Renée Boucher: A life to behold

Chapter 1

2012

"Hey Jackson, come take a look at this. This must be the stone that kid was talking about!" A young man by the name of David noted happily. They had run into some kids on there way to another site in the area and one of them had mentioned finding what they thought to be an old gravestone while he was exploring one day. They had mentioned it looked old. It was probably older than David's oldest ancestor that had come over to Canada.

"Well, well, well; I see why you were accepted so fast into the course, good eye." Jackson declared with a smile on his face. Jackson had been in the game of archaeology for a while now, his eyes were starting to fail him a bit, but that didn't bother him too much as all he had to do was request for the best in the course - David in this case - and he would have a new set of eyes. Turns out he also had a brilliant set of them too, as David started to pull a piece of paper and a piece of charcoal out of his bag to see what the stone said. After he had finished, the also took out a camera and took a picture of it, just in case the stone rubbing didn't work as well as it should have. This one was resourceful, to say the least. Jackson had those exact items in his bag.

This time, however, the extra measures wouldn't be needed, as the rubbing had come out wonderfully. On it, it said 'Marie Boucher, né en France 1646, est mort en 1665, Ville-Marie. Filles du Roi'.

Jackson, seeing the confusion on David's face, explained, "It says, 'Marie Boucher, born in France 1646, died in Ville-Marie 1665. King's daughter', You may have just found a gem here. I will report this and see if we can dig her up and see if we can find any connections to her."

He did, and soon they were able to get a permit to exhume her body. They had tried to find information on Marie but had only managed to find her death records and that she was a Filles du Roi. There was nothing on family, so they hoped with exhuming her that they would discover family ties. They found lying next to her in an old ornate wooden box, a diary. It mentioned a Renée Boucher, her youngest sister. They couldn't find anything on who Renée was, they could only find that she had come over as a Filles du Roi at the same time as her sister, they believed they had hit a dead end. That was until they had read the last page that had been written in. They hadn't found it before because 2 pages had stuck together and they had believed that Marie was the last to write in the diary. They had been wrong.

An entry, when translated said 'June 18th, 1665, They told me that if I wrote in here that she would be able to read it with god, and she would see how much I cared. She did nothing but love me and my siblings, she protected me and kept me safe. So now I will take on just a bit of her dream and become happy for her sake. I miss her so much, but I will learn to live with the pain I am sure. She will watch over me and guide me through my path. Marie, I will miss you until my dying days, and I will not forget what you have taught me. Rest well, my darling sister. Signed, Renée Boucher.'

The signature, when matched against many, had an exact match and showed up over 100 times in multiple different documents. Or rather, the first name matched, she held a different last name. Renée Cartois, the first woman to do what she had, and find happiness at the same moment. She spread her wonderful mind across Ville-Marie, sharing her knowledge, teaching children, and beating the men who told her that she couldn't possibly do what they did at their own game. She was the first female head diplomat of the French colony in Canada. She was also a mother of 10 children, 9 of whom were sons and 1 of which was her only daughter, all who went on to do great things. The daughter became a nurse, and her family remained in medicine for 5 generations after with wonderful contributions. The sons went into many different fields, but mainly the different routes of law. All of this started because she was sent over as a Filles du Roi....