♀Catherine Fournier

Catherine Fournier was the first wife of René Hardy, a master goldsmith of Angers in Anjou^W, France, who was tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006). She appears in the registers of Angers as the mother of five children baptised between 1614 and 1622, and in her own right, when she signed a baptismal entry herself as godmother in 1617. The line to Nancy Jane runs not through her but through René’s second wife, Renée Moget, and their daughter Marie-Anne Hardy.

Marriage and children

René Hardy and Catherine Fournier married before 1614 at Angers, and the parish of La Trinité in Angers baptized their first child, a son René, on 16 January 1614. A daughter Marie followed on 3 March 1615. A second son named René was baptized on 23 January 1620, a daughter Renée on 16 April 1621 and a son Étienne on 24 July 1622. The 1614, 1615 and 1622 entries name René as a master goldsmith, and the 1620 and 1622 entries call Catherine his wife. Giving the second son the first one’s name most likely means the first René had died young.

Godmother in 1617

On 18 February 1617 Catherine stood godmother at the baptism of Guillaume, son of another Angers Hardy, Guillaume, in the church of Sainte-Croix. The entry names her as the wife of René Hardy, master goldsmith, and she signed it in her own hand.

Death

Her death is not recorded. The baptism of Étienne in July 1622 is the last entry that names her. In June 1627 René made a marriage contract with Renée Moget, so Catherine had presumably died by then.

Notes

The marriage date

The tree places the marriage before 1614, the year of the first child’s baptism at La Trinité. The Fichier Origine record for René’s daughter Marie-Anne Hardy by his second marriage says he married Catherine Fournier “avant 1616” (before 1616); the place is assumed to be Angers. The marriage is not in the marriage index of La Trinité for 1608 to 1628, so it was not celebrated at La Trinité.

Her death and parents

No burial for Catherine appears in the burial indexes of La Trinité or Sainte-Croix for the years 1615 to 1628. A burial at La Trinité on 28 June 1625, of a woman read as “Catherine Foussier” (reading uncertain), was that of the wife of a man named Robert, not of a goldsmith, and is a different woman. Catherine Fournier’s own parents are not known.