The voyageur Joseph Desjarlais seems to be the founder of the
family which bears the same name here in Alberta. Originally
from Verchères, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence,
northeast of Montreal, Desjarlais came west with the North West
Company (NWC).1
In 1803, he was in charge of a post on Lake Manitoba for the
NWC, but following the union of the NWC and the XY Company, he
chose not to renew his contract. He later established himself
at Lac La Biche and in 1814, on his trip from the Pacific to
Eastern Canada, Gabriel Franchère comes across two of Desjarlais’
daughters gathering eggs on an island.2
Taken to meet their father, Desjarlais asks Franchère to read
some letters to him which he had received from his family over
two years before. In 1821, "Old Desjarlais" is noted as
returning to Lac La Biche from a long canoe trip to Montreal to
visit his family.3
A son, Antoine, worked for the NWC and for the Hudson’s Bay
Company; two others are named in Alexander Henry’s journal:
Tullibee and L’Hire don daine (which was probably L’Hirondelle,
from which are descended the L’Hirondelle clan from the Lac La
Biche and St. Albert regions. |