Colonial Census Records
The original census transcriptions from 1666, 1667, and 1681 — the three great enumerations of New France. Each entry records a family’s name, age, children, livestock, cleared land, and firearms. These are Carl’s direct ancestors as they actually appeared in the colonial count.
26
Census Entries
14
Families
83
Children Listed
50 arp.
Largest Farm
16
Most Cattle
About These Records
The 1666 and 1667 censuses were the first nominal enumerations of the colony — every person listed by name. The 1681 census, conducted by intendant Jacques Duchesneau, recorded families by seigneurie with livestock, cleared land, and firearms. Together they provide a 15-year window into how these families grew from new arrivals to established farms.
Ages were self-reported and often inconsistent between censuses. Name spellings varied widely (Cloustier/Cloutier, Tremblé/Tremblay). An arpent is roughly 0.84 acres. Bêtes à cornes means horned cattle.
Colony Growth
Comparing household data across census years reveals how quickly families transformed from new arrivals into established farms.
14
Total Households Recorded
4.6
Avg Children / Household (1681)
259 arp.
Total Arpents Cleared
16
Most Cattle (Tremblay, 1681)
Household Growth Over 15 Years
Side-by-side comparisons for families with multiple census entries. Bar widths are relative to the maximum value across all families.
Jacques Baudouin & Françoise Durand
1666 — listed as servant
1681
Charles Allaire & Catherine Fièvre
1666
1667
1681
Noël Morin & Hélène Desportes
1666
1667
Guillemette Hébert (veuve Couillard)
1666
1667
The pattern across these families is striking. In 1666, Jacques Baudouin was a 25-year-old servant with nothing to his name. Fifteen years later he had a wife, four children, four cattle, and seven arpents of cleared land. Charles Allaire went from two infant children and no property to seven children and a ten-arpent farm. The Morin-Desportes household, already established by the first census, grew to one of the most prosperous on the coast — 12 cattle and 40 arpents of cleared land, an enormous operation for the period. And Guillemette Hébert, granddaughter of the colony’s first farmer Louis Hébert, ran one of Quebec’s wealthiest households as a widow — five servants, thirteen cattle, eighteen arpents — proof that women could and did manage substantial operations in New France.