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Jack Kerouac’s French-Canadian Roots
Jack Kerouac’s Naval Reserve Enlistment photo, 1943 (Wikimedia Commons)
Jack Kerouac, famed American novelist and leader of the Beat literature movement, was born Jean-Louis Kirouac on 12 Mar 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. His father, Léon (“Leo”) Kirouac, was born in Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup, Québec, while his mother Gabrielle Ange Lévesque was born in St-Pacôme, Kamouraska, Québec. Both Jack’s parents moved to the U.S. as young children. Leo and Gabrielle were married in New Hampshire in 1915.
The Kirouac and Lévesque families were part of the roughly 900,000 French-Canadians who left Canada for New England between 1840 and 1930 in search of better economic opportunities. An industrial boom was taking place in the U.S.—workers were in demand and were paid higher wages than in Canada. (To read more about this little-known mass migration, check out the history of Manchester, a New-England town French-Canadians moved to in great numbers.)
Jack didn’t start learning English until he was 6 years old; at home, the family only spoke French. It was only in his late teen years that Jack spoke English with confidence.
“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”
Jack Kerouac’s gravestone in Edson Cemetery, Lowell MA (2014 photo by Daniel Penfield, Wikimedia Commons)
Location of Huelgoat, Finistère, France (Google Maps)
The Kerouac name has been the source of much confusion, even to Jack himself, who gave various accounts of where the name came from and who his ancestors were over the course of his life. Both in Canada and the U.S., the spelling of the family name varied greatly over the last 4 centuries: Kervack, Kyrouack, Keroack, Kerouack, Kerouach, Kirouack, Courrouaque, Quiroac, Kuerouac, DeKerouaq, DeKarouac… We need to keep in mind that standardization of spelling is a relatively recent development.
Tracing Jack Kerouac’s family back through the generations, we discover that his first ancestor to come to the New World was Frenchman Louis Alexandre Lebrice Kirouac (named Urbain-François Le Bihan de Kervoac at birth). He was born around 1702 in the small village of Huelgoat, Finistère, Brittany. “Huelgoat” is revised from the Breton An Uhelgoad meaning "High Forest". Louis Alexandre married Marie Louise Bernier in 1732 in Cap-St-Ignace, Québec. She was part of the 3rd generation of Berniers that settled in Québec since the middle of the 17th century from Paris.
To learn more about the history of the Kerouac family and their French roots, visit the website of the Kirouac Family Association.
Are you related to Jack Kerouac? See if you can spot any relatives you may have in common. Jack and yours truly, The French-Canadian Genealogist, are 7th cousins, 3x removed.
Jack Kerouac’s Obituary in the Tampa Bay Times, 22 Oct 1969 (source: Newspapers.com)
Jack Kerouac, c. 1956 (photo by Tom Palumbo, Wikimedia Commons)
Jack Kerouac Alley, San Francisco (2007 photo by Beatrice Murch, Wikipedia Commons)
Jack Kerouac was born at 9 Lupine Road in Lowell, Massachusetts (2010 photo by Rus Bowden, Wikimedia Commons)
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