Joseph Pitre
27 December 1718 Acadia - 1765 Quebec
Joseph Pitre was born on the 27th of December 1718 in Port Royal, Acadia. He was the fifth of eight children born to Claude Pitre and his second wife Anne (Jeanne) Henry. Because of his father’s first marriage he actually had a total of seven siblings at the time of his birth. Three more were to follow after Joseph.
Over the next twenty years the Acadians increased rapidly in population and expanded into new settlements. On the 3rd of July 1741, at Beaubassin, Joseph married 20-year-old Catherine Joseph Thibodeau, the eighth child of Pierre Thibodeau and Anne Marie Aucoin. Three years later war broke out again in Europe. The French hoped the Acadians would support them and the English were worried about the same thing. Most Acadians remained neutral but that did not ease England’s anxiety.
By 1752 Joseph and his family were at Chipoudy. He is listed with a wife, two boys and three girls. The boys are Flavien 6 and Louis 2. (The girls names and fates are unknown to me, but their ages would likely have been 10, 8 and 4.). His widowed mother Anne Henry is there as well with Joseph’s brother Charles and a sister, probably Therese. Also listed is his half-brother Pierre with his wife and seven children.
As the situation worsens, staying in Acadia no longer seems an option. [This may be the Joseph Pitre who was put on the sloop Endeavor which left the Chignectou area in October of 1755 destined for South Carolina, no wife or children included.] The family move on to St. Francois du Lac in Quebec where eleven-year-old Flavien dies in July of 1757. About eight years on, circa 1765, Joseph not yet fifty dies. His widow remarries on 27th May 1769 to Jean Morvend at St. Francois du Lac.
Joseph and Catherine’s surviving children married non-Acadians: Jean Baptiste married Marie Francoise 'Marianne' St. Cosme in January of 1773 at Fort Detroit; Louis married Madeleine Marcot in January of 1774 at Cap Sante, Quebec; and Joseph married Madeleine Frenet in February of 1779. Catherine Josephe Thibodeau died 12 January 1790 at St. Francois du Lac, just two months shy of her 70th birthday.
Continuation of tree (5th child of Claude Pitre/Anne (Jeanne) Henry); all known surname descendants:
3 Joseph Pitre b: 27 December 1718 Port Royal, Acadia; d: Abt. 1765 Quebec
+Catherine Josephe Thibodeau b: 25 March 1721 Port Royal, Acadia; m: 3 July 1741 Beaubassin, Acadia [Pierre/Anne Marie Aucoin]; d: 12 January 1790 St. Francois du Lac, Yamaska, Quebec
4 Flavien (Florian) Pitre b: Abt. 1746 Chipoudy, Acadia; d: 24 July 1757 Basilica, Notre Dame, Quebec
4 Louis Pitre b: Abt. 1750 Acadia; d: 4 September 1834 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec (aged 84)
+Marie Madeleine Marcot b: 24 February 1755 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Quebec; m: 24 January 1774 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec [Augustin/Marie Madeleine Carpentier]; d: 12 November 1810 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec (aged 56)
4 Joseph Pitre b: Abt. 1752 Acadia; d: 10 April 1829 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec
+Marie Madeleine Frenet b: 30 January 1744 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec; m: 8 February 1779 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec [Antoine/Marie Charlotte Godin]; d: Bet. 1785-1788
*2nd Wife of Joseph Pitre:
+Marie Francoise Langlois b: 5 October 1767 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec; m: 27 October 1788 Ste. Famille, Cap Sante, Portneuf, Quebec [Pierre/Genevieve Lamotte]; d: 6 April 1839 St. Joseph, Deschambault, Portneuf, Quebec
4 Jean Baptiste Pitre b: Abt. 1753 Chipoudy, Acadia; d: 25 May 1834 Assumption, Windsor, Sandwich, Essex, ONT
+Marie Francoise 'Marianne' St. Cosme b: 30 June 1753 Ste. Anne (Fort Pontchartrain), Detroit, Wayne, MI; m: 5 January 1773 Ste. Anne (Fort Pontchartrain) Detroit, Wayne, MI [Pierre Laurent/Catherine Barrios dite Lotteman]; d: 26 August 1783 Ste. Anne ( Fort Pontchartrain), Detroit, Wayne, MI
*2nd Wife of Jean Baptiste Pitre:
+Angelique Chauvin b: 13 February 1764 Ste. Anne ( Fort Pontchartrain), Detroit, Wayne, MI; m: 14 October 1785 Ste. Anne (Fort Pontchartrain) Detroit, Wayne, MI [Charles/Marie Louise Boyer]; d: 7 February 1824 Sandwich, Essex, ONT
4 Cecile Pitre b: Abt. 1754 Acadia
Back one generation to parents of Joseph Pitre
Items in RED have been verified against parish register entries.
- A few early registers are so degraded I have relied on the PRDH extractions in those cases.
- Earliest items in RED sourced from Dictionnaire Genealogique Des Familles Acadiennes (Stephen A. White) and from extant registers.
Last updated: 5 December 2019.