This family was instrumental in the history of New France and the expansion of American territories to such places as St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Bernardino, California.
They are discussed in Meriwether Lewis' journals, James Michener's book Centennial, and have been chronicled as traveling with frontiersman Kit Carson, as referenced below.
We know nothing of André's life in Galicia prior to 20 April 1661 when he is engaged contractually as a sailor in Nantes, Brittany (now Loire-Atlantique, Pays-de-la-Loire, France).
Late spring or summer working as a member of the crew, André sails from La Rochelle, France to Île-Percé (on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec), Acadia and finally to Quebec aboard La Marguerite, a ship originally hailing from Dieppe, Normandy, (now Seine-Maritime), France.
On 13 May 1665 André Robidou signs on as a sailor aboard the royal galiotte a type of small ship that worked the river trade hailing from Quebec.
André's wife was one of the Filles du Roi, the King's Daughters, sent to Quebec to promote marriage, family formation, birth of children and therefore expansion of population.
His widow Jeanne married Jacques Suprenant and thus became the founding mother of not one, but two of Canada's largest families.
Marie Françoise Guérin was born and christened on 17 Oct 1680 in Amboise, Tours, Touraine, Indre-et-Loire, France.
Guillaume and Françoise moved to Longueuil, a seigneurie – elevated into a barony in 1710 – adjacent to La Prairie, in 1705.
Because of the large number of descendants named Joseph Robidoux, the significant ones are highlighted by Roman numerals, even though they did not use such an indicator during their lives.
By the middle half of the 18th century the fur trade was in a slow decline, and Joseph's children began migrating south to American cities such as Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis.
With the slowing of the fur trade and repeated conflicts with the British, Joseph and his family began to look south for better prospects.
The fortress at Louisbourg was constructed to protect to Gulf of St. Lawrence and to allow the French to raid British sites in New England.
The Siege of Louisbourg in 1745 resulted in the capture of the fortress (although it was returned to England three years later as part of the treaty that ended that particular conflict).
Joseph III and his wife Catherine Marie Rollet had eight children that lived to adulthood including: Today, the Robidoux family is widespread throughout North America, with thousands of descendants active in preserving the legacy of their common ancestor Manuel.