Radegonde Lambert is an Acadian. Join: Acadians Project Discuss: ACADIA

Biography

NOTICE: This profile is protected by the Acadian Project because of frequent duplication, variant name spelling, attempts to add unsourced parents, or is an historically important person, in the Top 100 highly viewed Acadian profiles. This profile has been involved in much research and discussion. Read all the research notes and contact the Acadian Project with any information before making any changes. Thanks for helping make WikiTree the best site for accurate information.

Radegonde Lambert migrated from France to Acadia.

Radegonde Lambert was born around 1621, or perhaps slightly later, in France. Her age is not consistent across censuses such that her exact birth year is not known.^[1]

Gervais Carpin estimates the time of immigration to Port-Royal of Jean Blanchard and Radegonde Lambert between 1642 and 1644.^[2] They were both considered Pioneers of Acadie by Stephen White^[3].

Radegonde (20) married Jean Blanchard (30) (born about 1611 in France) in 1642. Stephen White remains silent on the location of their marriage. White’s depositions from Belle-Ile-en-Mer document refers to Jean Blanchard coming from France “with his wife.” Father Archange Godbout and Stephen White argue that this phrase should not necessarily be interpreted as meaning the two came together at the same time, but merely that they both came from France.^[3]

Between around 1643 and 1656, Radegonde gave birth to six children (according to Carpin, two of these children were born in France.) Their children were:

1. Madeleine Blanchard (abt. 1643–bef. 1683)
2. Anne Blanchard (abt. 1645–abt. 1714)
3. Martin Blanchard (abt. 1647–abt. 1717)
4. Guillaume Blanchard (abt. 1650–aft. 1716)
5. Bernard Blanchard (abt. 1653– )
6. Marie Blanchard (abt. 1656–aft. 1714)

The first mention of Radegonde and Jean in Acadia is in the 1671 census of Port-Royal.^[4] They were already around 50 and 60 years old respectively, and their six children, aged between 15 and 28, appeared to live with them, though not for certain as sometimes married children were listed with their parents. They owned 12 cattle, 9 sheep and 5 arpents of land.

As shown in the Port-Royal census of 1678, Jean and Radegonde lived with their son Guillaume and his family.^[5]

"During the years of British rule, most of the Port-Royal population moved upriver away from the town. Using the agricultural practices initiated under D'Aulnay, the Acadians dyked and cultivated extensive salt marshes along the river and raised livestock. Through necessity, residents had reached an accommodation with New England traders who had become their sole source for the goods that they could not produce themselves... New England traders exchanged their goods for Acadian produce and furs... There were seventy to eighty families in the Port Royal area in 1665."^[7]

In 1686, at Port Royal, Radegonde LAMBERT, aged 65, lived with her husband, Jean BLANCHARD, aged 75.^[8]

Radegonde died after the 1686 census. She does not appear in the 1693 census or any later ones.

Jean Blanchard owned a lot adjoining the side of the old Fort which was expropriated in 1705 to extend the Fort in Port-Royal). It is not clear how long the family lived there.^{[1] [9]}

Timeline

b1605 First Nations Peoples occupied the region around the Te'wapskik (Mi'kmaq name for Dauphin/Annapolis River) for thousands of years using it as an overland route^[7]

1605 French found first permanent European settlement in North America, north of St. Augustin Florida, and built the Port-Royal Habitation.^[7]

1613 Virginia English Admiral burned the Port-Royal Habitation, starting a 150 year battle between the French and English in the area. The French continued to maintain a presence.^[7]

c1621 Birth of Radegonde Lambert, likely in France

1632 Treaty Saint-Germain-en-Laye ceded Acadia to France; Razilly brought ~300 elite men^[10]

1636 Arrival of the first French families to settle permanently^[11]

c1642 Marriage to Jean Blanchard

c1643 Birth of daughter, Madeleine

c1645 Birth of daughter, Anne

c1647 Birth of son, Martin

c1650 Birth of son, Guillaume

c1653 Birth of son, Bernard

1654 British captured Port-Royal; French settlement ceased^[12]

c1656 Birth of daughter, Marie

1667-70 Treaty of Breda ceded Acadia to the French; settlement resumed^[13]

1671, 1678 & 1686 Resident at Port-Royal, Acadia

after 1686 Death

DNA Research

DNA testing shows that Radegonde Lambert had European, not native ancestry. Roberta Estes, author of the popular blog www.DNA-eXplained.com is a scientist, National Geographic Genographic affiliate researcher, and founding pioneer in the genetic genealogy field. She speaks and writes widely about DNA and genealogy, including the Native Heritage Project at www.nativeheritageproject.com.^[14]

