The information and history that come across is certainly very interesting. There is a piece of data entitled The Odyssey of André LeBlanc. This tells of my fourth great uncle, André LeBlanc who was a great grandson of Daniel.
As was the custom, they were separated by the British and deported on different ships. These ships would stop along the way and disembark some of the deportees/prisoners. The ship that André was on left him on an island where he worked on a sugar plantation. Somehow, André was able to escape! He made his way to New Orleans where one of his brothers has gone. His brother took him in. This brother had been adopted by a well-known and very wealthy navigator. On his deathbed, he promised to leave André's brother all of his wealth and all that he owned if he would marry his slave. This young LeBlanc married the slave and inherited this man's fortune.
When André realized this, he fought with his brother and he then decided to leave and travel the Mississippi. Somewhere along the way, he met up with a Blanchard who had been a neighbor of his wife in a Louisiana parish. Soon reunited with his wife, André remained in Louisiana for about 15 years where the following children were born: Marie, Joseph, Rosalie and another who died as a baby. Later, they made their way to Mobile, where André's daughter Marie married a Creole man named Seignon who died during the Revolutionary War. They had a daughter named Rosalie. Finally, André and his family began their journey back to Acadia.
This journey took them a whole year. When they arrived in Acadia, they settled in Chezzetcook (not far from Halifax) in 1788. There, they learned that André's brother, Joseph-Claude had settled in the Fox Creek/Saint-Anselme region (also known as
LeBlanc Village). André left his wife and children at Chezzetcook and he left for Fox Creek.
His brother Joseph dit Jos-André had remarried to Marie "Bidâque" Doiron (daughter of Pierre Doiron and Anne Forest). Jos-André's first wife was Marguerite Hébert. It is from this first marriage that my family descends. A few months later André returned to Chezzetcook to learn that his wife had died during his absence. He then decided to go to Menoudie where he died in 1819 at 90 years of age.
André's brother in New Orleans had no heirs and apparently left a vast fortune that was distributed among his nephews and nieces.
Source: from the writings of Placide Gaudet
Placide referred to Joseph-André as Joseph-Claude simply as an indication that he was the "son of Claude". It as actually Joseph-André of whom he was writing.
Thus was the lot of many LeBlanc ancestors as a result of the Diaspora/Deportation of 1755 that lasted some 13 years! Many were deported to the United States as was the family of Pierre LeBlanc sent to Westborough, Massachusetts. The journey of this family can be found in the Parkman Diaries. One of the children was known to be living with his wife in Methuen, Massachusetts in
the 1700's. When the Deportation years were over, this family migrated to St-Ours, Québec and remained there. More will be added about this family in the future.
Other LeBlanc ancestors made their way to Louisiana following those unforgettable tragic years. Most of the ancestors who went to Louisiana had been deported to France. After the treaty was signed, many of the Acadians who had gone to France asked to go to Louisiana. The Spanish sent 7 ships to transport and bring them to settle in Louisiana. Some people think that Acadians were deported to Louisiana but this is not true. The Acadians chose to go to Louisiana as it was in friendly hands and french was a language of choice.
Yet others escaped the deportation through the forests. A group of Acadians settled along the St. John River in New Brunswick near what is now Fredericton. However, Monkton and his troops captured and deported most of them. Nonetheless, some of the Acadians who had been deported to Massachusetts, Maryland and the Carolinas, escaped and made their way back on foot through the forests to New Brunswick. They often buried a loved one along the way. After being scattered to the four winds in 1755, the LeBlanc families quickly regrouped. Many of these Acadians later became the pioneers of Southeast New Brunswick, Baie Ste-Marie, and Arichat, Cap Breton, the Gaspée, and so many other places.
It is interesting to note that just about all of the original pioneers of post 1755 Acadia, especially the Boudreau, Bourgeois, Cormier, Haché-Gallant, Landry, LeBlanc, Léger, Melanson, Richard and Robichaud all suffered great tribulations as a result of the Great Deportation of 1755.
There are LeBlanc ancestors who were living in the southeast of New Brunswick - as well as other Acadians - who fought in the American Revolution. In the fall of 1776, a military company
was organized with about 15 Acadians participating. Isaie Boudreau (1745-abt 1785) son of Pierre "Le Grand" Boudreau was conferred the rank of Captain
Historical summary of the LeBlanc Families: In Acadia, the LeBlanc families make up the largest family of ancestors. As of the second generation, there were 35 grandsons as a result of the marriages of Daniel and Françoise Gaudet having had five sons. Just prior to the Deportation, there were already 100 LeBlanc
families living on Acadian soil!
In 1940, there were no less than 3,000 LeBlanc families in the Maritimes. In 1994, on the occassion of the Acadian World Congress, there were millions in Canada, New England, and Louisiana.
My Grandparents
My grandparents Damien LeBlanc and Odille Doiron immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts about 1893/4. Together, they had 8 children. Five were born in New Brunswick, Canada and three were born in New Bedford. My father was born in New Bedford in 1896. Meanwhile, he had a brother born in 1894 and one in 1898 in New Bedford also. From what I have been able to gather from City Directories in both places, my grandparents migrated to Lawrence, Massachusetts in the early 1900's. My grandfather Damien also had 9 children from a previous marriage to Marie-Geneviève Arsenault. In August of the year of her death, he married my grandmother Odile Doiron. Odille died a premature death in 1908. About 1912 most of the family that I have been able to find in Massachusetts, moved to the Hartford, Connecticut area. There my father, George Charles LeBlanc enlisted in the army. He fought in France during World War I. Upon his return and discharge, again in Hartford, he is found in Lawrence once more. In 1919, he married my mother Roseanne Lévesque. My grandmother is buried in a local cemetery. I have not yet found the place nor date of death of my grandfather Damien.