Genevieve Serreau-St. Aubin Petipas Bergeron

My Eighth Great-Grandmother

(1667 to about 1739)

Daughter of Jean Serreau St. Aubin and Marguerite Boileau

First Husband  Jacques Petitpas 

Second Husband Barthelemy Bergeron d’Amboise 

Mother of Nicolas Petipas; Bartellemy Bergeron (about 1696), Marie Bergeron (about 1697), Marie-Anne Bergeron (1706), and Marie-Anne Bergeron (1709) 

Genevieve Serreau, the first of her family to be born in North America, had the dubious distinction of being captured by the British and imprisoned in Boston on two separate occasions, years apart. The war between France and England as they fought for control of North America was up close and personal for Genevieve. 

Before her parents married, they each emigrated to Quebec to help settle Nouvelle-France (Canada) in the 1660s. Her father, Jean Serreau, a petit noble, hailed from St. Aubin, France. He was also known as Jean Serreau St. Aubin.^[1]Clarence J. d’Entremont, “SERREAU DE SAINT-AUBIN, JEAN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003- … Continue reading Her mother Marguerite Boileau from Poitou, France was probably of the aristocracy. Marguerite was a fille à marier, a marriageable girl who went to Quebec without her parents to marry and start a family and populate the new land.  

Genevieve had at least two older siblings: a brother, Pierre^[2]Pierre Surreau was born and baptized 6 Jun 1665. Registers Photographies a la Baselique QUE, Paroisse Notre-Dame de Quebec, QEU, 1621-1671, Pierre … Continue reading and a sister, Margueritte.^[3]Margueritte Serreau was baptized 7 April 1664. 1661-1702 Copies, Chateau-Richer Paroisse de la Visitation-de N.O, Co. Montmorency PQ, Marguerite Serreau, p. 25; digital … Continue reading The third child, Genevieve, was born in Quebec City and baptized on 7 August 1667, at Notre Dame parish.^[4]Registers Photographies a la Baselique QUE, Paroisse Notre-Dame de Quebec, QEU, 1621-1671, Genevieve Sureau, p. 90; Ancestry.com, Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church … Continue reading Her godfather was a Carignan soldier, and her godmother was Genevieve Macart.  

Jean Serreau moved the family to Passamaquoddy on the Sainte-Croix River around 1676 (this area is between New Brunswick and Maine). Eight years later, her father received a land grant at Île Archimagan, near what is now the town of St. Andrews, New Brunswick.^[5]Clarence J. d’Entremont, “SERREAU DE SAINT-AUBIN, JEAN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, … Continue reading

As a young woman, Genevieve crossed the Bay of Fundy to begin a life in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Genevieve married Jacques Petitpas around 1690 in Port Royal. The marriage record of one child, Nicholas Petipas, described as the child of Jacques Petipas and Genevieve “Seault” offers proof of their marriage.^[6]Nicolas Petipas, son of Jacques Petipas and Genevieve Seault married 16 January 1714 in Annapolis Royal. The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, … Continue reading

Hostilities between the French inhabitants and the British military were common during this time. Major Benjamin Church (famed for killing King Philip, also known as Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag tribe in Rhode Island) captured Genevieve’s family and her father’s family in November 1692. The Massachusetts governor had sent Church to secure the coastline of what is now the state of Maine. After destroying all the farms and crops, he imprisoned Genevieve’s family in Boston.  

Genevieve’s husband and either her father or her brother were offered the family’s freedom if they went with two Quebec deserters to deliver to Boston Baron Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin, a French officer Bostonians hated. Instead, Jacques Petipas and St. Aubin delivered the traitors to Saint-Castin who rewarded them with enough money for the release of their families.^[7]Clarence J. d’Entremont, “SERREAU DE SAINT-AUBIN, JEAN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, … Continue reading When they returned to their homes, the family was “in a condition of absolute destitution.”^[8]Beamish Murdoch, A History of Nova Scotia, or Acadie (Halifax, Nova Scotia: James Barnes, 1865) 1:284; digital … Continue reading

After Genevieve’s first husband Jacques Petipas died, Genevieve married Barthelemy Bergeron d’Amboise, probably in 1695. Their marriage is confirmed using the baptism records of their children, Bartellemy,^[9]Bartellemy’s godmother was Marguerite Boileau, his maternal grandmother. St. Francois Ice D’Orleans Co. Montmorency P.Q. 1695-1697; Ancestry.com, Quebec, Canada, Vital and … Continue reading Marie-Anne Bergeron,^[10]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Marie Anne Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.52; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading a second daughter named Marie-Anne Bergeron (1709),^[11]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Marie Anne Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.86; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading and the marriage records of daughter Marie (1717)^[12]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Jean Roy et Marie Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.319; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading and son Bartellemy (1721).  

Genevieve had at least four children with Barthelemy Bergeron, several of them were born in Port Royal. They may have had other children, but church records have been lost or destroyed during the wars fought in Canada and Nova Scotia between France and England. 

