On the origin of the North American Landrys: There are at least 4 separate lines (or clans) of Landrys that settled in North America. 1st - Guillaume Landry, settled at Ile d'Orleans in Québec. It appears that Guillaume Landry's father, Maturin Landry, from Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne), and married to Damiane Desavis, daughter of Guillaume Desavis. Damiane was born about 1600 in La-Ventrouze-au-Perche, Tourouvre, Mortagne, France may have had come to Canada to the region of Trois Rivieres in the employ of the Jesuits sometime before the summer of 1643. His son Guillaume Landry, who was born at La Ventrouze-au-Perche, which was situated between four large French provinces: Normandie, Ile-de-France, Orleans and Maine, emigrated to Canada sometime in 1653 ========= 2nd - René Landry dit l' aisne (the elder), born in France in 1618 and believed to have arrived in Acadia ca. 1640 ============= 3rd - 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 ============== Because Guillaume Landry was born at La-Ventrouze-au-Perche, Tourouvre, Mortagne, France, and his father was originally from Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne), reaserchers have assumed (with no documentation) that the René Landrys were from either La-Ventrouze-au-Perche, Tourouvre, Mortagne, France, or from Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne). However, 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. and "……….. 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 immigrated from France to Acadia has come to be regrettably enshrouded in a dense fog of error and confusion." (Stephen A. White) ====================== 4th - Jean Jacques Henri Landry and Susanne Celestine Sandoz who settled in St. Martinville in the 1830s, and today, their progeny are concentrated in the Lafayette, Louisiana area.