I woke up this morning to a cloudy, rainy day, and I cheered a little inside. It was just the kind of day that gives me permission to while away the hours, researching and writing.

But my day of leisure would not have been perfect without being preceded by some outdoor time. So after breakfast, my daughter and I went for a long walk in the neighbourhood. The rain was light, and the temperature, surprisingly warm. I returned home, feeling energized and a little sweaty, as I had worn one layer too many. A hot shower refreshed me. I then put on my favourite lounge-worthy pyjamas and settled in for the day.

My current passion project is creating a family history book for my kids, tracing the genealogy of various ancestral lines. Today's rabbit hole of discovery was Claude Bouchard, the 8th great-grandfather to my children. What a fascinating story. In a nutshell, Claude came to New France in 1650, from the Perche region of France—one of 328 emigrants from that area wooed to America by the first Canadian colonizing seigneur, Robert Giffard. A few years earlier, in 1644, Louis Gagné and his wife, Marie Michel, had come to New France, also at the encouragement of Giffard. They brought with them their two-year-old daughter, Louise, who would go on to marry Claude Bouchard. When they married in 1654, Claude was 28, and Louise was 12. Their first child was born in 1659, when Louise was 17. They had 12 children in total.

As per the website of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, which is in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, Claude Bouchard, known as Petit Claude, was the first farmer granted land by Monseigneur de Laval (bishop of Quebec) in 1675, in what is now Petite-Rivière-Saint-François. The following year, Claude settled on his farm and became the founder of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François.

One of the unexpected benefits of tracing one's roots is realizing just how connected we are to others. For instance, while researching the history of Claude Bouchard, I discovered that first cousins on my mother's side of the family are descended from Pierre Tremblay, who came to New France in 1647 as part of Giffard's 328 emigrants from Perche, France. According to a genealogical document written by my cousin Pierre, his ancestor Pierre Tremblay also made his way to Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, acquiring property near Claude Bouchard. In 1686, one of Pierre's sons, Michel Tremblay, married one of Claude's daughters, Gèneviève Bouchard. Though my cousin Pierre is descended from a different son of Pierre's, Louis Tremblay, I still find the convergence in our stories delightful.

I would liken preparing a family history to making a quilt by hand: both contain many parts that take months or years to stitch together but, once assembled, present a spectacular whole that is useful today and will be cherished for years.