My family is from New Iberia, Iberia Parish, Louisiana (French: La Nouvelle-Ibérie), which is about 30 miles south of Lafayette. Lafayette is referred to as “The Heart of Acadiana.”
My ancestors were among the French settlers from Acadia, Nova Scotia. The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia and most of my ancestors had settled there around the 1640’s. To put things in perspective, Port-Royal, Acadia was established in 1605.
Beginning in 1755, the British deported the French Acadians, in what has become known as the "Great Expulsion," and were expelled because they refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. The French-Canadians ended up settling in lower Louisiana, where most of my ancestors settled in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. Church registers from Acadia were carried by Acadian settlers to Louisiana and that is why there is such a wonderful repository of family documentation there.
My ninth great-grandfather, Daniel LeBlanc, was born in Martaize, France and left France in 1648 on the ship LaVerve to Acadia, with his wife, Françoise Gaudet, settling on the north banks of the Port-Royal River (today called Annapolis River).
At the time of the “Great Expulsion” in Acadia, the LeBlanc family was expelled and exiled in Maryland before their eventual migration to Louisiana (The Founding of New Acadia by Carl Brasseaux).
Simon Joseph LeBlanc, son of René LeBlanc and Ann Teriot of Grand-Pré, Acadia, were among the people that were deported and migrated to the area of Fausse Point (St. Martinville), Louisiana. Three generations later, my third great-grandfather, Joseph Huval LeBlanc (1872-1948) was born in Iberia Parish, Louisiana. His daughter was my great-grandmother, Blanche LeBlanc (1899-1968). Blanche was a nurse and had only one child, my grandmother, Laura Mae Stewart (1922-2005). When I was little, I remember most households in New Iberia spoke French (Cajun French).
My third great-grandmother, Antoinette (Antonia) Dartés (1876-1953) was the daughter of Jean Dartiel Dartés (1849-1934) and Marguerite Broussard (1852-1953) of New Iberia, Louisiana. Antonia’s ancestors arrived in Louisiana in 1765, when Jean Dartés enlisted as a crew member on an ocean going vessel headed for the French Colonies in America. He was indentured as a blacksmith apprentice in Natchitoches for a period of three years after he arrived. Jean was the son of Pierre Dartés (1706- ) from Castres-Gironde, France and wife, Marie Garssaut (1715- ).
Antonia’s mother Marguerite Broussard is the descendent of Jean François Broussard (1654-1716) of Anjou, Isère, France and Catherine Richard (1663-1716) of Port-Royal, Acadia, Nova Scotia. We are descended from both brothers Alexandre dit Beausoleil Broussard (1700-1765) and Joseph Gaurhept de Beausoleil Broussard (1702-1765). Joseph was know as Beausoleil, a leader of the Acadian people. He was among the first 200 Acadians to arrive in Louisiana on February 27, 1765 aboard the Santo Domingo.
Most of my ancestors were Catholic. As far back as I can remember, my family had a strong Catholic faith. We went to Catholic schools and my mother, still today, makes the sign of the cross when we drive by a Catholic Church.
