Josephine d’Eglise’s parents spent most of their youth saving their hard-earned money for emigrating to the new continent out of which so many stories about the possibility of a greater future came. The journey by ship was exhausting. This may have caused the complications Josephine’s mother experienced during labouring her child. Despite the inconvenience she gave birth to a healthy Josephine.
The new family arrived in Havre St. Pierre, Canada in the summer of 1808. The following years Josephine’s father worked in the harbor and they managed to give Josephine the education she needed as a young girl to be able to raise her own family later. She learned to saw, bake and clean, and as soon as she was old enough to marry, her parents introduced her to a young promising merchant Claude Poulart.
Josephine was not too happy to get married to someone that would spend his life travelling, but that was what she had to do. She stayed living in Havre St. Pierre, and raised her two children who hardly got to know their father.