My Seventh Great–Grandmother
Daughter of Martin Dupuis and Marie Landry
Wife of Joseph Blanchard
Mother of Alexis, Francois, Germain, Charles, and Belony
Anne Dupuis Blanchard is my seventh great-grandmother as was Claire Vincent Forest. Their names were not on many of the surviving records from the 1700s, but they are there. Anne’s name can be found in several sacramental records and one deportation record. Her name is not recorded in any of the Acadian census records.
Anne Dupuis’s marriage record survived because the church registers of Saint-Charles-des-Mines in Acadia were saved by Acadians who found their way to Louisiana in 1767. These church records were given to the parish of St. Gabriel in Iberville, Louisiana. It is thought that the registers were taken with Acadians who had been deported from Grand-Pré to Maryland in 1755.
The marriage of Anne Dupuis to Joseph Blanchard took place in July 1718.[1] Anne’s father, Martin Dupuis, had died before she married. Her mother was Marie Landry. Joseph’s parents were Martin Blanchard and Marguerite Guillbeault. Anne and Joseph married at Saint-Charles-des-Mines in Grand-Pré. This was the church in which Colonel Winslow imprisoned the Acadians while awaiting their deportation in 1755.
The Acadian parish of Saint-Charles-des-Mines was founded in 1686.[2] More than likely, the church had been built of wood. The church is said to have been destroyed by fire after Governor Lawrence had the Acadians deported.
A cemetery was near the church. There is a record in the Saint-Charles registers for a Martin Dupuis who was buried in the cemetery 9 August 1713.[3] Surely, this was Anne’s father given that when her brother Antoine Dupuis married Margueritte Babin in July 1712, Martin Dupuis was alive; but when their sister, Isabelle, married Anne’s brother-in-law, Martin Blanchard, in 1714, Martin Dupuis was recorded as deceased.[4]
Anne may have had as many as ten children, but no baptismal records of their birth survived the deportation. Her youngest child, Belony Blanchard is my ancestor.
Indirect evidence points to Anne and Joseph Blanchard going to Île Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island) after 1752. Anne and Joseph Blanchard and their children are not mentioned in the 1752 census of Île Saint-Jean. In 1753, their son Alex married at Port LaJoye on Île Saint-Jean.[5] The fact that Anne and Joseph were deported in 1758 also points to them being on Île Saint-Jean.
Many Acadians sought refuge on Île Saint-Jean after 1750. Some arrived before 1750 to farm. Others left Grand-Pré because of the deportation in 1755. Families usually went together when moving from one location to another. However, Île Saint-Jean was not the refuge the Acadians were hoping for. Between 1749 and 1751, and invasion of field mice, famine and pestilence visited Île Saint-Jean causing starvation and death.
After the fall of Louisbourg on Île-Royale, Major General Jeffery Amherst, the commander of British forces, decided the Acadians would be deported from Île Saint-Jean and Île-Royale (now Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). It is possible that the Blanchard family witnessed the surrender of Port La Joye when the British arrived on the Hind on 17 August 1758.
Five of Anne’s sons married, and it is in their marriage records that her name is recorded. When Alex Blanchard married Marie Pitre in 1753, Anne was identified as his mother and Joseph Blanchard as his father.[6] More than likely Anne attended her son’s wedding on Île Saint-Jean. Unfortunately, in February 1759, Alex and his wife died shortly after arriving in Saint-Servan, France as a direct result of the deportation.[7]
Like fellow Acadian Marguerite Terriot Pitre, Anne and Joseph died at sea during the crossing from Île Saint-Jean to France.[8] They would not witness the weddings of their four sons who survived. Belony married twice; and Anne and Joseph were identified as his parents in both of his marriage records.[9] When Charles Blanchard married Marguerite Josèphe Dugas in 1762, Anne and Joseph were mentioned as his parents.[10] Son Germain, a widower, married Marie-Josèphe Aucoin also in 1762.[11] They were once again mentioned in Francois’s marriage to Hélène-Judith Grouard (Girouard) in 1763.[12] Belony, Charles and Francois would sail to Louisiana in 1785 while Germain remained in France.[13]
There is credible evidence that Cecile Dupuis LeBlanc was Anne’s sister.[14] If that is so, their grandchildren, Joachim-Jacques Blanchard and Marie Magdelaine Templet married each other in Louisiana in 1793. Their marriage record, written in Spanish does say they are related in consanguinity in the third degree, meaning they share great-grandparents.[15] It should be noted, that while in France, Anne’s son Belony, Joachim-Jacques’s father, had many opportunities to be in contact with his cousin, Marguerite Cecile Leblanc and her mother Cecile Dupuis LeBlanc. Had they recognized each other and stayed in touch? Belony and Marguerite Cecile, married to Andre Templet, were near each other in Saint-Malo. All were together in Châtellerault in 1765-1766 and the Nantes area until 1785 when they left for New Orleans. Once in Louisiana, the cousins must have found a way to communicate, how else would their children have met?