By 1704 with British and French tensions continuing, a truly unlikely event occurred. Genevieve, who had been captured and imprisoned at the hands of Major Benjamin Church years earlier, was once again detained and imprisoned, this time at the hands of the promoted Colonel Benjamin Church. Church’s action was in retaliation of the French and Native American raid on Deerfield in western Massachusetts, also known as the Deerfield Massacre. Church raided several Acadian towns around Port Royal and across the Bay of Fundy at Passamaquoddy. Though the Acadians were not involved in the Deerfield massacre, they were targeted for their relationship with Native Americans. Homes were burned, crops were destroyed, farm animals killed, and Acadians taken as prisoners. 

There is evidence that Genevieve and Church recognized each other from their previous “meeting” in 1692. In Church’s historical account, he describes an encounter with the wife of “De Bois,” a corruption of her husband’s surname, Bergeron D’Amboise.  

The Colonel presently ordered his men to scatter, and make search. They soon found De Bois’* wife, who had formerly been Col. Church’s prisoner, and carried to Boston; but returned, who seemed very glad to see him. She had with her, two sons that were nearly men grown. The Colonel ordering them apart, examined the woman first, who gave this account… 

Benjamin Church, The entertaining history of King Philip’s war, which began in the month of June, 1675. : As also of expeditions more lately made against the common enemy, and Indian rebels, in the eastern parts of New-England: With some account of the divine providence towards Col. Benjamin Church: (Newport, Rhode Island, 1772), p. 191; digital image, archive.org (https://archive.org/details/entertaininghist00chur_0/page/190/mode/2up : viewed 30 October 2022). 

Her sons gave an account similar to what their mother had given to Colonel Church. In fact, Genevieve had a rather detailed conversation with Church in which she related a conversation she had with two Indians who had earlier escaped Church’s vengeance in the area.^[13]Benjamin Church, The entertaining history of King Philip’s war, which began in the month of June, 1675. : As also of expeditions more lately made against the common … Continue reading Church even credits Genevieve with her honesty by writing, “… made diligent search in those parts for the enemy, but could not find, or make any discovery of them, or that any had been there since he left those parts, which caused him to believe what De Bois’ wife had told him was true.”^[14]Benjamin Church, The entertaining history of King Philip’s war, which began in the month of June, 1675. : As also of expeditions more lately made against the common … Continue reading Nevertheless, Genevieve and family were held in Boston until the summer of 1706.  

Note: With Genevieve’s parents both from France, most likely French was her first language; but it is likely that Genevieve was bilingual since she had a conversation with Benjamin Church, presumably in English. It is possible that she learned English when she was in Boston in 1692. Or, she may have learned to speak English when her father and husbands traded with New Englanders.  

Genevieve’s father died 29 March 1705 in Port Royal without her by his side.^[15]Jean Surreau is identified as Sieur Saint Aubin, Seigneur de Pezamancodis. He was recorded as being eighty-five years old. The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, … Continue reading The imprisoned Genevieve gave birth to her daughter Marie-Anne 24 June 1706 in Boston.^[16]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Marie Anne Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.52; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading After their release, the family returned to Port Royal and Marie-Anne was baptized at St. Jean-Baptiste church 26 September 1706.^[17]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Marie Anne Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.52; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading A few years later, another daughter was born and also named Marie-Anne and baptized at St. Jean-Baptiste.^[18]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Marie Anne Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.86; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading

The 1714 census taken at Port Royal documents Genevieve’s family living near the fort with six children. Also living nearby was Claude Dugas’s family which included his daughter Marguerite who married Genevieve’s son Bartellemy in 1721.^[19]Barthelemy Bergeron is recorded as Damboise in the 1714 census of Port Royal with a wife, three sons and three daughters. Recenssement des habitats Du port … Continue reading²⁰ Genevieve’s son Nicolas Petipas married Magdelaine Simon in 1714.^[20]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Nicolas Petitpas et Madeleine Simon, RG 1 Vol. 26, p.309; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia Archives, archives.novascotia.ca; … Continue reading Daughter Marie Bergeron married Jean Roy 18 January 1717.^[21]The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755, Jean Roy et Marie Bergeron RG 1 Vol. 26, p.319; An Acadian Parish Remembered, Nova Scotia … Continue reading

When it was time for the two daughters named Marie-Anne to marry, they married the Godin brothers. They were the sons of their father’s friend, Gabriel Godin.^[22]Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Carrow-Walker Family Tree,” ancestry.com, Joseph … Continue reading The elder Marie-Anne married Joseph Godin dit Bellefontaine and the younger Marie-Anne married Jacques Phillipe Godin.^[23]Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Carrow-Walker Family Tree,” ancestry.com, Marie-Anne Bergeron (1706) … Continue reading Surely, Genevieve knew her granddaughter, Anastasia Godin dite Bellefontaine Part, the young woman killed by British soldiers in 1759. 

Until recently, Genevieve Serrau was just a name of a distant ancestor of mine. Though Genevieve was born over 350 years ago, her story connects history lessons I recall from high school. For her to have been captured two times years apart by Benjamin Church is fascinating. Benjamin Church lived close to Seekonk, Massachusetts, where I reside today. His place in early American history was firmly in place when he made war on the Wampanoag and Narraganset peoples in Rhode Island. You too may have a connection to early American history that is closer than you think.