[1] Placide Vigneau was born on Île du Havre aux Maisons, on the Magdalen Islands in Canada East on August 29, 1842.

His parents were Vital Vigneau, an offshore fisherman of Acadian descent, and Élise Boudreau.

[2] He spent his childhood on the Magdalen Islands, where he learned the job of offshore fisherman.

In 1858, the family moved to the village of Pointe-aux-Esquimaux (now Havre-Saint-Pierre) on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River.

His Histoire or Journal de la Pointe aux Esquimaux was published in the Report of the Archives du Québec (1968), and then as a work under the title Un pied d'ancre : journal de Placide Vigneau (1969).