THE LANDRY FAMILY IN NORTH AMERICA ORIGINS AND PROGENITORS Although there are at least 4 separate lines (or clans) of Landrys that settled in North America, there are only two Landry Clans whose origins are known. Guillaume Landry, s/o Maturin Landry and Damiane Desavis (De Savis or Desaints), d' habits ne Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne) was baptized on 23 February 1623 in La-Ventrouze, canton Tourouvre, ar. Mortagne, Perche (Orne); s. 8 Jan. 1689 Ste-Famille I.O.; aux rec. 66, 67 et 81, a l'Ile Orleans; cite 1 Jan. 1656 Quebec. [AG-FNF] Guillaume immigrated to Canada sometime in 1653. Records show that he was present at the baptism of his grandson, Jacques Carbonneau on Dec 9 1674 in the parish of Ste-Famille, I'le d'Orleans, Quebec, Canada and he signed a marriage contract on Aug 24 1659 in Ile d'Orleans, Quebec, Canada. Guillaume was buried on Jan 8 1689 in Ste-Famille, I'le d'Orleans, Quebec, Canada. The second was Jean-Jacques Henri Landry who came from Switzerland to Louisiana married Susanne Celestine Sandoz and settled in St. Martinville in the 1830s. Today, their progeny are concentrated in the Lafayette, Louisiana area. ORIGIN OF THE LANDRYS OF ACADIA "Regarding the origin and the parents of the two René Landrys, 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. Four individuals named Landry, who were born in France, appear in the Acadian censuses of 1671, 1678, 1686, and 1693. Two of these were men, both named René, and two were women, named Perrine and Antoinette. Many researchers have presumed that these four Landrys were all closely related, but such is not the case. In fact, while it is possible to prove that Antoinette Landry was the sister of one of the Renés and permissible to believe that Perrine Landry was his sister as well. But after a study of the dispensations granted upon the marriages of the descendants of the Landrys, it appears that the first two René Landrys in Acadia could not have bee been any more nearly related to the other René Landry than as cousins in the second or third degree. The proofs to which I have just alluded repose in the presence or absence of dispensations for consanguinity in the records of the marriages of the descendants of the Landrys. As you may know, until the first world war, the Catholic Church required dispensations of relationships, whether by blood or by marriage, as remote as the fourth degree, that is as distant as those between third cousins, or persons whose great-grandparents included siblings. In the case of Antoinette Landry and the elder René Landry, we find, for example, that when Antoinette's great-grandson Francois Brun married the elder René's great-granddaughter Madeleine Dupuis, October 24, 1735, at Port Royal, there was a dispensation granted the young couple for the fourth degree consanguinity. I can refer you to at least eight more marriage records in which like dispensations are marked down, all involving great-grandchildren of Antoinette Landry, who wed great grandchildren of the elder René Landry. Two among these eight are mentioned in an article on the Landrys that the late Father Patrice Gallant published in the Cahiers de la Societe historique acadienne in 1972 (Vol. IV, pp. 271-273), Unfortunately, Father Gallant confused the question of the relationships among the Landrys, despite his good intentions, by misidentifying the parents of Madeleine Dupuis' parents, Jean Dupuis and Anne Richard. He confounded and Anne with another couple, Jean Dupuis and Marguerite Richard, who were the other Jean's nephew and Ann's first cousin. By chance, both Dupuis couples descended from Landrys, while the Jean Dupuis who married Marguerite Richard was a grandson of the younger René Landry. Father Gallant thus got the two Rene Landrys mixed up, which gave him the impression that both René Landrys were Antoinette Landry's brothers, and thus brothers one to the other. As you can see, however, the dispensations to which Father Gallant referred to, when properly worked out, only have the potential to connect the elder René Landry to Antoinette. As both Antoinette Landry and the elder René Landry married Bourgs, it would appear that one could explain the relationship between their respective descendants equally well by supposing that Antoine Bourg and Perrine Bourg were siblings. Fortunately, there is an easy way to resolve this apparent dilemma. Perrine Bourg had first married Simon Pelleret, and their two daughters had numerous descendants, at least seven of whom married descendants of Antoine Bourg who would have been their third cousins, if Perrine and Antoine had in fact been sister and brother. Not one of the records of these seven marriages includes a dispensation