette Cavelier, born in 1605 under the shadow of towering cathedral spires, her veins carrying the adventurous blood of her cousin, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle—whose future odysseys would plunge down the Mississippi's churning currents, claiming swaths of wilderness for the French crown. Together, they wove a life in Haute-Normandie's narrow streets, where the flicker of oil lamps danced on plastered walls and the aroma of baking bread mingled with the chill evening mist. But tragedy's swift blade fell around 1625, claiming Robert and leaving Colette to face the world's tempests alone, her steadfast gaze enduring until 1694, as empires rose and her progeny set sail for horizons unknown.
Their sons became the bridge to the wild unknown, trading the stone-hewn certainty of France for New France's raw, untamed symphony. Francois LeBer, born in 1626, answered the Atlantic's roar as a voyageur, his birchbark canoe slicing through white-capped waves that tasted of salt and promise. Landing in Quebec's rugged embrace, he married Jeanne Testard de Laforest, born in 1642, a woman whose lineage whispered of nobility—niece to interpreters Jean Godefroy sieur de Linctot and Thomas Godefroy de Normanville, who had knelt beside Samuel de Champlain in smoke-filled longhouses, translating alliances amid the crackle of ceremonial pipes. In La Prairie's mud-churned paths, they battled howling blizzards and the gnawing hunger of lean winters, trading glossy beaver pelts by the glow of tallow candles until Francois's final breath in 1694, echoed soon by Jeanne's in 1723. His brother Jacques LeBer dit Larose, born in 1633, chased the same fierce dream, arriving in Montreal's palisaded frontier where the St. Lawrence's icy grip met the forest's shadowy maw.
Partnering at Lachine's trading post with Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Chateauguay—brother-in-law to your 8th great-granduncle—he bartered amid the acrid tang of gunpowder and the rhythmic thump of Iroquois drums, his life a tapestry of frozen portages and hard-won furs until 1706.
The flame leaped to Francois and Jeanne's daughter, Marie Le Ber, born in 1666 beneath Montreal's timbered roofs, where the distant howl of wolves pierced the night. She wed Francois Bourassa, a coureur des bois from Luçon, born in 1659, whose spirit burned like wildfire—those rogue runners vanishing into the emerald labyrinth of pines, their canoes groaning under pelts as they forged pacts with Algonquin and Huron amid the sweet haze of maple smoke and the sting of blackfly swarms. In La Prairie's sod-roofed cabins, they endured Iroquois raids and the bone-deep cold, the sizzle of venison on spits mingling with children's laughter, until Francois's demise in 1708. Marie's unyielding heart carried her through to 1756, a sentinel of survival.
Their daughter Marie Elisabeth Bourassa, emerging in 1695 under La Prairie's frost-laced dawn, bound her fate to Jean dit Jacques Pinsonneault dit Lafleur, born in 1682—a pioneer whose ax felled ancient oaks to raise stockades against the encroaching British, the metallic ring of hammers echoing across the river's glassy surface. As war drums throbbed and cannon smoke choked the air during the fall of New France, Jean persisted until 1773. Marie Elisabeth's brother, Rene Bourassa dit LaRonde (1688–1778), blazed into legend as a coureur des bois, allying with Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye—paddling through thunderous rapids where water roared like lions, camping under aurora-veiled skies amid the thunder of bison herds, questing for furs and the phantom Western Sea.
The voyageur vein surged in Joseph Pinsonneau, born in 1733, who clutched his oar for Michel Laselle, navigating the Great Lakes' storm-tossed fury to Detroit's mist-shrouded forts, where the oily sheen of furs met the sharp bite of rum. He married Marie Madeleine Duquet, born in 1734, daughter of Etienne Duquet dit Desrochers—a canoe craftsman whose vessels, sealed with steaming pine pitch and echoing with the scrape of adzes, bore dreams across foaming whirlpools. Their bond weathered imperial gales until her passing in 1791, his in 1799.
Son Gabriel Pinsonneau, born in 1770, inherited the restless current, voyaging for the Laselle brothers through cannon-scarred waters, the splash of paddles syncing with his heartbeat. He anchored with Marie Louise Vielle, born in 1780, sister to voyageurs Joseph and Michel Vielle dit Cosse, whose tales of post-Revolutionary tempests filled smoky taverns. Gabriel's abrupt end in 1807 cast Marie Louise, gone by 1813, as the lone guardian, her lantern a flicker in the gathering dusk.
The exodus south ignited with their son Gabriel (Gilbert) Passino dit Lafleur, born in 1803, who slipped across borders to Vermont's verdant valleys before 1830, his name softening like river stones amid Yankee accents and the lowing of cattle in misty pastures. He wed Marie Emélie Meunier dit Lagacé, born in 1808, daughter of North West Company voyageur Jean-Baptiste Meunier dit Lagacé, whose treks through Rocky Mountain blizzards left trails of frozen breath and echoed legends. In Jefferson County's fertile soils, they plowed furrows under sun-dappled leaves, the earth crumbling rich and dark beneath their fingers, until Gilbert's rest in 1877 and Emélie's in 1883 across the border.