“Radegonde’s DNA, haplogroup X2b4, which is exceedingly rare ... is found only in Europeans, to date, and not in any Native people."
"It would be impossible for X2b4, born in Europe, to be found among the Micmac women in 1621-1629."
“Radegonde Lambert did not have a Native mother. Her mother was very probably French, like the rest of the Acadian immigrants.”^[15]

The Mothers of Acadia maternal DNA project posts its results here. The haplogroup is consistently reported as X2b, indicating European origins. Further, a notation on the DNA results of Paul Katner from Radegonde Lambert

"Whether or not Haplogroup X is Native or European has been debated for sometime. The latest word from Family Tree DNA is: "To distinguish Your mtDNA as Native American it?s necessary to check these mutations, too. "Acadian haplogroup X" belongs in Native American haplogroup X when mutations 8913G, 12397G and 14502C are present." So far those mutations have not been present in all of the people tested whose maternal line goes to Radegonde Lambert. Therefore there is no longer any question but that her heritage was European. A full sequence test such as Paul Katner has had also helps to set the record straight."^[16]

Michael Marcotte has acknowledged that the maternal DNA testing supports French origins, with the caveat that the field is evolving.^[17]

Research Notes

Place of Birth and Marriage: Acadia or France?
There is an often-quoted author, Léopold Lanctôt, who has written that Radegonde was born either in 1621 or in 1628-1629, based on the Acadian censuses. He suggests that a birth in 1621 would mean that she was probably born in Port-Royal, or in 1628-1629 in Cap-du-Sable, Acadie, where her presumed father, Jean Lambert, was possibly posted. Since there were no French women in Acadie at that time, Lanctôt believes he married a native woman. Therefore, Radegonde is Métis.^[18] Many of this author’s findings have been disputed by professional genealogists and no documentation of such a theory has been produced.^[19]

In his article “Origins of the Pioneers of Acadia,” Stephen White explains that according to depositions made by relatives in Belle-Isle-en-Mer in 1767, Radegonde’s husband, which they incorrectly named Guillaume Blanchard instead of Jean Blanchard, “came from France with his wife” Radegonde, whom they mistakenly referred to as Huguette Poirier. These relatives, providing information 150 years after Radegonde’s birth, did not mention her parents’ names. He adds: “The depositions also often speak of a first ancestor as having come from France “with his wife” but as Father Archange Godbout pointed out in his article (...) one should not necessarily interpret this as meaning that the two came together, and at the same time. Rather, the expression may be taken to mean simply that both the husband and the wife had come from France.”^[3] Still, Stephen White does not suggest a location for her birth in his Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes, nor does he name her parents.

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino writes : “Thus far, the results obtained through mtDNA testing have demonstrated that nearly all those first Mothers in Acadia about whom there was speculation were of European descent. This has confirmed the reliability of the depositions at Belle-Île-en-Mer to the extent that they speak to the origins of specific ancestors, and the prudence of trusting documentation over conjecture.”^[20]

Since the Belle-Isle-en-Mer depositions do suggest that Radegonde came from France and that it is supported by DNA research, France is used as her birth location in Radegonde’s profile.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Stephen A. White, Patrice Gallant, and Hector-J Hébert. Dictionnaire Généalogique Des Familles Acadiennes. Moncton, N.-B.: Centre D'études Acadiennes, Université De Moncton, 1999, Print. p. 143-144.
2. ↑ Le réseau du Canada: Étude du mode migratoire de la France vers la Nouvelle-France (1628-1662), Gervais Carpin, Éd Septentrion 2001 ISBN 2-89448-197-7 Éd Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne ISBN 2-84050-207-0 , pg 392
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Stephen A. White, "Origins of the Pioneers of Acadia, According to the Depositions made by Their Descendants at Belle-Ile-en-Mer in 1767," English Translation (University of Moncton, Centre d'études acadiennes) Online.

   LAMBERT, Radegonde, came from France with her husband Jean Blanchard, according to Jean LeBlanc, husband of her great-granddaughter Françoise Blanchard (ibid, Vol. III, p. 43). The deposition of Françoise's nephews Joseph and Simon-Pierre Trahan is to the same effect (ibid., p. 123). Both depositions mistakenly give Guillaume as the ancestor's given name. Jean LeBlanc makes an additional error regarding the name of Jean Blanchard's wife, calling her Huguette Poirier. The censuses of 1671 and 1686 meanwhile clearly show that she was named Radegonde Lambert (see DGFA-1, pp. 143-144). The source of these errors is probably a simple confusion arising from the fact that Jean LeBlanc's wife's grandfather Martin Blanchard had a brother Guillaume who was married to a woman named Huguette, as this writer explained in an article published in 1984 (SHA, Vol. XV, pp. 116-117). This Huguette was not named Poirier, however, but Gougeon, although her mother, Jeanne Chebrat, had married a man named Jean Poirier before she wed Huguette's father Antoine Gougeon, and all her male-line descendants in Acadia were Poiriers. Unfortunately, we do not know just what questions Jean LeBlanc asked in trying to establish the Blanchard lineage, but he might certainly have had the impression that Huguette was a Poirier from the fact that so many of her relatives were Poiriers, including her grandnephew Joseph, who was also on Belle-Ile in 1767 (see ibid, Vol. III, pp. 13-15).

