Just above Quebec City is one of the oldest roads in America – L’Avenue Royale in the small town of Chateau Richer. On one side are the cliffs, on the other, flat farmland leading to the St. Lawrence River. The roadway marks the area where “les familles souches” – the founding families – settled the Beaupre region in the 1630s.

Over the past century, thousands of Franco-American families from Maine and other parts have made pilgrimages to this part of Quebec to see the Old City, to pray at shrines such as the one in St. Anne de Beaupre, to shop and eat and hear the mellifluous French conversations of their cousins.

After more than 20 years of tracing his French-Canadian and Acadian ancestors, I took my husband, Gaelen, to look for Zacharie.

If he’s one of your forebears, you already know who I’m talking about – Zacharie Cloutier, maitre charpentier – master carpenter, born 1590 in St. Jean Baptiste de Mortagne, in Perche, in the Normandy region of France.

Cloutier married Xainte Dupont in 1616, and the couple had six children in France: Zacharie, Jean, Xainte (died young), Marie Anne, Charles and Marie Louise.

Zacharie and Xainte are ancestors of countless Cloutiers and Clukeys, the anglicized version of the name. Many other Franco-Americans have this ancestry, as well. My husband is descended from three of their five children.

The family lived in both Beauport and in Chateau Richer, where Zacharie died in 1677, and his widow three years later.

The story was that Zacharie’s house had become a restaurant or inn. Currently it is a private residence, and according to one Web site, the owners do not want relatives to drive onto the property to take pictures.

The Cloutier association, L’Association des Cloutier d’Amerique, was very busy in 1984 marking the 350th anniversary of the family’s arrival in Quebec. Several thousand attended the marking of 945 Boulevard Chutes in Beauport, where the Cloutiers lived. There also is a plaque in the corner of a small playground park named for Zacharie between Sylvie and Diane streets in Beauport. It is a modern neighborhood, but also is a site where the family lived.

A little farther north, on L’Avenue Royale in Chateau Richer, visitors will find it easier to look around and think of the setting as the kind of pastoral place where the immigrants lived.

At the cultural center in Chateau Richer, a young Monsieur Mailloux in period dress gave us a history lesson on the Beaupre region. Using wooden models of trees and animals, houses and bridges and barns, he guided us through centuries of settlement in Chateau Richer and surrounding towns.

Along L’Avenue Royale, a narrow road running parallel to the St. Lawrence, the importance of heritage to the region is obvious. Many of the older homes in the 8000 “block” are marked with plaques indicating which early settlers from the 1650s lived on each site.

Marin Boucher, Thomas Granderie, Jean Cochon, T. Toupin, Robert Drouin, Jean Gagnon, Mathurin Gagnon, Jean Cochon, G. Thibault and Pierre Lemieux are names that show up along the historic road.

Chateau Richer is just south of St. Anne de Beaupre, site of the famous shrine which draws millions of pilgrims – Catholic and otherwise.

As the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus, Anne holds a special place in the hearts of Catholics. A relic of Anne – a piece of bone said to have come from her forearm – is encased in an ornate reliquary at the front of the ornate cathedral.

Crutches are hung on pillars near the church entrance, items left there by pilgrims who recovered their health after visiting the shrine. Technically, one doesn’t pray to Anne or the other saints, even Mary. Rather, Catholics ask them to intercede before God and make requests on behalf of the person doing the praying.

L’Avenue Royale goes right into St. Anne de Beaupre, past the left side of the church. Just across that road is the site of the old cemetery, where some of the earliest settlers are buried. Only a few, newer stones are visible there now, but the grassy spot is next to the site of the earliest church in town.

The miracles attributed to St. Anne go back to the 17th century. According to church records, translated from French:

In the year one thousand six hundred sixty two, Marie Esther Ramage, aged 45 years, wife of Elie Godin of the Ste Anne du petit cap parish, remained hunched over for 18 months and was obliged to use a cane. Her husband told her that Louis Gaigner was suddenly cured of a serious kidney problem by devotedly placing three stones in the foundation of the church of Ste Anne, which was under construction. So, she called on the saint and at the same time found herself upright on her feet and walking straight with ease.

Interestingly, her husband, Elie Godin, also was reported cured of dropsy at another time after the priest had “said Mass” in his intention. Esther and Elie are two of my husband’s ancestors, through his Lavoie line.

3163. DUBE-GAGNON-TREPANIER. Seeking info, birthplace, ancestry, siblings, descendants for Mary Philomene Dube, b. about 1843 to Elie and Charlotte Jeanne (Ruette) Dube. Md. 1) Joseph Gagnon, Sept. 3, 1867, St. Romuald, Quebec; 2) a Trepanier. She d. Jan. 6, 1918, Albion, buried Halde Cemetery, Waterville. Henry Thompson Sr., P.O. Box 375, Brooks, ME 04921.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail to familyti@bangordailynews.net.