for any degree of consanguinity whatsoever. The possibility that Perrine and Antoine were siblings can thus be eliminated, leaving only the possibility, which may thereby be considered amply proved, that Antoinette Landry was a sister to the elder René Landry. The widow Perrine Landry, who had married Jacques Joffriau but is not known to have had any children, is listed in the censuses of 1671 and 1678 as residing beside or with Laurent Granger and Marie Landry. As Marie Landry was the daughter of the elder René Landry, it may be supposed that Perrine was very nearly related to him too. Given that Perrine was sixty years old in 1671, when the elder René Landry was himself fifty-three, it seems quite likely that Perrine was this René's sister. On the other hand, your ancestor, the younger René Landry, was not nearly related to any of these other Landrys. We can be sure of this from the absence of dispensations in the records of the marriages of his descendants to descendants of either the elder René Landry or Antoinette Landry. The younger Rene's grandson Germain Dupuis, for example, married the elder Rene's granddaughter Marie Granger, November 3, 1717, at Grand-Pré, without any dispensation for kindred. Had the two Renés been even first cousins, there would have had to have been a dispensation for consanguinity in the fourth degree in this record. Regarding Antoinette Landry and the younger René, I would point out the absence of dispensations in the marriages of Joseph Landry and Marie-Joseph Bourg, Jan 11, 1745 at Grand Pré, of François Landry and Dorothée Bourg, November 21, 1731, at Grand Pré and of Jean Daigre and Madeleine Landry, November 6, 1721 at Grand Pré. In all three of these instances the Landrys were grandchildren of the younger René, and their three spouses were all great-grandchildren of Antoinette Landry. We can thus rule out any possibility of the younger René being the brother, or even the nephew of Antoinette. The two progenitors of the Acadian Landrys, René Landry dit l' aisne (the elder), born in France in 1618 and believed to have arrived in Acadia ca. 1640 and René Landry, dit le jeune (the younger) was born in France in 1634, whose date of arrival in Acadia is unknown, and was married at Acadia in 1659 This is because the records of the progenitors of the Acadian Landrys (René Landry dit l' aisne (the elder) and René Landry, dit le jeune (the younger) were lost in the many fires that occurred in Port Royal, there is no documentation (as yet discovered) that indicates either the parents or the place of origin of either René Landry. "..... 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." (Professor 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. AN OFTEN REPEATED ERROR Because Guillaume Landry, was baptized on 23 February 1623 in La-Ventrouze, canton Tourouvre, ar. Mortagne, Perche (Orne); s. 8 Jan. 1689 Ste-Famille I.O.; aux rec. 66, 67 et 81, a l'Ile Orleans; cite 1 Jan. 1656 Quebec. [AG-FNF] and who immigrated to Canada about the same time as the René Landrys immigrated to Acadia, it is assumed by some, that all of the Landrys that came to North America from France originated from the same area. SOME SPECULATION AS TO THE ORIGIN OF RENE LANDRY "According to the genealogical research of Généviéve Massigon ("Les Parles Français d'Acadie", 1962, vol 1, p. 55), "the progenitors of at least sixteen families of different surnames (including LANDRY) came from three small villages -LaChaussée, Martaizé and Aulnay-south of the town of Loudon, province of Poitou). In these villages, during the early seventeenth century, lived the ancestors of Babin, Breaux (Brault), Gautreau, Hebert, LeBlanc, Landry, Savoie, and other families, whose descendants comprise a large portion of the Acadian and Louisiana French today" These villages formed a part of the estate of Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay, who was governor of Acadia from 1635 to 1650. During this time, his chief colonial recruiter, notary Vincent LANDRY, was stationed at the Poitevin town of LaChausée, where he recruited a number of his workers in France to colonize Acadia, and many families from the Loudun continued to migrate to the colony of Acadia. Généviéve Massigon is quoted by many researchers, including Robert C. West and Carl Brasseau. Recently, Notorial records of the time of the colonization of Acadia have been uncovered. These records are being studied to see if some light can be shed on the origin and ancestors of the early Acadians. Amongst the speculation, it is believed by some that Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay's chief colonial recruiter, notary Vincent LANDRY, mentioned above, was the father of René LANDRY leJeune.