4. ↑ Tim Hebert, "Transcription of the 1671 Acadian Census, at Port-Royal, Acadie," 1671 Census Transcribed. The original census can be found at Census microfilm C-2572 of the National Archives of Canada, “Acadie Recensements 1671 – 1752,” Images 3-14;

   Jean BLANCHARD, 60, wife, Radegonde LAMBERT 42; Children (married): Martin 24, Madeline 28, Anne 26; (unmarried): Guillaume 21, Bernard 18, Marie 15; cattle 12, sheep 9, 5 arpents.

5. ↑ Tim Hebert, "1678 Port Royal Acadian Census," correlations by Rev. Clarence J. d'Entremont, Fairhaven, Massachusetts,1678 Census;

   Jean Blanchard & Radegonde Lambert; Guilleaume Blanchard Hugette Gougeon; 6 acres 17 cattle 1 gun; 2 boys 3 1675; 6/M 1678; 1 girl 5 1675.

6. ↑ 1707 homestead location of their son Guillaume Blanchard. In Au Coeur de l'Acadie, Acadian Settlement on the Annapolis River 1707 Map, Parks Canada
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} Brenda Dunn, A History of Port Royal / Annapolis Royal 1605-1800 (Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing, 2009), pp.15-20 (French Settlement); pp. 23-24 (1654 Capture of Port-Royal); pp. 25-27 (the English period 1654-1670); pp. 27-37 (French Sovereignty)].
8. ↑ Tim Hebert, Transcription of the 1686 Acadian Census, at Port-Royal, Acadie, 1686 Census Transcribed. The original census can be found at Acadian Census microfilm C-2572 of the National Archives of Canada, “Acadie Recensements 1671 – 1752,” Images 15-60;

   at Port Royal: Jean BLANCHARD 75, Radegonde LAMBERT 65.

9. ↑ Stephen A. White, English Supplement to the Dictionnaire Généalogique Des Familles Acadiennes, Part I, 1636 to 1714 (Moncton, N.-B.: Centre D'études Acadiennes, Université De Moncton, 2000), p. 32;

   2 Dec 1705: Expropriation of a lot "adjoining the side of the old fort," and belonging to Jean Blanchard for the extension of the fort at Port Royal. As Jean Blanchard had already been dead for over 12 years, one must suppose that his heirs were the actual owners of this land in 1705.

10. ↑ George MacBeath, “RAZILLY (Rasilly), ISAAC DE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–), accessed September 11, 2019, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/razilly_isaac_de_1E.html.
11. ↑ Geneviève Massignon, "Les parlers français d'Acadie, enquête linguistique" (Paris: Librairie Klincksieck, 1962), p. 32.
12. ↑ William I. Roberts, 3rd, “SEDGWICK, ROBERT,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–), accessed September 11, 2019, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/sedgwick_robert_1E.html.
13. ↑ In collaboration, “MORILLON DU BOURG,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–), accessed September 11, 2019, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/morillon_du_bourg_1E.html.
14. ↑ Roberta Estes
15. ↑ Roberta Estes, “Haplogroup X2b4 is European, Not Native American,” DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy, posted on 14 September 2016, accessed on 17 September 2019 at https://dna-explained.com/2016/09/14/haplogroup-x2b4-is-european-not-native-american/
16. ↑ Lucie Consentino website Acadian-home.org Radegonde DNA accessed Sept 24, 2019
17. ↑ Michael Marcotte, "Radegonde Lambert," Accessed December 2020 at https://web.archive.org/web/20150523161856/http://michaelmarcotte.com/radegonde.htm
18. ↑ Léopold Lanctôt, o.m.i., Familles acadiennnes (Sainte-Julie, Québec: Éditions du Libre-Échange, 1994), Tome I: Familles Amirault à Jeansone, 339 p.; Tome II : Familles Landry à Vincent en passant par les Thériault (1994), 328 p. _; Vol.1, pp. 58-61, accessed at https://archive.org/details/famillesacadienn01lanc_0 .
19. ↑ “Rebuttal of the Jean-Claude Landry Myth and the supposed Origin of Landry Family,” website Histoire et généalogie des Landry hosted by Marcel Landry;

    Stephen White is cited concerning Lanctôt’s work. “In a letter written in early 1998, Stephen A. White, Genealogist, Centre d'etudes Acadiennes, writes: ‘It is most regrettable that Father Lanctôt chose to present his account of the history of our early Acadian families as though all of his points were based on documented facts. And it is reprehensible that a publisher saw fit to distribute such an admixture of truth and fantasy, as though it were serious history. The result is particularly invidious insofar as those people who have little or no means to consult the original records are concerned. They are left to suppose that Lanctot's work is a reliable piece of research, whereas it is in fact treacherously misleading, because there are some extremely good information mixed in with the bad.’

