Suzanne Lefebvre

Biography

Suzanne Lefebvre's life was closely tied to La Prairie, across the St. Lawrence from Montréal in present-day Québec, Canada. Born on October 19, 1688, she was the daughter of Pierre Lefebvre and Marguerite Gagné. The family-association account dates her baptism two days later. She married Louis Bouchard in the same community on February 25, 1715, when she was twenty-six.

The couple's shared ancestry required ecclesiastical permission, according to that account. It reports a dispensation for a third-degree relationship from de Belmont shortly before the wedding. Their precise degree of kinship is uncertain.

Suzanne bore at least four children identifiable in the compiled family. Marie-Josèphe and Louis were followed by Marie-Charlotte in 1719 and Marie-Catherine in 1720. Both younger daughters died within weeks of birth. Suzanne died the following year, leaving Louis still a small child. The family-association history describes an illness lasting about forty days, but gives a different death month from another compilation. Her exact death date remains uncertain.