APPENDICES

Acadians Who Found Refuge in Louisiana, February 1764-early 1800s

BOUCHER

[boo-SHAY, boo-SHARE]

ACADIA

Marie Boucher married Jean Dubordieu probably at Plaisance, Newfoundland, part of greater Acadia, in c1683.  She died at La Baleine, Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island, in February 1745, a widow.  

Jean Boucher, Marie's brother, married Anne Pinochon on Newfoundland in c1685.  They had two daughters, both born on Newfoundland.  Jean died at Plaisance in c1693, and his wife remarried. 

No member of this family emigrated to Louisiana.

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Canadian Pierre dit Desroches, son of Pierre Boucher and Hélène Gaudry dit Bourbonnière of St.-Nicolas Parish, Québec, married Anne, daughter of Étienne Hébert, at Grand-Pré in February 1714.  They had two children, a daughter and a son.  They moved to Port-Toulouse, Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island, in c1722.  Their daughter married into the Touquerand family at Louisbourg in January 1732.  Their son, Honoré dit Villedieu, born probably at Grand-Pré in c1716, married Marie-Anne, daughter of Bernard Marres dit La Sonde and Judith Petitpas, at Port-Toulouse in c1743, where Marie-Anne had been born.  In February 1752, a French official counted the couple at Port-Toulouse with three children:  Bélonie, age 8; Marie-Josèphe, age 4; and Jean, age 2.  Evidently no member of this family emigrated to Louisiana.  

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Pierre-Jérôme Boucher, born in France in c1688, was an army engineer assigned to the fortifications of Louisbourg, Île Royale, in c1721.  He married Madeleine, daughter of former official Mathieu de Goutin and his Acadian Jeanne Thibodeau, at Louisbourg in c1730 and remained at the fortress, where he continued his career.  He was promoted to lieutenant in 1737 and to captain two years later.  In 1747, he received the Cross of the Order of St.-Louis.  Madeleine gave him at least seven children, including two sons, born at the French citadel between 1734 and 1745.  Pierre-Jérôme died at Louisbourg in July 1753, in his mid-60s.  Evidently none of his descendants emigrated to Louisiana. 

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Jean, son of Jean le Boucher and Marie Lemer, born probably in France in c1700, married Madeleine, daughter of Jean Corporon of Port-Toulouse, Île Royale, in August 1734.  One wonders if they had any children. 

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Pierre Boucher married Marie, daughter of Jean Doiron, fils and Anne LeBlanc, probably at Chignecto in c1752.  They had at least one child, daughter Marie-Anne, born at Beaubassin in c1754, on the eve of Le Grand Dérangement.  Marie-Anne may have been the only Acadian Boucher who emigrated to Louisiana. 

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André Simon dit Jacques (Le) Boucher, born in c1663, was a butcher, hence his dit, and was variously called Jacques Le Boucher and Jacques Boucher in Port-Royal censuses.  He married Marie, daughter of Barnabé Martin dit Pelletret, at Port-Royal in c1688.  They had nine children, four sons and five daughters, all born at Port-Royal, most of whom used the dit Boucher, but they were Simons.  Despite the claims of Acadian genealogist Bona Arsenault, none of André Simon dit Boucher's descendants emigrated to Louisiana. 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

[For the family's travails during the Great Upheaval, see Book Six]

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Anne Boucher, age 11, came to Louisiana from French St.-Domingue with her mother Marie Doiron, age 28, stepfather Pierre Lambert, père, age 39, and stepbrother Pierre Lambert, fils, age 14, in 1765.  They settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  Marie-Anne married Jean-Baptiste, son of Jean Goudreau, at St.-Jacques in August 1775; Jean was either a French Creole or a French Canadian.

CONCLUSION

Marie-Anne probably was the only Acadian Boucher who emigrated to Louisiana, so this branch of the family, except for its blood, did not take root in the Bayou State.  The Bouchers of South Louisiana (including Bobby the Waterboy, geaux Mud Dogs!), are French Creoles or French Canadians, not Acadians.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 441, 1107-08, 1806; BRDR, vol. 2; De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:17; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 41, 53, source of quotation; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 234-35; White, DGFA-1, 182-84, 1469-72; White, DGFA-1, English, 38, 309.

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day parishes that existed in 1861 are in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

NOTES

01.  Not in Wall of Names.  BRDR, 2:167, 317 (SJA-1, 55), her marriage record, calls her Marie BOUCHÉ of Beaubassin, calls her husband Jean-Baptiste GODEROT, calls her parents Pierre [BOUCHÉ] & Marie DOIRANT, says her father was deceased at the time of the wedding, calls his parents Jean [GODEROT] & Geneviève BELANGÉ "of Parish of Bon Secour," says his father was deceased at the time of the wedding, & that the witnesses to her marriage were Olivier PART & Germain BERGERON.  See also Milling, Exile Without End, 40; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 234.

Someone "of Beaubassin" is decidedly Acadian.  So why is she not on the Acadian Memorial's Wall of Names?

How else would an Acadian who was in SC in 1763 have come to LA in 1765 except via French St.-Domingue?

Was her husband an Acadian?  If he was Acadian, he is not in Wall of Names either.  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2491, in the LA section, lists a Jean-(Baptiste) GAUTREAUX, born in 1741, son of Charles [GAUTREAUX] & Marie-Josèphe LEBLANC of Grand-Pré, who married Marie BOUCHER, no date or place of marriage given, & says they had a son named Jean-Pierre in 1776.  This would make Jean-Baptiste the younger brother of Simon & Amand-Paul GAUTREAUX of St.-Jacques, who came to LA in 1765 & 1766.  Trouble is, Marie BOUCHER's marriage record, cited above, is clear--her husband's parents were Jean GODEROT & Geneviève BELANGÉ, not Charles GAUTREAUX & Marie-Josèphe LEBLANC, so back to square one.  Judging by his mother's surname--BELANGER--I suspect that Jean-Baptiste was a French-Creole or French-Canadian GOUDREAU, not an Acadian GAUTRO/GAUTREAUX, & I will treat him as such unless I find a primary source that proves otherwise.

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