Catherine ANENONTHA

  General Notes:

Catherine was a Huron Indian. She was orphaned in war with the English and Dutch to the south, and women and children from her tribe were brought to Quebec by missionaries who had been trying to convert them. Catherine was raised by nuns in the French culture as a prospective bride for a French settler.

Her name is spelled a variety of ways.

Catherine Annennontak was daughter of the late Nicolas Arendankir captain of the Hurons of Georgian Bay. In 1658, she fled her father's death and the annihilation of the Huron nation by Iroquois armed with Dutch and English muskets. The orphan and 200 other women and children were led to Quebec by the Jesuit missionaries who had been converting them. She was reared and taught in the French manner" by Madam de la Peltrie and Marie de l'Incarnation at the Ursuline convent in Quebec, so that she "could someday marry a Frenchman." The Jesuits of Canada dowried her for marrying her frenchman, giving 350 livres to the newlyweds. She was fourteen years old.

Catherine married Jean DURAND DIT LAFORTUNE, son of Louis DURAND and Madeleine MALVANDE, on 26 Sep 1662 in Notre Dame de Quebec City, Quebec. (Jean DURAND DIT LAFORTUNE was born about 1636 in Doeuil sur le Mignon, Saintonge, France and died in 1671 in St-Jean, Ille D'Orleans, Quebec.)