Want to know if there are any relations of mine with the last name Mineau not fr

Question:

Want to know if there are any relations of mine with the last name Mineau not from lower Michigan.?

We know that we came from Canada and the Crown census man listed us as Miller but my generation does not have much else to go on. I have a kind but bougie auntie by marriage who says the name is a variant of Monet but I think it is probably that my family were fishermen as David Miller of UP Michigan listed his middle name as C for cooper. He had no middle name but Sara Mcgee would not marry him outside of the church and he had to have one for the paperwork, he was a fish barrel maker so he went with cooper.
My brother met a Mineau in London, 2001 but at a Pub and both of them quite sloshed so all he can remember is that my pronounciation of the name was better than my aunt's.
Any info would be greatly appreciated and used to complete a history I am doing for a cousines wedding this fall. Merci!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I can help! You're in my favorite area of research. I'm also a French-Canadian from Michigan.

Where to start....

Mineau is a common variant of the name Minaud. I'm not clear about the lower peninsula vs UP in your post. If your family is in the lower peninsula, not the UP, they didn't usually come here to fish, but did come to either work in the lumber fields or to buy the clear cut land and start farming. You don't give the county they settled in, so I can't get more specific. But if you can identify when your first ancestor settled in Michigan and get me a few names and dates, I think we can figure this out for you. If we can get you to the mid-1800s in Canada, we can get to you the 1500s in France.