APPENDICES

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

[gway-NARD]

ACADIA

In July 1712, James, son of Andrew Gainier and Margaret Benard of Dublin, Ireland, was serving as a soldier with the English army when he married Cécile, daughter of Pierre Cellier of Minas, at Chignecto. James later called himself Jacques Guénard dit Gaudereau, signifying his entrance into Acadian society. Jacques and Cécile had three children, including a son, Timothée, born in Maryland in c1716. Timothée married Anne-Marie, daughter of Pierre Thibodeau le jeune, probably at Chignecto in c1744. Meanwhile, Jacques and Cécile died probably at Chignecto in the early 1740s.

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

In the autumn of 1755, British forces deported Timothée Guénard, wife Anne-Marie Thibodeau, daughter Anastasie, and son Joseph, to Massachusetts, where colonial officials counted them at Marlborough in 1761. When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, they went to Halifax to join hundreds of their fellow Acadians who had been held prisoners there in the last years of the war. In late 1764 or early 1765, they followed their fellow Acadians to the lower Mississippi Valley via St.-Domingue, today's Haiti.

LOUISIANA: WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

Timothée Guénard, age 49, wife Anne-Josèphe Thibodeau, age 42, and their two children--Joseph, age 19, and Anastasie, age 14--reached New Orleans sometime in the spring of 1765.  After a brief stay in the city, they chose to settle in the Opelousas District, where Timothée soon died. Anne-Marie remarried twice, to French Creoles Francois-Marie Rivard and Joseph Loiseau dit Francoeur, at Opelousas. Her Guénard daughter married into the Bertrand dit Beauleiu (French Canadian, not Acadian) family and died at Opelousas in March 1789, in her late 30s. Anne-Marie's Guénard son also married.

Descendants of Joseph GUÉNARD (c1746-?)

Joseph, son of Timothée Guénard and Anne-Marie Thibodeau, born probably at Chignecto in c1746, followed his parents into exile in Massachusetts in 1755, to Halifax in 1763, and on to Louisiana in 1764-65. He followed his parents to the Opelousas District in 1765 and married Véronique, daughter of French Creole Philippe Duplechin of Pointe Coupée, at Pointe Coupée in November 1772; she was a resident of Opelousas at the time of their marriage; they settled in the Opelousas District.  Véronique died at Opelousas in November 1787. Evidently Joseph did not remarry. Their daughter married into the Braconier and Dauzat families.

1

Older son Benoît, born at Opelousas in c1772, probably died young.

2

Younger son Dominique, born at Opelousas in c1776, also probably died young.

CONCLUSION

Guénards were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana. One family came to the colony from Halifax via St.-Domingue in 1765 and settled in the Opelousas District. The father died soon after coming to the colony, if he made it there at all, so it was up to his only son, Joseph, and Joseph's French-Creole wife to carry on the line. They had at least two sons, but neither produced a family of his own. Their daughter married twice, however, and Joseph's sister had married into a French-Canadian family, so at least the blood of the Acadian Guénards survived in the Bayou State. ...

The family's name also is spelled Gaignaire.

Sources: BRDR, vol. 2; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 20; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 3, 4; White, DGFA-1, 775.

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

Asc	Ascension	Lf	Lafourche (Lafourche, Terrebonne)	PCP	Pointe Coupée
Asp	Assumption	Natc	Natchitoches (Natchitoches)	SB	San Bernardo (St. Bernard)
Atk	Atakapas (St. Martin, St. Mary, Lafayette, Vermilion)	Natz	San Luìs de Natchez (Concordia)	StG	St.-Gabriel d'Iberville (Iberville)
BdE	Bayou des Écores (East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana)	NO	New Orleans (Orleans)	StJ	St.-Jacques de Cabanocé (St. James)
BR	Baton Rouge (East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge)	Op	Opelousas (St. Landry, Calcasieu)

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.

