Cecile Dupuis LeBlanc

(About 1697 to 1780) 

My Seventh Great-Grandmother

Possible daughter of Martin Dupuis and Marie Landry 

Wife of Jacques LeBlanc 

Mother of Helen (1717), Marie Magdelaine (1720), Jean-Jacques (1723), Françoise (1726), Joseph (1729), Dominique (1731), Casimir (1734), and Marguerite Cecile (1736)  

Celebrate with me as a new ancestral mother has been found. Two weeks ago, I did not know Cecile Dupuis was my ancestral great-grandmother and mother of Marguerite Cecile LeBlanc Braud Templet. Marguerite was the ancestor introduced last week. Previous research had identified Marguerite’s father as Jacques LeBlanc, but at the time, I had no evidence that Cecile Dupuis was her mother.  

Finding Cecile means finding another ancestor born before 1700 in l’Acadie (now Nova Scotia). On the other hand, Cecile Dupuis may be the last known mother in this line of mothers that started with Velma Mary Carrow Provost’s (my maternal grandmother) great-grandmother, Adele Ordonot Carrow to Marie Emmee Blanchard Ordonot to Marie Magdelaine Templet Blachard to Marguerite LeBlanc Braud Templet to Cecile Dupuis LeBlanc. 

Let us get acquainted with Cecile together. For someone born between 1695 and 1697, there is enough information available about Cecile Dupuis to somewhat imagine what her life was like.  

Cecile was born between 1695 and 1697. How do we know that?  

• Sieur de la Roque’s tour of inspection of Île St. Jean in 1752 records “Cecile Dupuis, native of l’Acadie, aged 55 years.”^[1]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906) p. 98; digital … Continue reading If Cecile was fifty-five years old in 1752, then Cecile was born in 1697.

• In 1772, a census was taken to record all the Acadians in France. The enumerator found Cecile, seventy-five years old, living with her son Jean-Jacques LeBlanc.^[2]Digital images, Saint-Martin, Chantenay, France, unspecified volume, BMS – 3E250/8, Cecile Dupuis, image 15 of 76, … Continue reading This record also places her birth in 1697.

• The sacramental records of Saint-Martin in Chantenay records Cecile’s death and burial at the age of eighty-five in 1780, suggesting that she was born in 1695.^[3]Milton P. Rieder, “Role of the Truly Acadian Families – September 15, 1772,” The Acadians in France, 1762-1776; Rolls of the Acadians living in France distributed by towns for … Continue reading Chantenay in near Nantes in France. 

How do we know who Cecile Dupuis’ husband was and who her children were?  

• A Cecile Dupuis is recorded in the 1752 census as being married to Jacques LeBlanc and it names several of their children (as they appear in the record): Jean Pierre, 25; Joseph, 23; Dominque, 21; Casimir, 19; Françoise, 26; and Marguerite, 16. (In many census records, the males were listed first in order of birth and then the females.)

These names match the baptismal records found in the St. Charles aux Mines sacramental registers. Further, the ages of each child in the census correspond with the year of birth in the baptismal records.  

• Cecile had at least eight children, giving birth every two to three years between 1717 and 1736. Cecile and Jaques had their children baptized at St. Charles aux Mines Catholic Church at Grand Pré in l’Acadie where they were living before they moved to Ile St. Jean. The church’s sacramental records were brought to St. Gabriel Church in Louisiana when the Acadians immigrated there. The records contain the baptismal records for her children.

Name	Date of Birth	Godparents	Register
Helen	24 Nov. 1717	Joseph LeBlanc and Marie Joseph Dupuit	SGA-2, 4
Marie Magdelaine	17 Dec. 1720	Pierre Cloistre and Magdeleine Dupuis	SGA-2, 22
Jean-Jacques	22 Jan. 1723	Jean LeBlanc and Elisabeth LeBlanc	SGA-2, 37
Françoise	3 Mar. 1726	René Blanchard and Margueritte Gotro	SGA-2, 65
Joseph	11 Dec. 1729	Joseph Blanchart and Agnes LeBlanc	SGA-2, 95
Dominique	29 Oct. 1731	Joseph Dupuis and Marie Joseph Heber[sic]	SGA-2, 113
Casimir	3 Mar. 1734	Joseph Huguet and Heleine LeBlanc	SGA-2, 133
Marguerite Cecile	22 Jul. 1736	Charle[sic] Dupuy and Marguerite Joseph	SGA-2, 155

If you would like to view photos of the original registers of St. Charles aux Mines Parish, go to https://m.facebook.com/louisianacajunacadian/albums/1490045894584262/ .

