Other names variations: Provenche; Provancher; Provencha; Villebrun; Provenchere; Provanchère; Beaulorier; Belleville; Béland; Ducharme; Houle dit Provencher; Fleurant;

The First Archibisop of St.Boniface in Manitoba,
was Joseph-Norbert Provencher
who was related to Marie-Jeanne Lefebvre,
daughter of Gabrielle Foucault (sister of Françoise Foucault, dame Jean-Francois Lemire Marsolet), who had married Jean Baptiste Provencher

SÉBASTIEN PROVENCHER & MARGUERITE MANCHON
The earliest ancestor of the large Provencher family in North America is Sébastien PROVENCHER.

Sebastien was hired by M. Pierre Boucher (sieur de Grosbois) in May 1658 to come live at Cap-la-Madeleine which had been first called Faverell River in 1647, then Cap-des-Trois-Rivières in 1651, and had become Cap-de-la-Madeleine on May 2 1652.
The only requierement Mr. Boucher had made for his success in Canada was that Sebastien should not be lazy.

Recent research seems to indicate that the origins of Sebastien Provencher could be in Pithiviers, France and Marguerite Manchon could be in Arthenay, in the Loiret region in France.

Sébastien PROVENCHER, son of Sébastien Provenchère and Catherine Bretonnet, born in 1634 (Canadian census of 1667) in Pithiviers was baptised in the Catholic Church of Église Saint-Salomon, Orléans, in the Loiret, France.

Sebastian was married on January 22 in 1663 at the Cap-de-la-Madeleine in QUEBEC (their marriage contrat was with Louis Laurant, JANUARY 22 1663, Archives of Trois-Rivières) with Marguerite MANCHON, born in ARTENAY, MARCH 28 1637 and baptised in the Ctholic Church at Eglise Saint-Victor in Orléans, in Le Loiret, France, daughter of NICHOLAS MANCHON and MARIE BARATIN.

THE SIX CHILDREN OF SEBASTIEN PROVENCHER and MARGUERITE MANCHON:

1. Madeleine (Manchon) PROVENCHER -b. c. 1663;
married Nov.15 1676 (contract marriage was notarized by Antoine Adhémard) to
Aubin MAUDOUS, son of Michel Maudous and Marie ARNAUDE.
Madeleine died on June 19 1731 at Saint-Michel-de-Yamaska.

Genealogie MARCELLE PROVENCHER & JACQUES MAILHOT

MGR PROVENCHER's Helper was for many years Thomas Destroismaisons who had studied for priesthood in Nicolet and became a missionary. He was ordained on October 17 1819 in the QUEBEC Cathedral then took his first post in Saint-Hyacinthe at the Notre-Dame parish.

He would become Mgr Thomas-Ferruce Picard Destroismaisons (1796 - 1866) but Thomas Destroismaisons was born on January 12 1796 in Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud (Saint-Pierre- Montmagny, Québec), son of Philippe Picard Destroismaisons & Rosalie Fournier, and he died on April 5 1866 in Saint-François, île d'Orléans.

Already in 1818, l'abbé Joseph-Norbert Provencher, first missionary at the Red River, was looking for an assistant, and though Thomas does not know astronomy or English or the Indian languages, he is still chosen for this post, works in Qu'Apelle and the Dakotas and spends his summers in Red River, but does not seem to adapt well and after a few years in Whitehorse he returns to Quebec.

Both Mgr Provencher and Mgr Bernard-Claude Panet held him in high esteem.

ASSOCIATION DES FAMILLE PROVENCHER

GENEALOGIE Mgr Thomas-Ferruce Picard Destroismaisons (1796 - 1866)as per Le JOURNAL GASPESIA