20. ↑ “MtDNA Haplogroups ” Genweb website hosted by Lucie LeBlanc Consentino.

See also:

• Bona Arsenault, L'Acadie des ancêtres, avec la généalogie des premières familles acadiennes. Conseil de la Vie Francaise en Amerique. Université Laval, Québec. 1955 (Les familles de Port-Royal au début de l'année 1671, p. 56)
• Beauregard, Denis, Dictionnaire généalogique de l'ancienne Acadie, francogene.com , accessed at http://www.francogene.com/dgaa/
• Godbout, Archange, Manuscrit - Dictionnaire généalogique des Acadiens, Montréal, non publié, avant 1960. (À la Société généalogique canadienne-française : Fonds Godbout - P.9 - Dictionnaire des Acadiens – Boîte 83 de 84. Trois tomes.)
• French Heritage DNA, signature ancestrale validée par ADN. Lambert Radegonde, Haplogroup(e) ADN-mt X2b4 p. 14
• Gaylord Hinshaw, (online). "Native American DNA of the Shawnee Bluejacket Family". Compilation by G. Hinshaw based on Family Tree DNA's PekowiBlueJacket Project. Accessed July 23, 2018.
• Consentino LeBlanc, Lucie (2004, 21 Dec). e-mail with subject: 'From Stephen White re: Radegonde Lambert' (could not access this link Cormier-1939 02:38, 12 September 2019 (UTC))
• Mark Lipson, et al. (16 November 2017). "Parallel Palaeogenomic Transects Reveal Complex Genetic History of Early European Farmers", Nature, vol. 551, pp. 368–372. This paper is cited by Edison Williams in G2G discussion One more time: What is Radegonde Lambert's real origin?
• Jennifer A. Raff; Deborah A. Bolnick. (2015) Does Mitochondrial Haplogroup X Indicate Ancient Trans-Atlantic Migration to the Americas? A Critical Re-Evaluation, PaleoAmerica, 1:4, 297-304, DOI: 0.1179/2055556315Z.00000000040. Concluding thoughts: " . . the Beringian migration model remains the best interpretation of the genetic, archaeological, and paleoclimate data to date."
• M. Rasmussen et al. (2014 Feb 13). The genome of a late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana, Nature, vol. 506, pp. 225–229, doi: 10.1038/nature13025. "D4h3a is one of the rare mtDNA lineages specific to Native Americans, it is distributed along the Pacific coast in North and South America among contemporary populations and is also present in ancient specimens."
• The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry, W.W. Norton, 306 pages, ISBN 0-393-02018-5. According to Oxford Ancestors Ltd - Maternal Ancestry: The clan of Xenia is the second oldest of the seven native European clans. It was founded 25,000 years ago by the second wave of modern humans, Homo sapiens, who established themselves in Europe, just prior to the coldest part of the last Ice Age. Today around 7% of native Europeans are in the clan of Xenia. Within the clan, three distinct branches fan out over Europe. One is still largely confined to Eastern Europe while the other two have spread further to the West into central Europe and as far as France and Britain. About 1% of Native Americans are also in the clan of Xenia.
• Wikipedia article. Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas - mtDNA: "This suggests that 95% of Indigenous Amerindian mtDNA is descended from a minimal genetic founding female population, comprising sub-haplogroups A2, B2, C1b, C1c, C1d, and D1. The remaining 5% is composed of the X2a, D2, D3, C4, and D4h3 sub-haplogroups."
• familytreedna.com. X2b4 mtDNA - mtDNA Test Results for Members
• TREE Note, this link to Find A Grave has inaccurate information: Find A Grave: Memorial #66789817. See WikiTree link's G2G discussion regarding above Find A Grave reference inaccuracies.. Jeanne was mentioned on a memorial in Amherst Cemetery, Amherst, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada with a death date of 1693. "Memorial page for Jeanne Radegonde “Joy” Lambert Blanchard (1621-1693), citing Amherst Cemetery, Amherst, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada; Maintained by Barbara H-Z (contributor 48003165)."
• tree Nos Origines 33465: