1727 Acadia – 26 February 1769 France
Claude Pitre was born c1727 at Cobequit, Acadia, the 2nd of eight sons to Claude Jean Pitre and Marguerite Doiron. Claude does not show up in the 1752 Ile St. Jean census, but it is there at Port Lajoie he married Rosalie Landry in November of 1752. Presumably both families were late arrivals to the island. Having found no records of children, one might conclude that Rosalie died soon after the marriage.
On 20th July 1759 Claude and his brothers Paul, Francois and Raphael arrived at St. Malo from Cherbourg. Claude initially lived in Pleudihen but was taken prisoner by the English and spent the next few years in England. Claude returned to Pleudihen in 1763 and remarried to Marie Blanche Richard the following year. Marie Blanche was ten years his junior and another Acadian refugee. They had three children, Honore Marie, Olivier Charles & Marie Charlotte.
The hardships Claude had endured finally took its toll and he died in Mordreux listed as aged 40, only two weeks after the birth of his daughter. Son Honore Marie succumbed that summer and Olivier Charles died at the age of 6 ˝.
In 1785 the remains of Claude’s family sailed for Louisiana on La Ville d'Archangel: Marie Richard widow of Claude Pitre 42, and their daughter Marie 16. Marie Charlotte married in January 1786 to Joseph Marie Boudrot. They, along with her mother, settled in Lafourche. Marie Blanche Richard moved in with the family of widower Francois Landry and was found there in 1788 and 1791.
Continuation of tree (2nd child of Claude Jean Pitre/Marguerite Doiron); all known surname descendants:
4 Claude Pitre b: Abt. 1727 Cobequit, Acadia; d: 26 February 1769 Mordreux, France
+Rosalie Landry b: Abt. 1734 Acadia; m: 6 November 1752 Port Lajoie, Ile St. Jean [Joseph/Elizabeth Vincent]; d: Bef. 1764
*2nd Wife of Claude Pitre:
+Marie Blanche Richard b: Abt. 1737 Acadia; m: 25 September 1764 Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France [Pierre/Marie Boudrot]; d: Aft. 1791 Lafourche, LA
5 Honore Marie Pitre b: 26 June 1765 La Chapelle de Mordreux, France; d: 31 August 1769 La Chapelle de Mordreux, France
5 Olivier Charles Pitre b: 20 January 1767 Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France; d: 3 November 1773 Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France
5 Marie Charlotte Pitre b: 13 February 1769 Pleudihen, France; d: 14 November 1786 Ascension, Lafourche, LA
+ Joseph Marie Boudrot b: 30 September 1765 Mordreux, France; m: 28 January 1786 St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, LA [Etienne/Marguerite Thibodeau]; d: Abt. 1812 Lafourche, LA
Back one generation to parents of Claude Pitre
Items in RED verified from transcriptions in the following:
- Letter from Stephen A. White to Leo Peters
- The Acadian Exiles in St. Malo 1758-1785, Vol. 2 (Robichaux)
- Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records
- Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
Last updated: 2 February 2010***