A Canadian Family

Genealogy, Family History & Vintage Postcards

WHERE did we come from? WHEN did we get here?

These are usually among the first few questions posed by a budding family historian and I was no exception to this when I first started out.  Luckily for me, it was a snap to locate our family’s Canadian founding couples because most of our surnames are well-known to Acadian or French Canadian researchers. So, knowing how easy it is to get lost in the myriad branches and sub-branches of our vast family tree, I thought I’d start you off with a quick overview of our first ancestors in the New World.

An early map of Nouvelle France

Sanson, Nicolas. Le Canada ou Nouvelle France, Tiree de diverses Relations des Francois, Anglois, Hollandois, &c. (ca.1660) Reference Code: C78, A- 4943 Archives of Ontario

PATERNAL LINES

Our paternal lines are almost 100% Acadian and they were amongst the earliest permanent European settlers in North America. Through these couples we are related to all the founding fathers and mothers of Acadie.

Jehan Terriau and Perrine Rau from Poitou, France were our Theriault founding couple and they were already married there before sailing for Acadie. They quickly settled in as farmers and we descend from one of their sons Claude and his wife Marie Gautreault. Our Theriault lineage now spans over 400 years from Jehan’s birth in 1601 to our latest generation who are now in their mid-twenties.

At about 350 years our LEGER lineage is almost as long, but its founding father – Jacques Leger dit La Rosette – did not start out as a farmer. He came to Canada as an unmarried military drummer. He served at Fort Naxouat, and then chose to stay and marry Madeleine Trahan. Their son and daughter-in-law Jacques Leger and Anne Amirault were married in Port Royale and we are now in our 11th generation of this Leger lineage. Read more »

December 30, 2008 Posted by | . | , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Introduction

 

Vintage Postcard Collection"

A Canadian Family: Vintage Postcard Collection

procastinate - verb. delay or postpone action (Oxford Dictionary)

One day many years ago, after my father Edouard Theriault had overheard heard me wondering about our family origins,  he  handed me a few yellowed sheets of paper which contained some genealogical notes about his maternal Leger ancestors. Then a few days later he added a typewritten family memoir that he’d prepared for an anthropology course back in the early 1950s. My mother Golda Lagace then jumped in and offered me a Lagace genealogy report from Drouin Institute. I was instantly hooked and the thought struck me – why not write a complete and up-to-date  history of our Lagace, Leger, Luce and Theriault ancestors?

Why not indeed? 

By 2003, after more than a decade of interviewing relatives, poring over birth, marriage and death certificates, peering at census returns and studying local histories I finally had a mountain of information. Little did I know that, that was the easy part. Now came the hard part – a few more years of trying to figure out how to organize and publish my work. What to include?  What to exclude? How to share the primary documents ? And what about the publication costs?

Well, for once, my procrastination has paid off.  It’s 2008 –  the Age of Blogs – and I’ve realized that an excellent way to write a family history is to just start writing it – one post at a time – until we finally have that “complete and up-to-date” family history.

And better yet – we can do it together – so let’s get started!

Evelyn Yvonne Theriault (aka Evelyn in Montreal)

December 30, 2008 Posted by | . | , , , , , | Leave a Comment