To my knowledge, the first known researcher into the ancestry of the Pouliots in France was a certain Conrad Pouliot, religious.
Certain contacts of mine were able to obtain photocopies of the records of St. Cosme-de-Vair, Perche/Alençon, for the time period 1628-1636 and we discovered the following information on Charles Pouliot's origins and family:
The page of the registry of St. Cosme-de-Vair containing Charles Pouliot's baptism starts with his baptism at April [9], 1628. The 9 is difficult to read, but it is certainly a single digit and seems the most likely possibility. It was misread by Fr. Conrad Pouliot as 2. I do not have any information about the previous page which might disprove this, though. It is very clear that the baptismal record says nothing about the 8th, nor does it give a date for Charles Pouliot's birth. Moreover, there seems to be large gaps in the registry at this time (see next paragraph for my theory). This baptism is undisputedly the baptism of Charles Pouliot, ancestor of all the Canadian Pouliots.
The next record after Charles Pouliot's baptism is the record of the death and burial of Charles Chevalier, on April 16/17, 1628. It would seem this was the death of his godfather, given that no qualifier is attached to the names Charles Chevalier to distinguish between two different people, in either case. Most interestingly, there is a gap of six weeks before the next record is entered into the registry of St. Cosme-de-Vair. Then suddenly, several deaths/burials, marriages, and baptisms are recorded in quick succession, June 3-5, 1628. Also, a notation after the death/burial of Charles Chevalier which I have been unable to fully decipher makes me think that perhaps there was no priest at St. Cosme for this period, and hence the lack of records. Perhaps Charles Pouliot's baptism and Charles Chevalier's burial (which was performed by the priest of Notre-Dame-de-Vair) only appeared at all because of the local importance of Charles Chevalier.
more to come soon