Where did Cecile Dupuis live throughout her lifetime? 

• The baptismal records of Cecile’s children indicate they lived near Grand-Pré between 1717 and 1736.  

To See Casimir LeBlanc’s baptismal record, go to https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1870/342?r=0&s=4 

To see Marguerite Cecile LeBlanc’s baptismal record, go to https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1870/378?r=0&s=4 

• Though Cecile and Jacques were natives of l’Acadie, they moved to Île St. Jean around 1748. There they resided “on the south side of the Rivière du Nord-Est of Port La Joye” and had “eight oxen, six cows, one heifer, three calves, two bulls, two horses, five ewes, three sows, three pigs and 25 fowls.”  

Cecile’s neighbors on Île St. Jean included her daughter, Marie Magdelaine married to Enselme Landry, as well as Abraham Landry and his sons, and Estienne Terriaud, his wife and young family. (Names are spelled as recorded in the 1752 census.)^[4]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906) p. 98; digital … Continue reading 

• Cecile may have been caught up in the first deportation from Île St. Jean in 1755 and separated from her husband. While her husband Jacques is recorded as having been on the Le Duc Guillaume in 1758, her name is not on that passenger list.^[5]Albert J. Robichaux, The Acadian Exiles in Saint-Malo (Eunice, Louisiana: Hebert Publications), p. 164. There is evidence of a Cecile LeBlanc accompanying a Jean-Jacques LeBlanc from Southampton, England, to Saint-Malo, France, in 1763. Acadians deported to Southampton had arrived there as early as 1755. Had she been visiting her son and his family in Port Royal when the first deportation took place? The maiden name of an Acadian woman was usually recorded in documents, but the passenger list for L’Ambition going to Saint-Malo seems not to have recorded the maiden names of most of the women. Since her maiden name of Dupuis was not recorded on the passenger list, one cannot be sure she is one and the same except the family unit for Jean-Jacques LeBlanc includes Crespin LeBlanc and Claire LeBlanc.^[6]Tim Hebert, “Exile Destination: Southampton, England via Virginia,” Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History (http://www.acadian-cajun.com/southampton.htm : viewed 2 March 2022). This family unit ties nicely with Jean-Jacques LeBlanc’s family in Saint-Malo in 1772 where he is recorded as the father of Crespin and Claire.^[7]Milton P. Rieder, “Role of the Truly Acadian Families – September 15, 1772,” The Acadians in France, 1762-1776; Rolls of the Acadians living in France distributed by towns for the years … Continue reading

The Acadians who were sent to Southampton did so by way of Virginia. Colonel Lawrence, the main British author of the “great and noble scheme,” had Acadians removed from Nova Scotia but did not forewarn the American colonies that Acadians would be arriving. Thus, Virginia decided after months of reflection to refuse its allotment of Acadians when they arrived. Virginia’s solution was to send the Acadians to Great Britain. The Acadians spent several months imprisoned on the ships they arrived in before being sent to England. Smallpox killed almost one in four of the Acadians the first summer in England. The Acadians who survived spent seven years in England. With the ending of the Seven Years’ War, they were allowed to leave England. The King of France funded their passage to France where most of the Acadians were.

What a joyous reunion it must have been when Cecile and son Jean-Jacques were reunited with her daughter Marguerite LeBlanc Templet in Saint-Malo, if Cecile was indeed in Southampton. 

