Tracking the de Kervoach Ancestor in North America starts in the records of notary* Jean-Étienne Dubreuil in the church registers of Notre-Dame Parish in Quebec City on 25 January 1727 Therefore, given these dates, we can assume that he arrived in New France at the latest at the end of the 1726 sailing season, in the autumn. (*notary in Quebec, lawyer in USA)

Alexandre de Kervoach was a voyageur a.k.a. travelling fur trader. According to the famous historian Marcel Trudel, a voyageur was a person who transported pelts and furs from distant trading posts to warehouses in Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Québec. However, we can also affirm that he was a trained notary and undoubtedly had worked as a voyageur hoping to acquire a fortune in the new world. Indeed, on 18 February 1730, he wrote a private sale contract for the Seignior of L’Isle-Verte who wanted to sell some land, but did not know how to write. As one reads this contract, it is obvious that the writer was a well trained notary public.

Besides working as a travelling fur traderfor many years, he also served as guide to the colonial police forces in the Kamouraska area. On 2 January 1730, after helping to arrest a thief, he accompanied said-thief to Quebec City.

In New France, indeed we can follow our ancestor tracks basically in the Lower St. Lawrence region, between Quebec City and L’Isle-Verte and in the Rivière-du-Loup area. Only once is he mentioned west of Quebec City, when, in March 1727, he was godfather to a baby girl, in Notre-Dame parish in Montreal. Later on, he was a witness at two marriages, first in Quebec City then at L’Islet, later at a funeral in Kamouraska, he also signed legal documents at a notary's office in L’Islet and finally two marriage contracts in L’Isle-Verte.

On 22 October 1732, in Cap-Saint-Ignace, the Ancestor married Louise Bernier, daughter of Geneviève Caron and Jean-Baptiste Bernier. Most likely they met through the family of Seignior Côté of L’Isle-Verte since three of Louise Bernier’s sisters were married to three sons of Seignior Côté. They were married in autumn 1732, and their first son, Simon-Alexandre, born a few months earlier in February was legitimized then. The couple will have two more children.

During his married life and when not working as a voyageur, Alexandre de Kervoach lived with his in-laws in Cap-Saint-Ignace, Jacques Rodrigue and Geneviève Caron. After the birth of their third and last son in May 1735, the couple moved to Kamouraska to a location still unknown as no land purchase contract was ever found. However, we know that in the summer of 1734, Alexandre de Kervoach had acquired some land known as Les Trois Ruisseaux (The Three Creeks) in the Notre-Dame-du-Portage, area. However, it seems that he did not develop it.

From voyageur in the beginning, eventually he became a trader then a merchant.

Alexandre de Kervoach died on 5 March 1736; his funeral took place the following day in Kamouraska. He was approximately thirty years old.

For over 150 years, Alexandre's descendants tried to find his birthplace in Brittany. The research was rather complicated for a number of reasons. First of all, in the marriage register in Cap-Saint-Ignace, the parish priest wrote Bériel - a nonexistent place - instead of ''Berrien'' as the parish of origin of the ancestor; Berrien was a major jurisdiction including the villages of Huelgoat and Locmaria.

According to the prevailing 18^th century fashion among bourgeois, our ancestor wanted to look like a nobleman and particularly so in October 1732 on his wedding day when he adopted the name of Maurice Louis Le Bris, sieur de Kervoach; also giving himself fictitious parents who seemed to belong to a high social class.

Here it is important to underline the fact that family names then, contrary to today's strict practices, were often modified, varied, even chosen at random. Thus such habits muddled the roads to search and reach the true place of origin of our ancestor in Brittany.

At the initiative of the Association des familles Kirouac, the KFA, research started in 1978 but was inconclusive as researchers could not find in Brittany a baptism certificate in the name of Alexandre Le Bihan (de Kervoach) ─ Le Bihan was our ancestor's actual family name which he used on three occasions in 1727; he also used the signature: Maurice Louis Le Bris (de Kervoach); at the end of 1732 and early in 1733 he signed Le Bris on three occasions.

At the initiative of the Association des familles Kirouac, the KFA, research started in 1978 but was inconclusive as researchers could not find in Brittany a baptism certificate in the name of Alexandre Le Bihan (de Kervoach) ─ Le Bihan was our ancestor's actual family name which he used on three occasions in 1727; he also used the signature: Maurice Louis Le Bris (de Kervoach); at the end of 1732 and early in 1733 he signed Le Bris on three occasions.Eventually in 1999, these family names led the Breton genealogist, Patricia Dagier, to one person named Urbain-François Le Bihan, sieur de Kervoac, a native of Huelgoat, in the jurisdiction of Berrien.

This scion of a bourgeois family of notaries in Brittany, so far is the most likely candidate to be identified with the man who called himself Alexandre de Kervoach in New-France. There are many reasons to believe that these two persons are one and the same man. However, given that no documents exist, neither in Brittany nor in Quebec, showing a direct link between Urbain-François Le Bihan, sieur de Kervoac and Alexandre Le Bihan de Kervoach, for the time being, we consider this the greatest likelihood but not yet an absolute certainty.

State of Research (Spring 2019)