Nicolas Varin and
Marie-Suzanne Daunay.


Nicolas was 23 when he married his first wife, Angelique Demers, in Longueuil on 08 January 1724. He was a tonnelier, or cooper, a trade which he learned from his father.

Their first child, Angelique, was born 5 May 1724. She was followed by Nicolas born 5 July 1725; he would marry Catherine Bariteau in 1748. Their next four children, Marie-Catherine, Marie-Josephe, Jean-Baptiste and Marguerite all died before their second birthdays. Angelique Demers herself succumbed on 27 September 1732.

Marriage to Suzanne Daunay.

The 32 year old Nicolas soon remarried. Our ancestor Marie-Suzanne Daunay was 21 at their marriage on 7 January 1733 in Longueuil.

They would have seven children, including Marie-Charlotte on 9 June 1742.

Perdu sur la glace.

A heavy snow storm ushered in the year 1747. Nicolas set out in it but did not return. Several agonizing months passed before his fate was known.

On 7 April the Montréal church register records the burial of Nicolas Varin, 44, who had been lost on the ice during a snowstorm at the beginning of the year.

The ice bridge across the Saint-Lawrence was
marked so travelers would not lose their way

Remarriage.

Five years elapsed before Suzanne Daunay remarried Joseph Perras dit Lafontaine. She was 40 years old when they tied the knot on 7 February 1752 in Longueuil. The couple had two children: a daughter, Françoise-Amable born 16 June 1752 and Joseph born 29 September 1753. But her husband died 24 May, four months before their son was born.

Suzanne married a third time to Pierre Maufin on 07 January 1958. The French and Indian War was ongoing, and recently the situation had begun to worsen for France. Her daughters Marie-Joseph and Marie-Angélique would marry just after the fall of Montréal in 1761; our ancestor Marie-Charlotte married in 1763.