
Anna Landry, who was married to Pierre LeBlanc and who lived in Nova Scotia was swept away by Massachusetts Governor Lawrence’s “great and noble scheme.” She and her family as well as thousands of other Acadians were deported to American colonies on the Eastern seaboard in 1755. After eight years in Maryland, she and her family sailed to New Orleans to make a home in Louisiana.
Anna and her family may have arrived in Louisiana with 224 Acadians as early as 28 September 1766.[1]Acadians who arrived in 1766 were settled in the Ascension parishes. Carl A. Brasseaux, The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 (Baton Rouge, … Continue reading The ship that arrived in September had taken three months to make the journey. Fortunately, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana did supply food for the sick and starving passengers upon arrival.
Once in Louisiana, Anna’s family seems to have thrived and prospered. In the 1769 census of the Acadian Coast, Pierre LeBlanc, age thirty-eight, and his wife Anna Landry, age thirty-two, and a daughter Anne, age ten, (probably Rose) and Marie LeBlanc, an orphan, age sixteen, are recorded as one household. They were living on the left bank of the Mississippi River.[2]Lillian C. Bourgeois, “Census of Acadian Coast -1769”, Cabanocey (Gretna, LA, Pelican Publishing Company, 1998), p. 178. Anna Landry bore at least three more children in Louisiana, Silvin, Jacob, and Marie Louise Devine. Silvin was born between 1769 and 1771 when Rose was about nine years old.
In 1770, Anna was living in Ascension, Louisiana, with Pierre and Rose. Marie LeBlanc who had lived with Anna the year before was not mentioned.[3]Anne Landry (abt. 1735 – 1808), Wikitree.com (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Landry-3450#_note-2 : viewed 18 June 2022). Had Marie found a husband and started her own family? Jacques was born in 1773 but died at six months of age. Then Marie Louise Divine was born around 1775.
By 1777, the family had six arpents of land (less than six acres), twenty-one cattle, three horses, eight sheep, twelve swine and one gun.[4]Anne Landry (abt. 1735 – 1808), Wikitree.com (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Landry-3450#_note-2 : viewed 18 June 2022). Rose married Athanaise Dugas in September.[5]Diocese of Baton Rouge, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Diocese of Baton Rouge) 2:254. Grandchildren soon followed. What a difference seven years in Louisiana has made for Anna’s family. “Don Louis de Uzaga-Ameraga, past Gov-Gen. of Louisiana had given Pierre a title of concession for land of five arpents (under five acres), with 16 toise 2 pied frontage (about 98 feet) on the left bank of the Mississippi”.[6]Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458. To obtain the concession, within three years, Pierre had to build “dikes and levees, fences and roads…”[7]Jack D.L. Holmes, “Some Economic Problems of Spanish Governors of Louisiana,” Hispanic American Historical Review (1962) 42 (4): 521–543 … Continue reading
Today, we might wonder about events that occurred more than two hundred years ago. When the deported Acadians from France arrived in Louisiana in 1785, was Anna reunited with any family or friends last seen in Nova Scotia thirty years prior? Did Anna’s husband have any crops stored in New Orleans that were destroyed in the catastrophic fire off New Orleans in 1788 where 856 buildings were burned? How many hurricanes did Anna live through and have to restart planting because crops were destroyed?
Between 1770 and 1791, records indicate Anna and Pierre’s lives improved significantly from the time they had been in Maryland. They had a house about twenty-eight feet by sixteen feet, “a small storehouse, a negro cabin, and about 3000 poles of fenced enclosure.” At the time of Pierre’s passing, they had two workers who were enslaved, Silveste about thirty years old and Rosette about sixty years old.[8]Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458.
In early 1791, Anna’s husband Pierre LeBlanc died.[9]Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458. He was about sixty years old. On 23 February 1791, the succession for Pierre’s property was opened. The inventory and property were estimated to be about 884 piastres 2 reaux (about $884). The inventory and property were to remain with Anna until her children reached the age to possess it.[10]Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458. Five days later, Silvain married Rosalie LeBlanc and Marie Louise married Joseph Maza LeBlanc, both children of Silvain LeBlanc and Marie Josephe Babin.[11]Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records, 2:470 and 483.
A few months later, Anna’s son-in-law, Athanaise Dugas, died and then her daughter, Rose, died a year later. What caused the death of three family members in a year’s time? How upsetting it must have been to lose your husband and eldest daughter in such a short period of time. Did Anna play a role in the care of her eight or nine grandchildren Rose left behind ages thirteen years to one year of age?
Anna lived fifteen more years after Rose’s death. During that time, she saw Spain cede Louisiana to France and then the United States purchase Louisiana from France. She was about seventy-seven years old and was buried 13 May 1808 in Ascension Parish.[12]Diocese of Baton Rouge, 3:479.
Anna Landry truly experienced the Acadian “great upheaval” in all its troublesome and degrading times. Though living in Louisiana was not easy, it provided a safe haven for many of my ancestors.
With Anna Landry ends the maternal line of Louise Boudreaux, my maternal great-great-grandmother. From Anna to me, there are nine generations going back almost 300 years since Anna’s birth to today. Thank you Anna for surviving such hardship.
The next posting will start with Louise Boudreaux’s paternal great-grandmother, Marie Olive Landry, my fifth great-grandmother, and follow Marie Olive’s maternal line. It’s probable that Marie Olive Landry and Anna Landry are distant cousins but without proof of parentage, it will be a mystery to solve another day.
References
↑1 | Acadians who arrived in 1766 were settled in the Ascension parishes. Carl A. Brasseaux, The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1987) p.78. Also, see Chandler, R. E. “Ulloa and the Acadians.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 21, no. 1, Louisiana Historical Association, 1980, pp. 87–91, (http://www.jstor.org/stable/4231958). |
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↑2 | Lillian C. Bourgeois, “Census of Acadian Coast -1769”, Cabanocey (Gretna, LA, Pelican Publishing Company, 1998), p. 178. |
↑3 | Anne Landry (abt. 1735 – 1808), Wikitree.com (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Landry-3450#_note-2 : viewed 18 June 2022). |
↑4 | Anne Landry (abt. 1735 – 1808), Wikitree.com (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Landry-3450#_note-2 : viewed 18 June 2022). |
↑5 | Diocese of Baton Rouge, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Diocese of Baton Rouge) 2:254. |
↑6, ↑9, ↑10 | Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458. |
↑7 | Jack D.L. Holmes, “Some Economic Problems of Spanish Governors of Louisiana,” Hispanic American Historical Review (1962) 42 (4): 521–543 (https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/42/4/521/159921/Some-Economic-Problems-of-Spanish-Governors-of : viewed 19 June 2022). |
↑8 | Eileen Larré Behrman, Ascension Parish, Louisiana Civil Records 1770-1804 (Conroe, Texas, 1986), p 451-458. |
↑11 | Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records, 2:470 and 483. |
↑12 | Diocese of Baton Rouge, 3:479. |