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Unveiling of the Coat of Arms of the Association des Bourgeois d'Acadie In adopting its very own coat of arms and crest, the Association des Bourgeois d'Acadie is observing an old and honourable tradition. I am doubly pleased to be taking part in this gathering : first because I was thrilled to discover that I am a descendant of Jacques Bourgeois and Jeanne Trahan, the first couple to settle in Port-Royal in 1641 ...
Your coat of arms and crest evoke the memory of the first ancestor with the
cord of St. Francis of Assisi, and echoes the name of the vessel in which
Jacques Bourgeois set sail from France to establish a great family and a new
country. His profession as a surgeon is depicted by an early surgical instrument
and the well-known eight-pointed Maltese cross, the emblem of the orders of
Malta and St. John of Jerusalem. The Maltese cross is familiar to Canadians
because of the thousands of volunteers who serve the public. There is also a
reference to the sea, as the ocean was the road between Europe and the New
World of America. For Antonine Maillet, the sea means a great deal more. Cut
into the flesh of an Acadian, she once wrote, even one from the deepest of
the deep back country, and salt water will flow from his veins. The pioneers
needed tremendous courage to pull up stakes and leave their homeland to set
down roots in a new and sometimes difficult country. That courage is
reflected in the motto your association has chosen : ENSEMBLE VERS L'ID�AL,
together in search of perfection. Those words pay tribute to the past and
reach out to the future.
The latest research indicates Jacques Bourgeois was most likely born in La Fert�-Gaucher, near Paris, as the son of a widow, Marguerite Bourgeois Grandjehan and raised under the maiden name of his mother. In the registers of the parish of Saint-Romain a baptismal certificate for Jacob Bourgeois was found indicating he was born on January 9, 1621, the son of Marguerite Bourgeois and the deceased Nicolas Grandjehan.
Jacques (called Jacob) Bourgeois
was born about 1619, and died in 1701 in Port Royal, Acadia. He married
Jeanne Trahan in Port-Royal, Acadia, daughter of Guillaume Trahan and
Fran�oise Corbineau. He arrived in Acadia about 1643 aboard the St-Francois
from La Rochelle, France. He was apparently trained as a surgeon by the
Order of Malta.
The Port-Royal census of 1671 indicates that Jacob (Jacques) Bourgeois druggist, 50; and wife Jeanne Trahan; children: Jeanne 27, Charles 25, Germain 21, Marie 19, Guillaume 16, Marguerite 13, Francois 12, Anne 10, Marie 7, Jeanne; owned 33 cattle and 24 sheep.
The Port-Royal census of 1678 indicates that Jacques Bourgeois and wife Jeanne Trahan; children: Marie 15, Jeanne 12; owned 20 acres, 15 cattle.
The Port-Royal census of 1686 mentions Jacob Bourgeois 67, Jeanne Trahan 57; child: Guillaume 31; 20 arpents.
The Port-Royal census of 1693 mentions Jacob Bourgeois 74, Jeanne Trahan 64, Jeanne (granddaughter) 3; 15 cattle, 20 sheep, 15 pigs, 40 arpents, 1 gun.
The Beaubassin census of 1701 mentions Sieur Jacques Bourgeois 82, Jeanne Trahan
his wife 72; Germain Bourgeois 48; Madeleine Dugas his wife 34; Guillaume 24;
Agnes 12; 22 cattle, 15 hogs, 21 arpents, 3 guns, 1 servant.
Acadian Descendants, Vol I, by Janet Jehn Before leaving France, Bourgeois had entered the medical profession. He came
to Port-Royal in 1642 with 18 families that Gov. Menou d'Aulnay brought with him
on one of his voyages, Bourgeois' father, also named Jacques, was an army officer
at Port-Royal and the brother-in-law of Germaine Doucet, Sieur de La Verdure,
Aulnay's assistant....
While Jacques senior was returned to France, his son remained in Acadia
where he became the ancestor of a large number of descendants, In 1643
he had married Jeanne, Guillaume Trahan's daughter, who was born in France
in 1631; they had ten children; seven girls and three boys.
