This biography was copied in full from Wendy Pitre Roostan's website "The Pitre Trail from Acadia".
"Claude Pitre was born about February 1671, appearing in the 1671 census as a 9-month-old, the youngest of Jean Pitre and Marie Pesseley's three children on that census.[1] Acadia at that time was a community of about 400 people.
Over the next 20 years a relative stability existed within the colony, as they farmed, fished and traded. As relations were becoming more heated with the British, Claude married, probably at Port Royal c.1696, to Marie Anne Comeau, who was about eighteen. She was the oldest daughter of early Acadians Pierre Comeau, known as l'Esturgeon, and Jeanne Bourg.[2]
Having eight children over the next eleven years must have taken its toll as Marie Anne died at the age of twenty-nine, a month after their twins were born.
Claude now had at least six children to care for as well as earn a living. Maybe this was an unappealing proposition for young women in the area, because it was two and a half years before he remarried. (It’s possible that his youngest sister Jeanne, who is probably the “daughter over 12” appearing with their widowed mother in the 1707 census,[3] took over the domestic duties for his family. Their stepfather had died 9 months prior, and their mother died 5 months after Marie Anne’s death so she could have easily stepped into the role. What became of her is unknown.) Twenty-two-year-old Anne "Jeanne" Henry became Claude’s second wife during the winter of 1710.[4][5] Anne was the middle child of Robert Henry, a Frenchman, and Marie Madeleine Godin, a Quebecois.
Eight months later Port-Royal, having been given no assistance by France, surrendered to the English forces. The inhabitants of Port-Royal and those people living within three miles were granted permission to stay for two years by taking a conditional oath of allegiance, rendering them "French neutrals." The rest of Acadia came under English control in 1713. Most may have wanted to leave but to do so would mean giving up their hard-earned farms on good land and starting over who knew where.
The 1714 census still finds Claude, Anne, and their eight children in Port-Royal.[6]
The 1717 burial registers record the death of Claude's two-week-old son, Rene,[7]
and six months later his 15-year-old son, Jean.[8]
Five of Claude's children from his first marriage married in Port-Royal during the 1720s; presumably Claude was still there. By the late-1720s Claude was in his mid-fifties.
Claude and Anne were still in Port-Royal in 1726,[citation needed] but the family may have moved to Chipoudy not long after. Daughter Marie Josephe married in Chipoudy in 1734.[citation needed] Claude died during this time -- his widow is listed in the 1752[9]
and the 1754/55[10]
censuses at Chipoudy. Three of his sons, Pierre, Joseph and Charles, were prisoners at Halifax in 1763.[11]
Of Claude's children from his first marriage, one died on Ile St. Jean, two in France[citation needed] and one in Louisiana;[citation needed] from the second marriage, one died in France, and three others in exile in Quebec, as did his widow Anne, in hospital, in 1757." [12]
Marriages/ Children
Marriage (1) Marie Anne Comeau, c.1696 in Port-Royal, Acadie[2]
Children, all born in Port-Royal, Acadie:[2]
Marie Pitre (c.1697)
Anne Pitre (c.1698)
Pierre Pitre (c.1699)
Marie Marguerite Pitre (c.1700)
Jean Pitre (1702)
Marie Pitre (1705)
Francoise Pitre (1707)
Angelique Pitre (1707)
Marriage (2) Anne "Jeanne" Henry, 17 Feb 1710 in Port-Royal, Acadie[2]
Jean PITRE, edge tool maker, 35, wife Marie PESELET 26; Children: Marie 5, Catherine 3, Claude 9 months; cattle 1.
↑ 2.02.12.22.32.4 Stephen A. White, Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Acadiennes: 1715 à 1780 ("DGFA") (Moncton, NB: Centre d'Études Acadiennes) pp. 1318 & 1320
↑ Tim Hebert, Acadian-Cajun Genealogy website 1707 Acadian Census accessed 18 August 2019.
↑ Nova Scotia Archives in An Acadian Parish Remembered: The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755 René Pitre burial (registered in 1717)
↑ Wendy Pitre Roostan , Claude Pitre
February 1671 Port Royal - before 1750 Acadia, "The Pitre Trail from Acadia" accessed at http://www.pitretrail.com/
↑ Tim Hebert, "1678 Port Royal Acadian Census," with correlations done by Rev. Clarence J. d'Entremont, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, online at 1678 Census
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Claude by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA.
However, there are no known yDNA test-takers in his direct paternal line.
Mitochondrial DNA test-takers in the direct maternal line:
Good find, Bernard! I got them matched up and found some sources. I can't find where in Acadie they lived so if you have any info, I'd be glad to have it added to their profiles. Update, apparently Isle St. Jean. Now need to find sources for their children!
Thanks Cindy for connecting the poor orphan François.
That said, I have no connection with Acadie whatsoever, I just stumbled on this profile while monitoring unconnected profiles born in France. And that one being from Bretagne, where all my ancestors come from, I had to do something about it :-)
Actually the family name of François is certainly FARDET (aka FARDEL) and I found three Geneanet profiles for him :
https://gw.geneanet.org/henrene?n=fardet&oc=1&p=francois has only three children, but the death place (Saint-Malo) supported by a note : "4 par Lemoyne 27. François Fardet, 91 ans, St Malo. Cet homme a servi à Louisbourg ; il est infirme et n'a rien. Son grand âge mérite des égards, on propose de lui conserver le traitement (108 l.)" Note sure what "Lemoyne 27" stands for
According to https://gw.geneanet.org/lucie2019?lang=fr&p=marguerite&n=pitre&oc=5 he could be identified as the husband of Marguerite Pitre born 1711, the first daughter of the marriage with Anne (Jeanne) Henry.
edited by Cindy (Bourque) Cooper
That said, I have no connection with Acadie whatsoever, I just stumbled on this profile while monitoring unconnected profiles born in France. And that one being from Bretagne, where all my ancestors come from, I had to do something about it :-)
Actually the family name of François is certainly FARDET (aka FARDEL) and I found three Geneanet profiles for him :
https://gw.geneanet.org/katheriot?n=fardet&oc=&p=francois giving names and dates of four children, with some sources.
https://gw.geneanet.org/henrene?n=fardet&oc=1&p=francois has only three children, but the death place (Saint-Malo) supported by a note : "4 par Lemoyne 27. François Fardet, 91 ans, St Malo. Cet homme a servi à Louisbourg ; il est infirme et n'a rien. Son grand âge mérite des égards, on propose de lui conserver le traitement (108 l.)" Note sure what "Lemoyne 27" stands for
https://gw.geneanet.org/dalerideout?n=fardet&oc=&p=francois has not much info, but a lot of sources :-)
edited by Bernard Vatant