Overview of the LeFebvres

This is part of a series from the family history book I wrote for my mother's birthday. To see all the posts, click on the "Mom Book" tag at the bottom of this post.

LeFebvre dit Boulanger

The LeFebvre dit Boulangers trace their origins back to the beginning of New France and the settlement of Québec. The first of our line in New France was Claude LeFebvre dit Boulanger, born in 1648 near Paris. Claude was confirmed November 11, 1665, in Québec city. It is not clear if his parents accompanied him to the colony. Claude worked for a man named Jacques Bilodeau on the  l'Île d'Orléans. On October 28, 1669, Claude married Marie Arcular, who was born in Paris in 1651. She came to Québec as a "fille du roi", literally "daughter of the king". Filles du roi were young women, most of whom were poor or orphans, who were given dowries and free transportation to New France by the crown, in the expectation that they would marry one of the many single men in the colony.

Given the LeFebvre's deep history in Canada, there are too many ancestors to name, including a number of filles du roi, colony leaders, and important land-owners. The descendants of Claude and Marie married into families with even earlier ties to the colony, including the descendants of Louis Hébert. Louis and his wife, Marie Rollet, were the first European farmers in Québec. Louis was an apothocary and noted horticulturalist in Paris when he was recruited by his friend, Samuel de Champlain, to bring his skills to the new colony in 1617. He had previously accompanied Champlain to Port-Royal, Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in 1606. Louis's son, Guillaume, married Hélène Desportes, who is believed to be the first European child born in the new colony, in 1620. Their daughter's descendants eventually married into the LeFebvre line.

The LeFebvres first moved to the United States in the late 1800s, as part of a large migration of French-Canadians out of Québec, where rising populations were making land and jobs scarce. Leon LeFebvre, and his new bride, Ombeline Blouin, moved to Lewiston, Maine, shortly after they were married in 1870. Lewiston was known for its "Little Canada" neighborhood, where immigrants could find a French-speaking Catholic church and school for their children. Lewiston was undergoing an economic boom and Leon was able to find a job as a millwright. They had six children in Maine, and in 1886 moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, another major mill town, so Leon could find work. Leon and Ombeline lived the rest of their lives in Minneapolis.

Leon and Ombeline's youngest daughter, Marie-Anne Medora LeFebvre, married Frank Cunningham before 1910. They, too, made their home in Minneapolis, where they raised their two children.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_H%C3%A9bert
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lefebvre-879
http://niche-canada.org/2014/11/26/lewiston-maines-little-canada-revealing-the-cultural-intentions-of-french-canadian-migrants/
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57401112