Date:   Fri, 8 Oct 1999 13:13:49 -0700 From:   Maria Heemskerk Subject: BRETAGNE Genealogy - The Acadians and Belle Ile en Mer This whole site seems to have a lot of our names listed, so far I have check 'The colonist's' and Links. There are leBlanc's Landry's, Trahan's etc. Hope this connects lots of us to France. Maria Heemskerk ============================== ======= Our ancestors who kept a strong oral tradition alive, could, from generation to generation, trace back to their origins. It was quite common to see two or three generations living together. Maybe, the change in our way of life explains the current enthusiasm for genealogy. Acadia, the first French colongy in North America was located at the eastern corner of Canada. The first French colonists (120 volunteers) arrived in Acadia in 1604 with Champlain. They were mainly soldiers and craftsmen. Others arrive in 1606 and were for the most part farmers. They founded PORT-ROYAL, now Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. In 1620, England seizes Acadia and Canada for the first time, which were later given back to France by the Treaties of Suze and of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1632. It was at this time that the French decided to settle 300 elites in Acadia conducted by Isaac de RAZILLY, who came from Auray in Bretagne. Cousin of RICHELIEU, nominated governor of Acadia, he was accompanied by Charles de MENOU de CHARNISAY, sire d'AULNAY. The first families arrived in successive waves, recruited in the provinces of the West of France. They only realy settled from 1636.           Port-Royal was taken by the English during the war which took place from 1654 to 1667. At the end of the hostilities, Acadia was given back to France by the Treaty of Breda. This is where begins the story of a family dragged along by the flow of history, to live every day amidst the consequences of the wars between France and England. Laurent Granger who arrived in Acadia as a sailor on an English vessel, is the first Granger of this direct line of descent. The following censuses recorded the enlargement of the family and it's properties. By order of Richelieu, the colonists who were populate Acadia had to be French and catholic, this was not the case of Laurent GRANGER who renounced his protestant religion in order to marry Marie LANDRY. The missionnaries incited Acadian couples to have serveral children, and in April 1666 a Court order declared « All inhabitants of New France having 10 living children, born in legitimate marriage, neither priests, nor nuns, will be paid deniers by His Majesty ». >From the union of Laurent GRANGER and Marie LANDRI 9 children were born :              Marie Marguerite, Pierre, Jacques, joseph, René, Claude, Marie, Anne et                   Laurent. One of the first census' of Port Royal in 1671 notes that Laurent Granger was a thirty year old sailor, Marie Landri his wife was twenty four, they then had two children, Marguerite, three years old and Pierre 9 months old. They had five horned animals, six ewes and four acres of workable land. In the same year, Colbert sent about fifty new colonists to Acadia and the foundation of Beaubassin, Grand-pré, Ducks River, Pisiguit and Cobéquid could be witnessed. They can still be found in Nova Scotia. En 1693, the census of Port Royal indicates that fivie children of the GRANGER/LANDRI couple were still living at the family home. They then had 15 horned animals, 20 ewes, 12 pigs, 12 acres and 2 shotguns. The war between France and England continued and Acadia was given back to the French by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). Laurent GRANGER died during this period. His wife died in 1719. She was 70 years old. René GRANGER 1676-1740 Laurent's fifth child, founded in turn his family by marrying Marguerite THERIOT. Nine children were born from this union :                                       Ma rie, Marguerite Françoise, René, Joseph, Claude, François Marie,                   Chales and Jean Baptiste. The different census' record the evolution of the family as well as their livestock.   In 1707, they had two sons over 14, three daughters under 12, 19 horned animals, 17 ewes, 8 pigs, 4 acres and 1 shotgun. In 1713 Acadia becomes definitively English, only Royal Island and St Johns Island remain in French possession. However, in the former Acadia, now Nova Scotia, the Acadians refuse to take an oath of neutrality. In 1714 René GRANGER is noted as «near the fort » with 5 sons and 3 daughters. Indeed, on a 1710 map his farm can be found located on the other side of the river facing the Port-Royal fort. He died in November 1740 at Ducks River, St Joseph's parish in Acadia. This was the period when the English ceased to accept the « neutrality » of the Acadians. Some families who didn't want to submit, were forced to go into hiding to survive. Marie Louisa Pauline GRANGER Laurent GRANGER et Marie LANDRY Mariés en Acadie vers 1666 René GRANGER et Marguerite THERIOT Mariés en Acadie en 1725 Joseph GRANGER et Marguérite Le BLANC Mariés en Acadie en 1725 Joseph Simon GRANGER et Marie Josephe THERIOT Mariés en Acadie en 1748 Félix GRANGER et Jacquette GUELLEC Mariés à Belle-Ile-en-Mer en l'an 13 Joseph Marie GRANGER et Séraphine TRAHAN Mariés à Belle-Ile-en-Mer en 1833 Jean Simon GRANGER et Marie Elodie LHERMITE Mariés à Belle-Ile-En-Mer en 1876 Marie Louisa GRANGER Epouse Hyppolite ROHAN Joseph GRANGER 1705-1757 fifth child of, got married to Marguerite Le BLANC in 1725 in the Parish of St. Charles in a place called the Mines. They had 4 children : Joseph Simon, Jean Baptiste, Amand and Marie Marguerite. The Counsel