[1] Una F. Daigre, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 (Baton Rouge, LA, Dioceses of Baton Rouge, 1999) Volume 1a (Revised) p. 67.
[2] Sally Ross and Susan Surette-Draper, “Saint-Charles-des-Mines Cemetery in Grand-Pré,” http://www.acadian-home.org/Grand-Pre-Cemetery.html : viewed 9 February 2024.
[3] Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church, 1a(Revised):70.
[4] Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church, 1a(Revised):68.
[5] Timothy Hebert, Acadian Church Records: Port LaJoye, Île Saint-Jean, 1749-1758, p.46.
[6] Timothy Hebert, Acadian Church Records: Port LaJoye, Île Saint-Jean, 1749-1758, p.46.
[7] Fonds de l’Inscription maritime de Saint-Servan [France], Canadiana, Archives du Port de Saint-Servan – C-4619, 100031, MG6 C2 4619 image 172 of 600 (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4619 : viewed 4 February 2024).
[8] Ibid.
[9] Belony Blanchard first married Agnes Dugas. Saint-Suliac 1764 Baptêmes/Mariages Commune, Archives départementales de la Vienne ,10 Num 35314 75, image 4 of 18 (https://archives-en-ligne.ille-et-vilaine.fr/thot_internet/FrmSommaireFrame.asp. https://archives-en-ligne.ille-et-vilaine.fr/thot_internet/FrmLotDocFrame.asp?idlot=502283&idfic=598803&ref=502283&appliCindoc=THOPDESC&resX=1440&resY=900&init=1&visionneuseHTML5=0 : viewed 9 February 2024). Belony married second Madeleine Forest. “Registres paroissiaux et d’état civil, Côtes-d’Armor, France, 1467-1920” FamilySearch, image 703 of 1317 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C33B-362R?cc=4320583 : viewed 9 February 2024).
[10] Saint-Suliac, 1762, Baptêmes/Mariages, Commune, Archives départementales d’Ille-et-Vilaine, 10 Num 35314 73, image 3 of 11 (https://archives-en-ligne.ille-et-vilaine.fr/thot_internet/FrmLotDocFrame.asp?idlot=THOPDESC_502281&idfic=598801&ref=0598801&appliCindoc=THOPDESC&resX=1680&resY=1050&init=1&visionneuseHTML5=0 : viewed 9 February 2024).
[11] FamilySearch, Eglise catholique. Paroisse de Langrolay (Côtes-du-Nord), Registres paroissiaux, 1611-1883, France, Côtes-d’Armor, parish and civil registration = Registres paroissiaux et d’état civil, Côtes-d’Armor, France : COLLECTION RECORD, 1467-1920, digital image 227 ot 643. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C33P-N6JP?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A6FQZ-C3ZP&action=view : viewed 11 February 2024).
[12] “Registres paroissiaux et d’état civil, Côtes-d’Armor, France, 1467-1920”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F3Z-X97D; image 494 of 1,245 : viewed 4 February 2024).
[13] Belony and his brother Francois and their families sailed to Louisiana on the L’Amitie while Charles sailed on the La Caroline at a later date. “Alpha List of Seven Ships Passengers, 29 July-17 December 1785” (http://www.acadiansingray.com/Appendices-Seven%20Ships’%20Passengers.htm#Seven%20Ships’%20Passengers,%201785 : viewed 11 February, 2024). Germain Blanchard, widow of Marie Aucoin died in 1798 in the commune of Bas-Champs, a municipality of Pleudihen. “Registres paroissiaux et d’état civil, Côtes-d’Armor, France, 1467-1920”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FQV-75RB : viewed 11 February 2024), Entry for Germain Blanchard and Marie Aucoin, 28 Mar 1798.
[14] Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Cecile Dupuis LeBlanc,” My Many Mothers, MyManyMothers.com.
[15] Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, Plattenville, Louisiana, marriage record, volume 2, page 2, Joaquin Blanchard con Maria Magdna. Templait, image supplied 15 March 2022 by Diocese of Baton Rouge Archives and Records Center. The digital image received from the archives was cropped to show only the selected baptismal record. Copy privately held by Sindi Broussard Terrien.