She was born Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot in February 1781 at Fort St. Joseph, near present-day Niles, Michigan. She was the youngest of seven mixed-race children of Jean Baptiste Marcot (1720–1783), a French factor or chief agent for the Northwest Fur Company, and his Odawa wife, Marie Nekesh (c.1740 - c.1790), also known as Marianne or Marie Amighissen. Her maternal grandfather was Chief "Kewinoquot" of the Odawa. The children's father, Jean Baptiste Marcot, was killed in 1783 by Indians at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers.