♂Pierre You

Pierre You (c. 1613 – buried 29 July 1675) was a mason and stonecutter at La Rochelle, France, and the father of Pierre You Sieur de la Découverte, who went to New France and became a companion of La Salle^W. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Pierre You Sieur de la Découverte (1658–1718).

He was a native of Saint-Denis-la-Chevasse in Bas-Poitou, now in the Vendée; his age at burial places his birth about 1613. A modern file of French emigrants to Canada, compiled from the La Rochelle registers, gives his trade as mason and stonecutter (maçon et tailleur de pierre). His marriage contract with Renée Turcot was drawn up before the notary Apvrilleau on 11 November 1646, and the couple married at Sainte-Marguerite in La Rochelle on 15 January 1647. The family later lived in the parish of Saint-Sauveur, where their son Pierre was born in 1658 and where their two youngest children, Nicolas and Geneviève, were baptised on 25 December 1669 and 15 October 1673. The couple had at least seven children; four daughters married at Saint-Sauveur between 1669 and 1684.

Pierre You was buried at Saint-Sauveur on 29 July 1675, aged 62. His son was by then a soldier in Canada, recorded in 1677 as a sergeant of the garrison at Fort Frontenac^W. When the son married at Montreal on 19 April 1697, the register named his father Pierre You and marked him as deceased.

His parents are not in the family record. The emigrant file names them as André You, a labourer, and Suzanne Bonnin, of Saint-Denis-la-Chevasse, but the registers behind that statement have not been read.

Notes

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, in its entry on his son, calls him a tanner; the emigrant file, the later work and one compiled from the La Rochelle registers, gives mason and stonecutter.