At Port-Royal, Jacques became a farmer and shipbuilder. He traded with
the Bostonians, particularly with John Nelson and William Phips; he learned
their language, and was the interpreter for the French in their dealings
with the English. In 1672 he sold part of his holdings at Port-Royal in
order to settle, with his sons Charles and Germain, and two of his sons-in-law,
in the Chigneto Basin, thus becoming the first promoter of settlement in
this region; he built a flour mill and a saw mill there. A few years later,
in 1676, the region was made into a Seigneury, the holder of which was
Michel Leneuf de la Valliere (the elder), a nobleman born at Trois-Rivieres;
the new fief, 100 square leagues in extent, was named Beaubassin. As LaValliere
brought in settlers and indentured employees from Canada, two distinct
establishments adjoined each other at Beaubassin; but a clause in the title
to the land grant protected the interests of Jacques Bourgeois and the
other Acadian settlers established on the domain; it was not long before
the two elements of the population merged into one....
The distinguished colonist had settled at Port-Royal again before 1699;
he died there, an octogenarian, in 1701. The family name was perpetuated
by two of his three sons: Charles, born in 1646, who married Anne Dugas
in 1668; and Germain, born about 1650, who married his first wife, Marguerite
Belliveau, in 1673 and his second wife, Madeleine Dugas, in 1682; the third
son, Guillaume, left only a daughter.
The children of Jacques Bourgeois and Jeanne Trahan:
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Charles Bourgeois was born about 1646 in Port-Royal, Acadia, and died between 1677 and 1679 in Beaubassin, Acadia. He married Anne Dugas about 1668 in Beaubassin, Acadia, daughter of Abraham Dugas and Marguerite Doucet.
The Port-Royal census of 1671 indicates that Charles Bourgeois and wife Anne Dugas owned a dozen cattle and 7 sheep. They were also parents of an (unnamed) daughter.
The children of Charles Bourgeois and Anne Dugas are:
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Claude Bourgeois was born about 1674 in Beaubassin, Acadia, Canada. He married Anne Blanchard about 1701 in Beaubassin, Acadia, Canada daughter of Guillaume Blanchard and Huguette Gougeon.
The Beaubassin census of 1701 indicates that Claude Bourgeois and his wife owned 4 arpents, 7 cattle, 1 gun.
The Beaubassin census of 1703 mentions Claude Bourgeois, his wife, and daughter owned 1 gun.
The Beaubassin census of 1707 mentions Claude Bourgeois, his wife Anne Blanchard, a son less than 14, and a daughter less than 12 owned 4 arpents.
The children of Claude Bourgeois and Anne Blanchard are:
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Paul Bourgeois was born about 1705 in Beaubassin, Acadia, Canada and died about 1760. He married Marie Jos�phe Brun on November 17, 1727 in Port-Royal, Acadia, Canada the daughter of Jean Brun and Anne Gautrot. He later married Madeleine Cormier about 1749, the daughter of Pierre Cormier and Marie-Anne Cyr.
The children of Paul Bourgeois and Marie Josephen Brun are:
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Joseph Bourgeois was born in 1736 in Beaubassin, Acadia, Canada
and died December, 29 1812 in St. James Parish, LA. He married Marie Magdelaine Giroir on
November 5, 1759, the daughter of Claude Giroir and Marie Madeleine Vincent, in
Ristigouche, Acadia, Canada. Acadian Memorial Archive Held captive at Ristigouche, in present-day New Brunswick, November 1759. He and
his family appear to have been prisoners of war at Fort Edward, Nova Scotia, on October
5, 1761. British records suggest that his family remained as a prisoners of war at
Fort Edward (Windsor), Nova Scotia, after he was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with
the other able-bodied Acadian men, July 12, 1762. British records from Fort Edward,
dated August 9, 1762, indicate that three memers of his family were held as prisoners,
but the family received rations for only two persons. Received from New Orleans merchant Antoine de St. Maxent a receipt for 1,681.08
livres in Canadian paper money sent to Bordeaux on behalf of the Louisiana Acadians
for possible redemption by the French crown. (The attempt was evidently unsuccessful.)
Identified in the April 9, 1766, census of Cabannoc� as the head of a household
including his wife, Marie Girouard (28 years of age) and his daughter Marie (14 years
of age). The family occupied a tract of land measuring six arpents frontage on the left
bank of the Mississippi River. The census also indicates that Joseph Bourgeois
owned one sheep and one firearm. Identified in the September 14, 1769, census of
St. Jacques de Cabannoc� as the thirty-three-year-old head of a household that included
the following persons: Marie Girouard, his wife, 32 years old; and Marie Broussard, an
orphan, 2 years old. The members of his household occupied a tract of land with five
arpents frontage. They owned seven cows, two horses, twenty-five hogs, and one musket.
