Another reason would be the threat of death or exile for some French noble families. Not to open the whole "Huguenot Acadian" argument up again, but for the noble families that found themselves on the wrong side of the Protestant/Catholic wars of religion in France at the time -- a war fought in large part across the homes and fields of many of our Acadian ancestors in western France, by the way -- the new world looked like a much better option... -- Scott Michaud ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Lucie LeBlanc Consentino" <LucieMC@comcast.net> To: ACADIAN-CAJUN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ACADIAN-CAJUN] Acadians and nobility Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:27:23 -0500 Hi Listers, I have received this today in response to my post of the other day: <<I agree with everything you said about Stephen White, but I noted your rationale regarding the LeBlanc ancestry was a little off the mark. You said: "Moreover, when one thinks about it, why would someone from a family of nobility - in other words a family that was very comfortable in French society leave France to become a farmer in the 1600s? That was highly unlikely." What about the Damours of Québec and Acadia? Charles, who married Marie-Anne Thibodeau about 1695, was a descendant of the Royal families of Europe, including William I "The Conqueror" Duc de Normandie & Charlemagne. I agree that most of the immigrants were peasants, but there were a few more like Charles Damours. Note that I didn't publish this on the Acadian-Cajun list, because I have too much respect for your contributions to that list.>> I do appreciate the message that I received today and I thought I would respond on the list as well for everybody to know my response: <<I thought of all that when I posted but I was not going to get into all of the family lineages and as you noted I specifically mentioned the LeBlanc family *not* being connected to nobility in any way. I think everyone understood my intent. For 99% of the families who went to Acadia, what I said was true. The D'amours were in Quebec before they went to Acadia. Mathieu DAmours was a counselor to the King. Things were better there. Another reason I did not mention them nor the D'Entremonts, etc. was because I would then have to mention how they were all given seigneuries... which proves what I said - again: why would people of nobility go to pioneer as farmers. In the case of the D'Amours, d'Entremonts, etc., they did not become farmers - they were given land and others did the work. That was my point.>> I guess I was trying to keep my post short and it probably was too short and misleading though I hope not. Now you have the other side of the story. <smile> Lucie Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home <http://acadian-home.org> http://acadian-home.org <http://www.acadian-home.org> http://www.promises.acadian-home.org/frames.html CMA 2004 - <http://www.cma2004.com/> www.cma2004.com Grand-Pré - <http://www.grand-pre.com/> www.grand-pre.com/ <http://www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/cea.html> www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/cea.html <http://www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes> ==== ACADIAN-CAJUN Mailing List ==== The number one rule of this list is no flaming. If something is posted to the list that disturbs you, bring it to the _admin._, not the list or the person who posted. Your concerns will be addressed. ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 _________________________________________________________________ Watch high-quality video with fast playback at MSN Video. Free! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200365ave/direct/01/