My Eighth Great-Grandmother
(about 1671-1746)
Wife of Martin Dupuis
Mother of Jean, Antoine, Germain, Marie Josephe, Isabelle, Anne, Marguerite, Magdelaine, Marie, Joseph, Henriette, Charles (and possibly Cecile)
Marie Landry may be one of the more common female names in Acadia. Marie Landry was the name of my eighth great-grandmother. So, how do I know I have the correct Marie Landry related to me eleven generations and 300 years later? Ah, it’s easier than you think. Lucky for me, my Marie Landry was Acadian when few Acadians were in Nova Scotia. The years my Marie existed, enough church registers and census records survived to make some likely assumptions.
Marie Landry was married to Martin Dupuis and they had at least twelve children.[1] That is undisputed as when the twelve children married in Port Royal or Les Mines, Marie Landry and Martin Dupuis were named as their parents. This information helps identify the family in census records and possibly identify Marie’s parents.
We know there was a Marie Landry married to Martin Dupuis between 1685 and 1713 and we know who her children were based on church registers and census records. But who were the parents of the Marie Landry married to Martin Dupuis with at least 12 children and who lived in Acadia between 1670 and 1746?
The 1671 Port Royal census listed 68 households with only one Landry household, that of Rene Landry and Perrine Bourg.[2] They had two daughters named Marie (yes, they did). One was twenty-five years old, and the other was twenty-three years old. Two married women, also named Marie Landry, were recorded. One was married to Germain Doucet and the other was married to Laurens Granger. Both were recorded as twenty-four years old.[3] It is very likely that these two Marie Landrys are the daughters of Rene Landry and Perrine Bourg and were listed twice. The 1693 census noted that the Marie Landry married to Martin Dupuis was twenty-two years old.[4] See Tables 1 and 4.
In 1678, the Port Royal census records two Rene Landrys. One was married to Perrine Bourg (mentioned in 1671) and another was married to Marie Bernard. Rene and Marie had ten children living with them while Rene and Perrine had three children living with them. The census did not include the children’s names, but it did include their ages. The 1678 census did not include a female child around seven years old in Rene Landry and Marie Bernard’s household, presenting a problem to establishing Marie Landry as their daughter. Rene and Perrine’s household listed one female, age twenty-three, too old to be my Marie Landry.[5] See Table 2.
However, the Port Royal 1686 census and the 1693 Acadia census (which included Port Royal and Les Mines and other areas of Acadia) shed the most light as to who could be Marie’s parents. The 1686 census lists a sixteen-year-old daughter named Marie in Rene Landry and Marie Bernard’s household.[6] See Table 3. She would have been born around 1670. The 1693 census records Marie Landry, wife of Martin Dupuis, as twenty-two years old which means she was born around 1671. Additionally, there was no sixteen-year-old Marie living in Marie Bernard’s household, now Rene Landry’s widow, in 1693. See Table 4. It is also likely that Marie would marry at sixteen years old, especially if her father had died.
Table 1.
| 1671 | Relationship | Location |
| Marie Landry (24 years old) | Wife of Germain Doucet | Port-Royal |
| Marie Landry (24 years old) | Wife of Laurens Granger | Port-Royal |
| Marie Landry (25 years old), married | Daughter of Rene Landry & Perrine Bourg | Port Royal |
| Marie Landry (23 years old) not married | Daughter of Rene Landry & Perrine Bourg | Port Royal |
Table 2.
| 1678 | Relationship | Location |
| 4 boys 6 girls | Rene Landry & Marie Bernard | Port Royal |
| 2 boys, 1 girl | Rene Landry & Perrine Bourg | Port Royal |
| Marie Landry | Wife of Germain Doucet | Port-Royal |
| Marie Landry | Wife of Laurens Granger | Port-Royal |
Table 3.
| 1686 | Relationship | Location |
| Marie Landry (4 years old) | Daughter of Antoine Landry & Marie Tibaudeau | Port Royal |
| Marie Landry (16 years old) | Daughter of Rene Landry and Marie Bernard | Port Royal |
| Marie Landry (35 years old) | Wife of Germain Doucet | Port-Royal |
| Marie Landry (36 years old) | Wife of Laurens Granger | Port-Royal |
Table 4.
| 1693 | Relationship | Location |
| Marie Landry (1 year old) | Daughter of Rene Landry and Anne Terriot (living with Marie Bernard, widow of Rene Landry | Port Royal |
| Marie Landry (10 years old) | Daughter of Antoine Landry and Marie Tibaudeau | Les Mines |
| Marie Landry (22 years old) | Wife of Martin Dupuis (27 years old) | Les Mines |
| Marie Landry (44 years old) | Wife of Germain Doucet | Port-Royal |
| Marie Landry (43 years old) | Wife of Laurens Granger | Port-Royal |
[1] The sacramental records, baptism and marriage, can be found in Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records. Una F. Daigre, Archivist, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 (Baton Rouge, LA, Dioceses of Baton Rouge, 1999, Volume 1a Revised, pages 68-70.
[2] “1671,” acadian-home.org, Rene Landry, Farmer, 52, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1671.html : viewed 20 March 2024).
[3] “1671,” Laurent GRANGE, Seaman, 34, and Germain DOUCET, farmer, 30 entries acadian-home.org, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1671.html : viewed 20 March 2024).
[4] “1693 Acadian Census,” Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History, (https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~acadiancajun/genealogy/1693cens.htm : viewed 20 March 2024.
[5] “1678,” Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home, Rene Landry Marie Bernard and Rene Landry & Perrine Bourg entries, acadian-home.org, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1678.html : viewed 20 March 2024).
[6] “1686,” acadian-home.org, Michel Dupuis 57 (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1686.html : viewed 1 April 2024).