CBC : MOST FRENCH CANADIANS DESCENT FROM 800 WOMEN Excellent article!
Fur traders and missionaries needed wives and so here came the orphans and the adventurers, ready to take their chances. France decided to appeal to the women through clever marketing, calling them an honorific "Daughters of the King." One in ten didn't survive the journey across the ocean. Unlike most women, however, a possible positive was that they got to choose their husbands. There were about 3000 to choose from.
Excerpt: For the 800 women who make it, France pays for the women's passage and provides a dowry from the royal treasury. The women are also given a hope chest containing, among other things, a pair of hose, a pair of shoes, a bonnet, gloves, a comb, a belt and various sewing supplies.
(The dowry was essential for marriage in France. It came to about $1000. today.)
Excerpt: Two-thirds of toay's French-Canadians can trace their ancestry back to one of these 800 women. Their influence was felt outside Quebec, as well. Some famous Americans also claim a Fille du Roi as an ancestor, including Hilary Clinton, Madonna, and Angela Jolie.
