Acadian Explusion: a family scattered

Contemporary painting of another Acadian town being burnt - Thomas Davies 1758*

On a summer day in 1755 my 4^th great grandfather Charles Dupuis, age 9 watched from shipboard as everything he knew receded over the horizon. He, with 10 of his brothers and sisters, their spouses, uncles, aunts and cousins watched in horror as British soldiers set fire to their farm houses and barns. He left behind the graves of his parents Antoine and Marie Josephte Dugas who died when he was only a year old. He would be the only one of his family who would return to what had been French territory. Before that he would be a refugee in the British colonies of North America.

My great grandmother Adeline Raymond pictured on the right,  was descended from many of the original settlers of L'Acadie. (modern Nova Scotia)  Her mother was listed as "Sally Wells" on US records. I knew she was French and eventually discovered that her real name was Salome Dupuis, daughter of Antoine Dupuis resident of Lacadie, a small town south of Montreal in the Richelieu valley. Her paternal grandparents Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet were both born in L' Acadie - he is Grand Pre in 1746 and she in Port Royal around 1750. Hence both as children would have been witnesses to the expulsions and emigrations from Acadie which began in the late 1740's and escalated 1755-1762. It is unlikely that Salome knew her grandparents as both died before she was born. Did she learn of the exodus from stories passed down in her family? If so did she pass them on to Adelaide?

The fate of the children of Antoine Dupuis and Marie Josephe Dugas, parents of Charles, gives a sample of the various places of deportation and emigration experienced by families in L’Acadie. Antoine and Marie both died in Grand Pre in 1747 right before the Acadian Expulsion known as L’Grand Derangement. My ancestor Charles, twin brothers Joseph and Jean Baptiste and sister Euphrosine were all under 10 when the parents died and likely were taken into the homes of older married brothers and sisters.

Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet had lived under British rule all their lives.  Britain ruled L'Acadie since 1713, before both of their births. Their ancestors had settled this area in the early 17th century.  After the British takeover initially their families' lives on their prosperous farms had continued as before. The "Great Meadow" had rich farmland that had been reclaimed from the sea by a system of dikes. In 1730 the Acadians swore an oath of allegiance to the British on condition they would not have to fight the French or their Native allies. But toward the end of the 1740's there was unrest in the area due to British insistence on an unconditional oath of allegiance. Wars being fought far away in Europe had repercussions on the land of L'Acadie. Unrest spread and between 1749-1755 active armed resistance to British rule spread throughout the area.

The 11 living Dupuis children (which included two sets of twins) their spouses and children were scattered through the British colonies and England. The names of Charles' brothers, uncles, cousins, brothers-in-law all appear on the list of men scheduled for deportation in 1755. Some of these colonies were hospitable to the refugees but others resented having these families thrust upon them - French speaking and Catholics in an English speaking and Protestant colony. Those who went to England fared worse since they were regarded as enemy combatants and prisoners of war. Three of Charles siblings were sent to England: Francoise Osite Dupuis, her husband Honore Daigle, their children, his brother Jean Baptiste age 10, and eldest sister Marie Josephe Dupuis with her children and  husband Pierre Theriot. Of these Francoise died in England as well as brother -in-law Pierre.

Older brother Antoine Dupuis, wife Marguerite Boudrot and family were sent to New York. Simon-Pierre, wife Marie LeBlanc and children may also have originally been sent to New York but made their way to Connecticut with widowed sister Marguerite Dupuis Boudrot, Charles and sister Euphrosine. His  sister Marie Anne and husband Michel Boudrot were deported to Portabac in Maryland Joseph Herbert and wife Madeliene Dupuis were sent with their teenage children to an unknown British colony perhaps New York with Jean Baptiste's twin Joseph.  Later, after Madeliene's death,  they wind up in Connecticut where he will meet and marry my 5th great grandmother Anne Bourg widow of Jean Doucet, parents of Anne Doucet who would later marry Charles Dupuis. (but that is a story for another blog entry)

When the war between France and Britian ended with a treaty in 1763 the Acadian exiles were free to move to more congenial locations. Between that date and 1767 siblings and their families went to the French speaking island of Dominique (present day Haiti) in the Carribean. Antoine and wife  baptized their children born in New England in Mirebas. Both  parents  died and were buried in Mirebas. Some of their children would continue on to Louisiana. A Spanish colony in 1765 it was especially hospitable to Catholic immigrants seeing them as a bulwark against the British. Acadians who stayed in Dominique were forced to more again during the Haitian Revolt and many moved to  Louisiana which was once again French and back to the former British colonies now the United States.  Marie Dupuis Boudrot and family  brother Joseph, Marguerite Dupuis Boudrot and children,  also sought refuge in Louisiana. Marie Anne Dupuis widow of Michael Boudrot deported to Portabac Maryland went with her family to Louisiana. In 1802 with the Louisana purchase that territory became part of the expanding United States.

Those in England went to France: eldest sister Marguerite Dupuis Theriot  now widowed, her children and Jean Baptiste age 21. In 1767 they were among 78 Acadian families living on the island Belle-Ile-en-Mer off the coast of Brittany. It is from an affidavit sworn by her that much of the information about the family migrations is known. Those in France were often disappointed because the French government did not live up to promises of land and support for the refugees. Some Theriot children who went to France eventually wound up returning to the New World and settling in Louisiana. Jean Baptiste died, unmarried in France in 1783.

 Of the 11 living children of Antoine and Marie Josephte only my ancestor Charles found his way back north after being deported to Connecticut. While in Connecticut he met and married Anne Doucet (her family story will be another blog entry)  In 1769 he came back to former French territory with his new wife and some of her relatives,  to have their 1768 marriage blessed in the newly founded town of Lacadie, Quebec. This town was founded by Acadian refugees and its church Ste Margaret of Blainfindie has the records of the many descendants of Charles including my 3rd great grandmother Salome Dupuis.

This summary of the fate of Antoine Dupuis and Marie Josephte Dugas' children is a microcosm of the Acadian Expulsion - to the British  colonies, to France, England and the French Caribbean islands and eventually migration back to French Canada and Louisiana.

* http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_e.jsp?mkey=3755

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