Name	Arrived	Settled	Profile
Anastasie GUÉNARD 01	1765	Op	born c1750, probably Chignecto; daughter of Timothée GUÉNARD & Anne-Marie THIBODEAUX; sister of Joseph; on list of Acadians at Marlborough, MA, 1761, called Ta___, age 15[sic], with parents & siblings?; arrived LA 1765, age 14; married, age 15, Amable BERTRAND dit Beaulieu, son of Giles BERTRAND & Therese LA JEUNESSE of Canada, 9 Feb 1766, Opelousas; in Opelousas census, 1766, unnamed, the woman in the household of Amable BERTRAND; in Opelousas census, 1771, unnamed, age 21, with husband Amable BERTRAND age 31, 2 sons ages 2 [Pierre] & 3 [Amable], 1 daughter age 1 (year or month?[sic]) [Cloris], 0 slaves, 7 cattle, 9 horses, 6 arpents without title; in Opelousas census, 1777, called Anastasie GUINARD, age 24, with husband age 38 who was head of family number 36, sons Amable age 10, Pierre age 8, daughter Cloris age 6, 0 slaves, 20 cattle, 6 horses, 10 hogs, 0 sheep; in Opelousas census, 1788, Plaisance, unnamed, with husband Amable BEAULIEU, 2 others, 0 slaves, 24 cattle, 9 horses, 12 arpents; died Opelousas 12 Mar 1789, age 38, buried next day
Joseph GUÉNARD 02	1765	Op	born c1746, probably Chignecto; son of Timothée GUÉNARD & Anne-Marie THIBODEAUX; brother of Anastasie; on list of Acadians at Marlborough, MA, 1761, age 12[sic], with parents & siblings; arrived LA 1765, age 19; in Opelousas census, 1766, COURTABLEAU's Company militia, with no one else in his household, next to his mother, Widow Maria THIBAUDAU; married, age 26, Véronique DUPLECHIN of Pointe Coupée but resident of Opelousas, daughter of Philippe DUPLECHIN & his first wife Renée BOFF of New Orleans & Pointe Coupée, 25 Nov 1772, Pointe Coupée; settled Opelousas District; in Opelousas census, 1777, called Joseph GUINARD, age 31, head of family number 39, with wife Véronique age 20, sons Benois age 6, Dominique age 1, 0 slaves, 15 cattle, 5 horses, 10 hogs, 0 sheep; in Opelousas census, 1785, called GUÉNARD, with 4 unnamed free individuals, 0 slaves; in Opelousas census, 1788, Plaisance, called GUÉNARD, with 2 unnamed males, no woman, 1 unnamed girl, 0 slaves, 35 cattle, 10 horses, no arpents listed; on Opelousas militia list, Jul 1789, fusilier, called Joseph GUÉNARD
Timothée GUENARD* 03	1765	Op	born c1716, MD; called Mothe; son of Jacques GUÉNARD (James GAINER) dit Gaudereau of Dublin, Ireland, & Cecile CELLIER of Minas; baptism recorded 25 Oct 1716 & 1 Nov 1718, Port-Royal; married Anne-Marie THIBODEAUX, daughter of Pierre THIBODEAUX, le jeune & Anne-Marie AUCOIN, c1744; deported to MA 1755, age 39; on list of Acadians at Marlborough, MA, 1761, called Timthy SYMNO, age 40[sic], with wife Nanny age 38, sons Joseph age 12, Peter age 10, Oliver age 8, Ollex age 4, Paul age 6 mos., daughter Philemn. age 6, child Ta__ [daughter Anastasie?] age 15; arrived LA 1765, age 49?; died Opelousas spring 1766, age 50?

NOTES

01. Wall of Names, 18, calls her Anastasie GUÉNARD. See also Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A: 58, 367-68; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth Century Louisianians, 126, 327; De Ville, Opelousas Post Census, 1771, 14; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 19. She is probably the child named Ta___, age 15, in the 1761 English report in MA. See Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 90, 96.

02. Wall of Names, 18, calls him Joseph GUÉNARD; BRDR, 2:344 (PCP-2, part 2, 135; PCP-4, 95), his marriage record, calls him Joseph GUENARD of Acadia, calls his wife Véronique DUPLECHEN of Pointe Coupée, res. Opelousas, gives his & her parents' names, says his father & her mother were deceased at the time of the wedding, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Philipppe DUPLECHEN [her father] & Joseph RABALAIS.

The birth/baptismal record of daughter Ursule DeFrene, dated 6 Apr 1777, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1:A:368 (Opel. Ch.: Folio OA, p.6), calls him Joseph GENAR DeFrene. Was this his dit?

His wife died at Opelousas in Nov 1787, age 40. See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1:A:287 (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.3). That's why he had no woman in his household in 1788. Evidently he did not remarry.

03. Not in Wall of Names, which, on p. 18, calls his wife Anne-Marie THIBODEAU veuve Timothée GUÉNARD; White, DGFA-1, 775, calls him Timothée GUÉNARD, gives his parents' names, their marriage information, says he was born in MD, that his baptism was recorded twice at Port-Royal, & gives his marriage information, including the name of his wife & her parents. See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 90, 96.

The 1761 English report in MA seems to underestimate his age. Why did the MA recorder call him SYMNO? The only thing close to that is his father's dit, Gaudereau.

How did Acadians exiled in MA end up with the Acadians at Halifax who went to LA via St.-Domingue in 1764-65? Did Timothée & his family move from MA back to Nova Scotia when the war ended in 1763 & then followed the Halifax Acadians to LA?  Were they compelled to do this by the presence of THIBODEAUX family members at Halifax?

White, p. 775, says Timothée died av, or before, 9 Feb 1766, which was the day of his daughter Anastasie's wedding in Opelousas. The record for this wedding in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:367-68, calls him Mothe, a diminutive for Timothée, & does not say that he was deceased at the time the wedding was recorded, as is often found in church records. The Opelousas census in which his wife Anne-Marie is called a widow was taken in Apr 1766. Are the church & census records saying that Timothée died between Feb & Apr 1766? If so, he belongs on this list. So why does White say he died av 9 fevr 1766? How long before? By not including him with his wife & children on their listing, the compilers of Wall of Names seem to be following White & are convinced that Timothée did not make it to LA. Despite the thin thread of evidence, I am inclined to think that he did make it to the colony & died there. I await definitive evidence that he did not reach LA. When I find it, off this list he goes.

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