Jacques Bertrand

Biography

Jacques Bertrand’s family history has been distorted by a confusion between two cousins. His son Joseph-Laurent became a voyageur and merchant associated with Michilimackinac, in the Straits of Mackinac region of present-day Michigan; a different Laurent Bertrand entered the priesthood. Published research comparing parish and ecclesiastical records separated their careers. The correction restores Jacques’s household to its proper place in the family’s history.

Jacques was born and baptized in Montréal, in present-day Québec, Canada, on September 5, 1699, the son of Jean Bertrand and Marie-Charlotte Bérard, also written Brard. On September 18, 1729 he and Marie-Louise Dumouchel made their marriage contract before Jean-Baptiste Adhémar. Their church marriage followed the next day.

The couple’s children established households in several communities. Their son Jacques married at Oka in 1756; their daughter Marie-Anne married Jean-Baptiste Beaugrand in Montréal in 1758. Joseph-Laurent’s later career carried another branch toward the Great Lakes.

Marie-Louise died in April 1761. Jacques survived her; the family chronology places his death in Montréal on January 10, 1771.