On the origin of the Acadian Landrys: "..... The reason why it is very difficult to trace early Acadian families to their places of origin in France is because all of Acadia's early records, whether parish registers, notorial archives, or others, have all long since been lost. This is a real handicap in Acadian research. .... I am given to understand that the Landry name, for example, is well known in the area around Loudun in Poitou (N. Bujold and M. Caillebeau, Les origines françaises des premieres familles acadiennes: le sud Loundais (Poitiers: Imprimeirie L'Union, 1979) p. 32), but is rather hard to find elsewhere in France." (Stephen A. White, Genealogist at the Université De Moncton in New Brunswick). “ ……………. there is no specific documentation to show that either the elder or younger René LANDRY actually originated from LaChaussée. Even though we do know that a majority of the first colonists in Acadia came from Loundunais (Geneviéve Massignon, in her linguistic analysis), and there were numerous LANDRYS in the vicinity of La Chaussée in the 17th century, it is only a matter of probability, but there is no certainty, that either the elder or the younger René Landry came from La Chaussée in the Loudun area of west‑central France. “ Father Clarence J. d'Entremont states that dealing with the origins of a great number of Acadians who "were married before 1700, when the registers of Port Royal were destroyed in a fire; the Landrys are among this group". There is ample evidence of René Landry's presence in Acadia, but to my knowledge, any vital information about him before his showing up in the 1786 census of Port Royal, does not exist. “……….. regarding the origins of the Landrys, I must say that there is probably no other Acadian family about whose background there has been so much speculation and wishful thinking. The result is that what we actually know about the Landry families who emigrated from France to Acadia has come to be regrettably enshrouded in a dense fog of error and confusion." (Stephen A. White) Discussing the possibility of finding evidence of the origin of René Landry, Stephen White writes: >From Stephen White: Regarding the Landrys, all I can tell you Don is that I am unaware of any new discoveries, and up to now there is no proof of any particular connection between notary Vincent Landry and either of the two Renés who settled in Acadia. The point of what I said at the Landry reunion in Louisiana is that there is reason to hope that one day someone might find something in the notarial records. From Maurice Caillebeau's research we know that the church registers from the appropriate dates are no longer in existence, but a hitherto unexplored source has become available in the form of the greffes. The departmental archives at Poitiers had just begun collecting these seriously after the opening of their new facility in the mid-1990's. I do not know how successful they have been in rounding them all up. However that may be, it will undoubtedly take years before these records can be properly catalogued and explored. Given the enthusiasm of such local people as Mme. Touret, the one thing of which we can be quite sure is that if some real proof concerning any of our founding families comes to light, we will hear about it without delay. ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.