The January 23, 1770, muster roll of the First Company of the Acadian Coast militia unit
indicates that he was a fusilier, a resident of the left bank of the Mississippi River,
a thirty-three-year-old married man. He resided three-fourths of a league from the
residence of Commandant Nicolas Verret. Bourgeois served as the local churchwarden, ca.
February 16, 1776. The April 15, 1777, census of the inhabitants of the left bank of
the Mississippi River at St. Jacques de Cabannoc� indicates that he was the
forty-one-year-old head of a household that included the following persons: Marie
Girouard (Giroire), his wife, 40 years old; Scholastique (Scolastie) Bourgeois, his
daughter, 7 years old; C�leste Bourgeois, his daughter, 2 years old; Marie Broussard,
an orphan, 10 years old; and Jean Rabier, an orphan, 13 years old. He and his family
owned a tract of land with six arpents frontage on the Mississippi River. They also
owned one slave, sixteen cows, and four horses. On October 29, 1784, he joined with
four other Acadian leaders in denouncing the tyranny of the local cur�. In the October
29, 1784, memorandum, Bourgeois is identified as the local church warden. On July 28,
1786, he joined with numerous other St. Jacques de Cabannoc� residents in signing a
petition urging the newly appointed local priest to honor the deceased former priest's
debt to the parish's church building fund. On May 17, 1795, he participated in a meeting
of the Cabannoc� District notables to discuss means of increasing local security in the
wake of the abortive 1795 Pointe Coup�e slave uprising.
The children of Joseph Bourgeois and Marie Giroir are:
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Joseph Simon Bourgeois was born in 1777 in St. James Parish, La and died January, 20 1821 in St. James Parish, LA. He married Marcelite Judice on October 24, 1803 in St. James Parish, LA, the daughter of Michel Judice and Marie Jeanne Croisset.
The children of Joseph Bourgeois and Marcelite Judice are:
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Oscar Lucien Bourgeois was born January 8, 1820 in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and died July 12, 1863 in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He married Azelie Marie Prejean April 14, 1842 the daughter of Maximilien Prejean and Marie Philonise Thibodeaux in Lafayette, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana.
The children of Lucien Bourgeois and Azelie Prejean are:
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Paul Desthe Bourgeois was born July 13, 1862 in Opelousas, Louisiana and died July, 24 1944 in Iota, Louisiana. He married Olivia Olivier on April 11, 1882.
The children of Paul Desthe Bourgeois and Olivia Olivier are:
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He married Anastasie Lavergne (second wife) on November 15, 1888 in Church Point, Acadia Parish, Louisiana, the daughter of Pierre Agerin Lavernge and Marie Colastie Lavergne.
The children of Paul Desthe Bourgeois and Anastasie Lavergne are:
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Ludovic Bourgeois
was born November 12, 1896 in Church Point, Louisiana and died September 18, 1967 in Crowley,
Louisiana. He married Lilia Richard.
The children of Ludovic Bourgeois and Lilia Richard are:
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Alphonse Bourgeois
was born February 18, 1936 and died March 19, 1993 in Crowley, Louisiana. He married
Lois Joyce Leger on April, 11 1954, daughter of Newton Joseph Leger and Rose Marie
Ancelet.
The children of Alphonse Bourgeois and Lois Leger are:
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Randall Joseph Bourgeois was born December 2, 1966 in Crowley, Louisiana. He married Natalie Lynn McCune, daughter of James David McCune and Sharon Rose Milliron, on October 22, 1994 in St. Charles, Missouri.
The children of Randall Bourgeois and Natalie McCune:
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1. Dictionnaire Genealogique Des Familles Acadiennes, Volume 1, by Stephen A. White
2. AGE, Apr/Jul 97, p 40
3. Acadia Genealogical Exchange, 1997, 40
4. C.T. Breaux, Une Lignee Noble en France, Quebec, Acadie, Louisiane
5. Canadian Descendants, 94
6. Acadian Descendants, Vol I, by Janet Jehn; C.T. Breaux
7.
"Bourgeois Family among the early Acadian Settlers (1632)"
The Sunday Advertiser, Sunday, June 2, 1996 edition, Lafayette, Louisiana
8. The Acadian Miracle, pg. 21
9. The Acadian Miracle, pg. 24
10.
"Unveiling of the Coat of Arms of the Association des Bourgeois d'Acadie"