In all probability he stood a few degrees higher in the social scale of the period than such plain seafaring folk as the Cartier family.

From this, biographers have sought to prove that, early in life, young Jacques Cartier must have made himself a notable person among his townsmen.

But the plain truth is that we know nothing of the circumstances that preceded the marriage, and have only the record of 15199 on the civil register of St Malo: 'The nuptial benediction was received by Jacques Cartier, master-pilot of the port of Saincte-Malo, son of Jamet Cartier and of Geseline Jansart, and Marie Katherine des Granches, daughter of Messire Honore des Granches, chevalier of our lord the king, and constable of the town and city of Saint-Malo.' Cartier's marriage was childless, so that he left no direct descendants.

But the branches of the family descended from the original Jean Cartier appear on the registers of St Malo, Saint Briac, and other places in some profusion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The family seems to have died out, although not many years ago direct descendants of Pierre Cartier, the uncle of Jacques, were still surviving in France.
It is perhaps no great loss to the world that we have so little knowledge of the ancestors and relatives of the famous mariner.