<<Firmin Landry is one of those ancestors who somehow seems to encourage people to long discussions. I have checked what you have forwarded, and it basically agrees with what I have. <<Regarding Anne-Barbe Babin, she might have been sometimes known as Landry from the fact that before her marriage she lived in a Landry household, that of her brother-in-law Mathurin Landry, as is shown by the 1777 census. I have also seen church records in which a woman is called by her mother's maiden name, rather than by her own, which I have thought was just a careless mistake on the part of the person who wrote out the records. Where such careless mistakes are involved, however, the switch in names does not usually occur more than just the once. >> <<“Some think she [Françoise Thibodeau] and Theotiste [Thibodeau] were related, but there is no proof to this theory.” A relationship between two Thibodeaus at that time should not be characterized as theoretical, because it would have been inevitable. What is in doubt is the degree of the relationship, depending upon just who Françoise was. Actually, she was most likely a granddaughter of Pierre Thibodeau l'aîné, which would mean that she and Théotiste would have been second cousins.>> <<Karen Reader's theory about the Élisabeth who was listed with Firmin in 1763 being his sister, rather than his wife, is interesting. I can explain, however, why everyone has presumed that the Élisabeth in the census was his wife. It is because of the structure of the listing. In most censuses the head of the household comes first, followed by his wife, if the household head was a man and he had one, then come the children, if any, and then other relatives, such as unmarried siblings of the household head or his spouse, then come other in-laws, cousins, and orphans, if any made up part of the household. So we presume that Élisabeth was Firmin's wife because her name follows his and comes before the names of his children. Now, the fact that Firmin's first wife is everywhere else called Françoise is a problem. It is possible, consequently, that this Élisabeth was not really his first wife Françoise Thibodeau. Maybe she was a second wife about whom we know nothing else. I do not recall offhand whether the record of Firmin's second marriage precludes this possibility by specifying that he was the widower of Françoise Thibodeau. The real problem is that none of these records should be taken to be flawless. The name Élisabeth for Firmin's wife in the census might simply be an error. The omission of his sister from the same census might also have been an error, if she had indeed been so omitted, although I think that if one checks the 1763 census again it will be found that Élisabeth does appear at Oxford, along with her mother and sisters in the household headed by Olivier Babin. >> Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home www.acadian-home.org <http://www.acadian-home.org/> Am-Can Gen Soc www.acgs.org <http://www.acgs.org/> CMA 2004 - www.cma2004.com Grand-Pré - http://www.grand-pre.com/ www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/cea.html <http://www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes> <http://www.grand-pre.com/>