Unfortunately, Cecile’s husband died before reaching Saint-Malo in 1758 and her son Dominque died soon after arriving in Saint-Servan.^[8]Jean-Jacques LeBlanc’s death at sea is recorded in Albert J. Robichaux, Jr., The Acadian Exiles in Chatellerault 1773-1785 (Eunice, Louisiana: Hebert Publications, 1983). … Continue reading

• In 1772, Cecile lived in Saint-Malo with her son Jean-Jacques LeBlanc.^[9]Milton P. Rieder, “Role of the Truly Acadian Families – September 15, 1772,” The Acadians in France, 1762-1776; Rolls of the Acadians living in France distributed by towns for the years … Continue reading

• In her late seventies, Cecile had the fortitude to go to Châtellerault with her family. They were there until 1775 when she traveled to Nantes with Jean-Jacques’s family in the first convoy.^[10]Milton P. Rieder, “State of the Acadian Families Comprising the First Convoy Leaving Chatellerault for Nantes October 24, 1775,” The Acadians in France, 1762-1776; Rolls of the … Continue reading Her age is recorded as eighty years. She may well have been the oldest Acadian traveling with at least four others in their seventies in the second and third convoys. There could have been others older than she, but ages were not recorded for the Acadians in the fourth convoy. 

• When the Acadians left Châtellerault and arrived in Nantes, many lived in the neighborhood of Chantenay and that is where Cecile’s family found refuge. They celebrated baptisms and Mass at Saint-Martin Catholic Church as well as the funeral ceremonies of their family and friends. Cecile’s final resting place is in Chantenay.^[11]Digital images, Saint-Martin, Chantenay, France, unspecified volume, BMS – 3E250/8, Cecile Dupuis, image 51 of 76, Archives départementales de Loire-Atlantique … Continue reading

Who were Cecile’s parents? 

• One way to deduce who Cecile’s parents were is to look at her children’s godparents who had the surname of Dupuis. Usually, godparents were brothers and sisters of the parents. The godparents were Marie Joseph Dupuit, Magdeleine Dupuis, Joseph Dupuis, and Charle [sic] Dupuy. (Wow, Dupuis was spelled at least three ways.) As luck would have it, the baptismal or marriage record of each of the Dupuis godparents was recorded in the St. Charles aux Mines registers and cites the parents as Martin Dupuis and Marie Landry.^[12]Una F. Daigre, Archivist, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 Volume 1a (Revised) (Baton Rouge, LA, Diocese of Baton Rouge, 1999), pgs. 67, 69, and 70. 

• When Cecile’s daughter Helen married Honoré Landry, son of Rene Landry and Marie Magdeline Melaçon, it was noted in the marriage record that they had a relationship of consanguinity in the third degree.^[13]Una F. Daigre, Archivist, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 Volume 1a (Revised) (Baton Rouge, LA, Diocese of Baton Rouge, 1999), pgs. 131-132. This means they shared great-grandparents, probably through Marie Landry and Rene Landry. 

What else can be said about Cecile’s life? 

Cecile lived an exceptionally long life despite the travails she endured. More than likely, she had a healthy lifestyle and diet while in l’Acadie. During her lifetime there, Acadians had access to a variety of fruits and vegetables and access to milk, game, and fish. Cecile did not succumb to smallpox or any other deadly diseases that many of the Acadians died of during their deportation, imprisonment, or exile.

Though the marriage record has not be found for Cecile’s marriage to Jacques LeBlanc, more than likely they married between 1715 and 1716 in Grand Pré a few years before Helen, their first recorded child, was born. 

She was important to her children, especially her son Jean-Jacques Leblanc. If they were together in Southampton from 1755 to 1763, then they were probably dependent on each other; he finding work to support the family and she taking care of Crespin and Claire who were then about two and three years old. Certainly, Jean-Jacques took care of her in France from 1772 to 1780.  

Lastly, Cecile had family around her when she died. Her son-in-law André Templet was recorded as a witness at her burial. Surely, all the Acadians in Chantenay must have attended her funeral services since she was so elderly and probably revered. 

Overs 240 years and eight generations have passed since Cecile walked this world and endured so many hardships. She inspires me.  

Since there is no proof at this time that Cecile Dupuis’s mother is Marie Landry, the biographies of this line of mothers will end. The next ancestral mother to be presented is Julianne Azelema Patin Walker. What a beautiful name.