This book is the culmination of an enormous project aimed at the identification of the original French migrants to Quebec and their descendants in the form of a computerized population register.

St Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700), canonized in 1982, is a key figure in Canadian and religious history as a founder of Montreal and of the international order the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal, one of the first uncloistered religious communities of women. Patricia Simpson goes behind the mist of myth and hagiography surrounding Marguerite Bourgeoys to reveal her true character. Marguerite Bourgeoys et Montréal documents her life in France and in the struggling settlement of Ville-Marie - present-day Montreal - placing her life within the larger historical context of the time and highlighting the role of women in society and the church.

Dechêne's work, when first published, constituted a major milestone in the development of methodology and use of sources. Her systematic examination of difficult and massive documentary collections blazed a number of new trails for other researchers. Her judicious blending of numerical data and "qualitative" findings makes this book one of the rare examples of "new history" that avoids the extremes of statistical abstraction and anecdotal antiquarianism. Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal won the Governor-General's Award and the Garneau Medal from the Canadian Historical Association when it first appeared in French.

Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700) was canonized in 1982. Patricia Simpson goes beyond myth and hagiography to explore Bourgeoys's dream of establishing a radically new religious community of women, recounting her thirty-year struggle to obtain official recognition for the Congrégation of Notre-Dame. Simpson shows that the order faced great resistance from the male Church hierarchy despite the fact that the pioneer society depended on the work of the Congrégation. The order was particularly important in assuming the guardianship of many filles du roi - young women sent to New France under royal auspices to be married to the men of the colony. Simpson also examines the many difficulties the Congrégation faced, which included natural disasters and the dangers involved in trying to reach women and children in settlements throughout New France, as far away as Acadia.

Simpson shows that the order faced great resistance from the male church hierarchy despite the fact that the pioneer society depended on the work of the Congregation. The order was particularly important in assuming the guardianship of many filles du roi - young women sent to New France under royal auspices to be married to the men of the colony. Simpson also examines the many difficulties the Congregation faced, which included natural disasters and the dangers faced in trying to reach women and children in settlements throughout New France, as far away as Acadia.