Wilmont Kreis

Does Elizabeth Price have many descendants?

Oh my, yes. Like many French Canadian couples, she and Jean were fertile, but only one of their six children who married was male, so Founeau is not enormously common. Their five girls were fruitful and their descendants are common in Canada. Their daughter, Marguerite, married Pierre Casse dit St. Aubin (the dit again) from Detroit. They had five children who reproduced actively but again only one was a male. So the genes were spread to many different surnames but Detroit and the U.S. are full of Lizzie’s tribe. GENEALOGY OF THE FRENCH FAMILIES OF THE DETROIT RIVER REGION 1701-1936 VOL. II by Christian Denisson can help you search for yours. Read More 

1781-1796: Most Detroiters are unaware of this interesting period of fifteen long years when Détroit was theoretically part of the United States but remained under British rule. The British believed as long as they controlled the vital straits, the Americans could not sustain the Indian war, and the new country would eventually fall back to British hands. Had it not been for the persistence of Washington and Anthony Wayne along with their French-Canadian allies this could have been the case. Read More 

Eventually the two canoes arrive at the Straits of Détroit. Little more than a fort and trading post at this time, it will remain the home of the Allards for the remainder of the Allard Series. Here they take on more men including Henri-Pierre de Baptiste, the grandson of old Joseph. He and Jacques Allard are destined to become life-long companions as they depart from Antoine Cadillac’s city in the wilderness for the true frontier and lands seen by few if any white men. Read More 

In 1734 Jean-Baptiste Allard and Joseph are invited to travel to Detroit where they had gone years before with Antoine Cadillac. They bring along their now eighteen year old sons, Pierre and Toussaint giving the boys the opportunity to see the City in the Wilderness and meet some of its younger residents including the son of an Indian chief—a young man known as Pontiac who will play a large part in The Allards Book Four: The Voyager. Read More 

Some years later, Cadillac again enlists Jean-Baptiste and Joseph to travel with him to set a post on a river connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair. He names the post with the French term for narrow straights: Détroit. The boys stay here for the early days of this city in the wilderness which will become a focus of the remainder of the Allard Series. Photo: Detroit today, Cadillac’s Fort was located on land just to the left of the Renaissance Center. Read More