of Nova Scotia decided on the 28th of July 1755 to depart the French population. Nearly six thousand had already fled to the Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and New York, between 1749 and 1752. In 1755, Joseph and his family are vicitms of this "Great disturbance" and were deported to the English colonies of North America. Some colonies such as Virginia, refused to accept them. They were then deported tp England with 7500 other Acadians. They died in England in Falmouth in 1757. His wife and his 3 children settled in Belle-Ile-en-Mer in 1765, after a brief stay in Morlaix, the town that accepted them in 1763 following the Treaty of Paris which gave up Canada to the English. Joseph Simon GRANGER 1727-1792 Was born in Acadia and married Marie Josephe THERIOT in 1748. They had 12 children : Jean Baptiste Toussaint, Elizabeth, born in Acadia, Joseph Simon, Pierre, Auguste Vital Baydé, born in England, Félix, Marie Geneviève, born and deceased in M orlaix, Félix, Jean Marie, Jean Simon, Marie Françoise and Pélagie Félicité, born in Belle-Ile-En-Mer. He was the inventor of a plough specially adapted for clearing and ploughing the Belle-Ile soil. He died in Belle-Ile in the village of Antoureau in 1792 and today nearly 1500 descendents can be counted. 10 GRANGER families settled in Belle-Ile, and they are all descendents of René GRANGER ancestor of Joseph Simon. SETTLEMENT IN BEL LE-ILE-EN-MER At this time, Louix XV was looking for farmers to populate Belle-Ile which had been partially destroyed by English occupation. When they arrived in Belle Ile in September and October 1765, the 78 Acadian families were settled in the seigneuries' warehouses (355 people), while awaiting the designation of their settlements in the villages, after the "afféagement" (the division of noble lands in exchange for a certain fee - feudal system). They started to settle around April 1766 and each family received about 30 measures of land (which a farmer could plough in a day) and a dwelling place, stables, animals as well as farming utensils, just like the other Belle-Ile colonists. This was a difficult period for both for the people of Belle Ile who had just been subjected to the invasion of the English and were now asked to be tolerant and to make efforts to cohabitate, and for the Acadians who had to adapt themselves to a new life and a new language. During the troubled period of the Great disturbance the baptism, marriage and death registers held by the missionaries were sometimes destroyed. When the Acadians arrived, they were asked to reconstitute their genealogie. Some of these declarations contained obvious errors but for the most of them they were the account of the Acadian genealogie from their arrival to the first colongists in Acadia (Nova Scotia). Félix GRANGER 1766-1839 is the first child of the GRANGER/THERIOT couple to be born in Belle Ile some time after the arrival of the "Acadian troops". The 24th Floréal of the year 13 he married jacquette GUELLEC of Belle Ile, born in Le Palais. The family lived in Antoureau where they exploited part of the lands coming from the "afféagement" which had been given to Jospeh Simon in 1766. Six children were born of this union : Jean Nicolas Stanislas, Marie Josèphe Zélie, Jean Martin, Joseph Marie, Joséphine and Françoise Félicité. Joseph Marie GRANGER 1811-1894 fourth child of the GRANGER/GUELLEC couple. He married Séraphine TRAHAN in 1833 at Belle-Ile, who was also a descendent of the Acadian family settled in Belle-Ile. Twelve children were born in the village of Kervarigeon in Bangor, from this couple : Séraphine, Rosalie, Célestine, Marie Eugénie, Marie Josèphe, Prosper Martin, Jean Simon, Marie Josèphe Elisa, Marie Caroline, Marie Céline Honorine, Anne Marie and Léon Eugène. Jean Simon GRANGER 1847-1916 A sailor, he breaks a little with the family tradition, being faithful to the land for several generations. He married Marie Elodie LHERMITTE in 1876. They had 7 children : Simon Gustave Joseph, Marie Elise Léonie, Louis Marie Simon, Marie Elise Léonie, Louis Marie Simon, Marie Louisa Pauline, Caroline Alise Augustine, Hélène Léonie Clémentine and Marguerite Berthe Eugénie. Belle-Ile counted 5000 inhabitants in 1782, and double in 1872. At this time, coastal fishing and sardine fishing generated great activity. In 1869, in the "Belle-Ile quarter", 218 boats and 883 men used this little fishing harbour. Marie Louisa Pauline GRANGER 1883-1958 born at the end of the last century, married Hyppolite ROHAN, who worked on the railways. They family left to settle in Vannes. Sarah Bernhardt while on an excursion to discover Belle-Ile, fell in love with it. She quickly undertook negociations for the buying of the little fort located at the cape of Poulains at Sauzon. From 1896 she spent her first holidays here and came regularly every summer until her death in 1922. As well as the little fort, she bought land, a farm and the manor of Penholt. In 1910 the ROHAN/GRANGER couple came to settle in Sauzon to manage Sarah Bernhardt's farm. Two children were born at the Poulains farm, now transformed into Club-House for the golf course. During these last hundred years, the tourist vocation of Belle Ile en Merhas developed greatly. This has not been without consequence on the life of the people of Belle Ile and their activities. Fishing and agriculture has greatly diminished contrary to the seasonal activities. May those who love Belle-Ile, discover it in every season, since one cannot really understand and love Belle-Il, without having seen it struggle against the winter storms or lighten up with the multitude of Spring colours.