Fletch, this was posted to the nsroots group and I thought it may be of some assistance to our Acadian researchers. I will monitor the group's messages for any follow-ups to this message and also contact the sender, John, re. any he may recieve personally. -- Rannie in Nova Scotia On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, PLATH NY wrote: > Hi, > I got a letter from Mr. Steven White, the Acadian Genealogist, dated > April 23,1998. and he set me right on the Arsenault line, I had a lot of > different lines given to me, Mr. White is the last word when it comes to the > Acadian families. > Here is what his letter said concerning the Arsenault - Blanchard lines. > > Your request for information regarding the ancestors of Marguerite-Rosalie > DesRoches > To begin with, I must tell you that there was no Guillaume Blanchard who > married Huguette Poirier. The only mention of such a couple in Acadian > records is in fact an error in the deposition at Belle-Ile-en-Mer of Jean > Leblanc concerning his late wife's ancestry. Jean could not recall who the > parents of his wife's grandfather were, although he evidently realized that > they were the ancestors who had actually emigrated from France, and the local > authorities required to know what their names were. In this bind in which he > found himself, Jean proved resourceful, if not well-informed. He had > apparently heard of a Guillaume and an Huguette in the family, so he offered > those names, In fact, Guillaume was Jean's wife's grandfather's brother, and > not his father,, and while Guillaume was indeed married to an Huguette, she > was a Gougeon, and not a Poitier, although we generally believe, in following > a line of deduction originally proposed by Placide Gaudet, that Huguette > Gougeon was the half-sister of Michel and Marie-Francoise Poirier, which would > neatly explain the confusion regarding her family name. Be that as it may, > the true names of the parents of Jean's wife's grandfather (Martin Blanchard) > and his brother Guillaume, were Jean Blanchard and Radegonde Lambert. This is > made clear by the early Acadian censuses. In 1890, Edme Rameau de Saint-Pere, > in a commentary on the depositions of the Acadians at Belle-Ile, tried to > reconcile the obvious error in Jean LeBlanc's statement with the information > from the censuses by suggesting that Guillaume Blanchard and Huguette Poirier > were the grandparents of Martin and Guillaume Blanchard. I do not think this > at all plausible. > If Jean LeBlanc could not say who the great-grandparents of his late wife were > , how would he know the names of her great-great-grandparents? I tried to > alert other researchers to this oft-repeated mistake about the Blanchards in > an article I published in the Cahiers de la Societe historique acadienne (vol. > XV, 1884,pp.116-121). The Blanchard line in Acadia begins with Jean Blanchard > and Radegonde; we are unable to carry it any farther. > > The foregoing is important to note, but it does not directly bear upon > Marguerite-Rosalie DesRoches's ancestry, because Marguerite-Rosalie did not > descend from the Blanchard family, anyway. The lineage you lay out in your > electronic message is correct back to the Pierre Arsenault who married Anne > Boudrot, but this Pierre Arsenault was not the son of Marie Guerin. Rather,he > was the child of the first Pierre Arsenault's first wife, Marguerite Dugas. > Insofar as I know, there is unanimous agreement among Acadian genealogists (a > rare thing, indeed ) on this point. Marguerite Dugas was a daughter of > Abraham Dugas and Marguerite Doucet, and Marguerite Doucet was a daughter of > Germain Doucet. We do not know where any of these families originated in > France, nor do we know who Marguerite Doucet's mother was. > > Regarding Anne Boudrot, you are on the wrong track again. Anne was a > daughter of Jean Boudrot and Marguerite Bourgeois, and not the daughter of > Jean's brother Charles. After Jean Boudrots early death, Marguerite Bourgeois > married secondly Emmanuel Mirande. Marguerite was thus the mother of both the > Anne Boudrot who married Pierre Arsenault and the Francoise Mirande who > married Pierre's half-brother Charles Arsenault. These families all lived at > Beaubassin. Charles Boudrot's family meanwhile had no direct connections in > that parish. > > Jean Boudrot was of course a son of Michel Boudrot and Michelle Aucoin. > Marguerite Bourgeois was a daughter of Jacques Bourgeois and Jeanne Trahan. > Please note that Michel Boudrot died long after 1671. he served as magistrate > (lieutenant general civil et criminel) at Port-Royal until 1688, but died > sometime before the 1693 census. > signed; > Sincerely yours, > Stephen A. White > Genealogist > Centre d'etudes acadiennes > > John MacIsaac > 11 Tower Ave, Schenectady, NY. 12304 -----------------------------