And another founder of a Tardif family in Canada was Jean Tardif, a native of Saint-Nicolas de La Rochelle, Aunis (Charente-Inférieure). Here many ships were outfitted and workers lived for the community of inhabitants of Quebec and for the Company of New France. Considering its population, La Rochelle probably provided the largest share of colonists, about 600, to New France.
Jean Tardif was born on September 13th, 1707, in Saint-Nicolas de La Rochelle, of the marriage of René Tardif and Marie Pichon. He was confirmed there at age 15 in 1724. Probably the only surviving child of this marriage, he arrived in New France around 1733 at age 25 or thereabouts; the exact date of his arrival is unknown. He arrived without a work contract but he is said to have been a shipwright and a navigator.
On the 29th of August 1735, at age 27, he married Marie-Madeleine Palin in Notre-Dame-de-Quebec church. She was the widow of Jean-Baptiste Rivet who died on the 25th of April 1733. Their marriage contract was signed the previous day, August 28, 1735, in the presence of the royal notary Jacques Pinguet. In this deed it is provided that the future spouses will be "uns et communs en tous biens meubles et conquets immeubles qu'ils auront ou feront pendant le dit futur mariage" and that the future husband "a doué et doue la future épouse du douaire coutumier ou de la somme de six cents livres de douaire préfix au choix de la future épouse". The future spouses declared that they could neither write nor sign.
Of his marriage, Jean Tardif had two children:
- 1. Jean-Baptiste, born on the 23rd of May 1736 and baptised the next day. His godparents were Jean-Baptiste Brassard and Thérèse Fortier.
- 2. Suzanne, born and baptised on the 26th of March 1738, whose godparents were Guillaume Guillermin and Suzanne Blanchon.
Unfortunately, Jean Tardif died some time later, probably around 1740, at age 33 or thereabouts, after only five years of marriage. He left a young widow with two children approximately two and four years old.
After a period of widowhood, Marie-Madeleine Palin, aged 30, married Sébastien Nolet on 6 October 1742, in Notre-Dame-de-Québec church. Nolet took charge of his wife's children: the 1744 census shows that they all live under the same roof. Unfortunately, Marie-Madeleine died on the 13th of April, 1746, aged only 34. What happened to the two Tardif children? It is believed that they were taken in charge by a member of the Palin family. It is certain that Jean-Baptiste Tardif was a navigator and was married twice.
