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Archiver > ACADIAN-CAJUN > 2002-02 > 1013020360


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Subject: THE EUROPEAN ORIGIN OF THE LANDRYS IN NORTH AMERICA
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 13:32:40 EST


On the origin of the North American Landrys:

There are at least 4 separate lines (or clans) of Landrys that settled in
North America.

1st - Guillaume Landry, settled at Ile d'Orleans in Québec.
It appears that Guillaume Landry's father, Maturin Landry, from
Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne), and married to Damiane Desavis, daughter of
Guillaume Desavis. Damiane was born about 1600 in La-Ventrouze-au-Perche,
Tourouvre, Mortagne, France may have had come to Canada to the region of
Trois Rivieres in the employ of the Jesuits sometime before the summer of
1643. His son Guillaume Landry, who was born at La Ventrouze-au-Perche, which
was situated between four large French provinces: Normandie, Ile-de-France,
Orleans and Maine, emigrated to Canada sometime in 1653
=========
2nd - René Landry dit l' aisne (the elder), born in France in 1618 and
believed to have arrived in Acadia ca. 1640
=============
3rd - René Landry, dit le jeune (the younger) was born in France in 1634,
whose date of arrival in Acadia is unknown, and was married at Acadia in 1659
==============
Because Guillaume Landry was born at La-Ventrouze-au-Perche, Tourouvre,
Mortagne, France, and his father was originally from Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne),
reaserchers have assumed (with no documentation) that the René Landrys were
from either La-Ventrouze-au-Perche, Tourouvre, Mortagne, France, or from
Neuilly-sur-Eure (Orne).

However, because the records of the progenitors of the Acadian Landrys (René
Landry dit l' aisne (the elder) and René Landry, dit le jeune (the younger)
were lost in the many fires that occurred in Port Royal, there is no
documentation (as yet discovered) that indicates either the parents or the
place of origin of either René Landry.

"..... The reason why it is very difficult to trace early Acadian families to
their places of origin in France is because all of Acadia's early records,
whether parish registers, notorial archives, or others, have all long since
been lost. This is a real handicap in Acadian research. .... I am given to
understand that the Landry name, for example, is well known in the area
around Loudun in Poitou (N. Bujold and M. Caillebeau, Les origines françaises
des premieres familles acadiennes: le sud Loundais (Poitiers: Imprimeirie
L'Union, 1979) p. 32), but is rather hard to find elsewhere in France."
(Professor Stephen A. White, Genealogist at the Université De Moncton in New
Brunswick).

" ……………. there is no specific documentation to show that either the elder
or younger René LANDRY actually originated from LaChaussée. Even though we do
know that a majority of the first colonists in Acadia came from Loundunais
(Geneviéve Massignon, in her linguistic analysis), and there were numerous
LANDRYS in the vicinity of La Chaussée in the 17th century, it is only a
matter of probability, but there is no certainty, that either the elder or
the younger René Landry came from La Chaussée in the Loudun area of
west?central France. "

Father Clarence J. d'Entremont states that dealing with the origins of a
great number of Acadians who "were married before 1700, when the registers of
Port Royal were destroyed in a fire; the Landrys are among this group".
There is ample evidence of René Landry's presence in Acadia, but to my
knowledge, any vital information about him before his showing up in the 1786
census of Port Royal, does not exist.

and

"……….. regarding the origins of the Landrys, I must say that there is
probably no other Acadian family about whose background there has been so
much speculation and wishful thinking. The result is that what we actually
know about the Landry families who immigrated from France to Acadia has come
to be regrettably enshrouded in a dense fog of error and confusion." (Stephen
A. White)
======================

4th - Jean Jacques Henri Landry and Susanne Celestine Sandoz who settled in
St. Martinville in the 1830s, and today, their progeny are concentrated in
the Lafayette, Louisiana area.



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