Their daughter Lucy Passino, born in 1836 amid New York's blooming orchards, seized the pioneer blaze, marrying John Galloway Brown, born in 1833 in Philadelphia, New York—a yeoman whose gaze pierced westward like an arrow. In Montana's Flathead Valley around 1900, they claimed homesteads where the Rockies' jagged teeth gnawed the sky, battling dust devils that whipped grit into eyes and grizzlies whose growls rumbled like thunder, erecting log walls scented with fresh-cut timber amid the golden rush of railroads and vein-laced mines. John's twilight came in 1915, Lucy's in 1917 at Creston, their imprints etched in the land's unyielding clay.
This vivid odyssey, from Rouen's fog-shrouded docks to Montana's sun-baked prairies, pulses with the heartbeat of explorers—men and women who braved roaring rivers, forged ironclad bonds, and chased the horizon's gleam, transforming a family's fate across oceans and eras. My voyageur family had at last canoed the entire North American continent by the time I began paddling in their ghostly wake 300 years later.
Our Fur Trade Family Tree: Why I Passionately Study the Fur Trade
GENERATION Z
Robert LeBer
Birth 1601 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
Death ABOUT 1625 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
9th great-grandfather
AND
Colette Cavelier
Birth 1605 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
Death 20 MAY 1694 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
9th great-grandmother
(cousin of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle)
GENERATION 1
i. Francois Leber (Le Bert, Lebert)(Voyager)
Birth 1626 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
Death 19 MAY 1694 • La Prairie, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada
8th great-grandfather
AND
Jeanne Testard de Laforest
Birth 1642 • Rouen, Departement de la Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
Death 18 JAN 1723 • La Prairie, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada
8th great-grandmother
(Nice of Jean Godefroy sieur de Linctot 1607–1678 & Thomas Godefroy de Normanville 1610–1652, who served under Champlain in the capacity of interpreters)
ii. Jacques Leber (Lebert) dit Larose (Lachine Trading Post partnership with Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Chateauguay 1626-1685
brother-in-law of 8th great-granduncle)
Birth 1633 • Normandie, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France
Death 25 NOV 1706 • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
8th great-granduncle
GENERATION 2
Marie Le Ber
Birth 6 DEC 1666 • Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Death 23 DEC 1756 • La Prairie, Quebec, Canada
7th great-grandmother
AND
Francois Bourassa (Coureur des bois)
Birth 1659 • Luçon, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France
Death 9 MAY 1708 • La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine), Montréal, PQ, Canada
7th great-grandfather
GENERATION 3
i. Marie Elisabeth Bourassa
Birth 25 FEB 1695 • Laprairie, Quebec, Canada
Death 19 NOV 1766 • La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine), Québec
6th great-grandmother
AND
Jean Dit Jacques Pinsonneault dit Lafleur (La Prairie pioneer)
Birth 13 MAR 1682 • Saint-Ours, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada
Death 19 MAR 1773 • La Prairie, Roussillon, Quebec, Canada
6th great-grandfather
ii. Rene Bourassa dit LaRonde 1688–1778 (famous Coureur des bois who partnered with Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye for trading and exploration)
GENERATION 4
Joseph Pinsonneau (Pinsono) DNA Match (Voyageur, for Michel Laselle, to Detroit)
Birth 10 APR 1733 • La Prairie, Quebec, Canada
Death 8 AUG 1799 • Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
5th great-grandfather
AND
Marie Madeleine Duquet DNA match (d/o Etienne Duquet dit Desrochers--La Prairie Canoe Builder 1695–1753)
Birth 25 AUG 1734 • La Prairie, Quebec, Canada
Death 10 NOV 1791 • Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
5th great-grandmother
GENERATION 5
Gabriel Pinsonneau (Voyageur, for Laselle brothers, to Detroit)
Birth 5 AUG 1770 • LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine (St Philippe), Quebec, Canada
Death 19 AUG 1807 • LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine (Notre-Dame), Québec
4th great-grandfather
AND
Marie Louise Vielle DNA match (s/o Voyageurs--Joseph Vielle dit Cosse 1767–1797 & Michel Vielle dit Cosse 1771–1850)
Birth 23 FEB 1780 • Chambly, Québec
Death 10 APR 1813 • La Prairie, Quebec, Canada
4th great-grandmother
GENERATION 6
Gabriel (Gilbert) Passino (Passinault) (Pinsonneau) (Parsneau) dit Lafleur (immigrant to Vermont bef. 1830)
Birth 3 MAR 1803 • La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine), Quebec
Death 16 DEC 1877 • Natural Bridge, Jefferson, New York, USA
3rd great-grandfather
AND
Marie Emélie Meunier dit Lagacé (Lagassé)(d/o of NWCo Voyageur Jean-Baptiste Meunier (Mignier) DNA match dit Lagacé (Lagasse)
Birth 28 MARCH 1808 • Chateauguay, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada
Death 28 JUNE 1883 • Huntingdon, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada
3rd great-grandmother
GENERATION 7
Lucy Passino (Pinsonneau)(Montana homesteader)
Birth 17 JUN 1836 • Jefferson County, New York, USA
Death 3 FEB 1917 • Creston, Flathead County, Montana, USA
2nd great-grandmother
AND
John Galloway Brown (Montana homesteader)
Birth 8 AUG 1833 • Philadelphia, Jefferson, New York, United States
Death 28 MAR 1915 • Creston, Flathead, Montana, United States
2nd great-grandfather
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