The son of MACIA NADEAU and JEANNE DESPIERA of Genouillac, in Angoumois, Ozanie-Joseph was born in 1637, (the year is found by reading the censuses of 1666 and 1667, which give his age as 29 and 30 years respectively). We don't know if Ozanie-Joseph had any brothers or sisters, nor whether or not he carried on a trade in France, but we do know that he had not learned to read and write, and consequently did not sign the records which concerned his own business affairs.

There is no trace of his contract to come to New France. Was he a soldier in the Carigan Regiment (as some maintain)?Certainly not, because on Saturday, February 3, 1663, Charles de Lauson Charny granted Ozanie-Joseph three acres of land in the parish of Sainte-Famille, probably extending to half the depth of the L'Ile d'Orleans. It was at the center of the Island that the lord of the manor "of the shore and seigneury of Lirec" had planned to lay out the principal road. Ozanie-Joseph Nadeau, like most of the hopeful colonist, had without doubt been hired by the settlers, or at least had lived as a soldier in some family, and had participated, like the members of the household, in working the land. The grant which he had just acquired was situated between that of Jean Moreau dit Lagrange and the one obtained the day after Ozanie obtained his, by Robert Laberge.

In the next few years, Nadeau made few appearances, apparently being content to erect his house and farm building and to till his soil. In 1665, the arrival of a ship bearing "les filles du Roi" (the Daughters of the King), lured some colonists to Quebec where they went to choose those they would marry. These were not times for passing fancies or lengthy courting. Having arrived the preceding October 2, the young girls and young women knew something of the place. They came with the intentions of getting married and they agreed without knowing too much of what awaited them. On 23 October, Jean Moreau, Ozanie's neighbor, promised to marry Anne Couture. On 6 November following, Nadeau, who had chosen Marguerite Abraham, pledged to take her as his wife. The marriage record has disappeared, so it is impossible to know the marriage date.

Marguerite Abraham was born about 1645, daughter of Guillaume Abraham and Denise Fleury, Parisians who lived near the bell tower in the parish of St. Eustache. For her dowry, the young woman (she was 20 years old) brought goods valued at 100 "livres tournois". (The livre tournois was a silver coin minted at Tours). Among the witnesses to the signing of the contract were the most important people of the colony at that time, and those who had done the most to bring young girls of France to take husbands in Canada. Daniel Remy de Courcelle, Alexandre Prouvillede Tracy, Jean Talon and Marie- Barbe de Boullongne. After their marriage, the Nadeau's went to live on their land on the Ile d'Orleans where they are found listed in the censuses of 1666 and 1667. The census taker lists another person in the census of 1667, a four month old child named Marie, who had been baptized the preceding first of May. A detail not noted the previous year: seven acres of land had been cleared by the colonist.

Ozanie-Joseph and Marguerite Nadeau had no intention of staying on this land, however, since as early as June 2, 1667, Monseigneur de Laval offered them the possibility of getting established at Saint-Laurent. At first there were three acres granted to "Antoine Nadeau" (sic), between the lands of Ozanie-Joseph Nadeau and Pierre Mourier, then, the same day, four acres were granted to our ancestor. Who was this "Antoine Nadeau" named for the first time on June 2 to localize the four acres of Ozanie-Joseph which were between those of "Antoine Nadeau" and the non-allotted lands... It is possible that the "two" grantees may have been just one person, or at least that a brother or relative of our ancestors wanted to settle at the locality. A curious fact is that a transfer of property of Ozanie-Joseph to the Religious of Hotel-Dieu of Quebec was registered on July 22, 1671, on the eve of the official survey of the Nadeau lands by Jean Guyon. On July 23, fourteen acres were under cultivation on the lands which was granted to Ozanie five years earlier.

Dating from October 18, 1675, the Nadeau's were no longer in the parish of Sainte-Famille where their property was a part of the heritage of Antoine Dionne. Four more children were born to the Nadeau's: Jean in 1669, Adrien in 1672, Denis born in 1663, and Catherine in 1674. At his decease on February 10, 1677 at the age of 40, Ozanie-Joseph had only three surviving children: Caterine, Denis and Jean.

On january 26, 1678, before notary Pierre Duquet, we find Marguerite Abraham promising to marry Guillaume Chartier, who came from Sainte-Marie in Nantes. This man who secured the Saint-Laurent lands, promised to care for his wife's children as his own and to maintain them until they reached the age of 15. This couple had no children of their own but the harmony of the relations between the children and their stepfather is shown in that they were named as Chartier in the 1681 census. In 1694 the land was divided among the three children. In 1710 the Nadeau property passed into the hands of the Roy families of whom Catherine, through her marriage to Jean Le Roy was an ancestor.

Denis and Jean Nadeau married Charlotte and Anne Casse (or Lacasse). Denis was remarried in 1724 to Elisabeth Le Roy. Their mother, marguerite Abraham, died after 1694.