Claude Pitre
February 1671 Port Royal - before 1750 Acadia
Claude was born about February 1671, appearing in the 1671 census as a 9-month-old, the youngest of Jean and Marie's three children at that census. 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 c1696, 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. Having eight children over the next eleven years must have taken its toll as Marie Anne died at the age of twenty-nine only 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, 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 Henry became Claude’s second wife during the winter of 1710. 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 the French, 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 the oath of allegiance. The rest of Acadia came under English control in 1713. Most wanted to leave but it was almost impossible to do so.
The 1714 census still finds Claude, Anne, and their eight children in Port Royal. The 1717 burial registers record the death of Claude's two-week-old son Rene and six months later his 15-year-old son Jean. Five of Claude's children from his first marriage marry in Port Royal during the 1720's, so presumably Claude was still there. By the late-1720's Claude was in his mid-fifties. (The conditional oath had made the Acadians French neutrals so their lives were relatively peaceful until 1744.)
Claude and Anne were still in Port Royal in 1726, but daughter Marie Josephe married in Chipoudy in 1734. Possibly Claude died during this time and the remaining family moved away from Port Royal. I have no record of his death but his widow is listed in the 1752 and the 1754/55 censuses at Chipoudy. Of Claude's children from his first marriage, one died on Ile St. Jean, two in France and one in Louisiana; from the second marriage, one died in France, and three others in exile in Quebec, as did his widow Anne, in hospital, in 1757.
Continuation of tree (3rd child of Jean Pitre/Marie Pesseley); all known surname descendants:
2 Claude Pitre b: Abt. February 1671 Port Royal, Acadia; d: Bet. 1729-1750 Port Royal, Acadia
+Marie Anne Comeau b: Abt. 1678 Acadia; m: Abt. 1696 Port Royal, Acadia [Pierre/Jeanne Bourg]; d: 9 July 1707 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
3 Marie Pitre b: Abt. 1697 Port Royal, Acadia; d: Aft. 1698
3 Anne Pitre b: Abt. 1698 Port Royal, Acadia; d: Aft. 1701
3 Pierre Pitre b: Abt. 1699 Port Royal, Acadia; d: Aft. 1766 Louisiana
+Agathe Doucet b: 19 January 1710 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; m: 4 February 1727 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia [Rene/Marie Broussard]
3 Marguerite Pitre b: Abt. 1700 Port Royal, Acadia
+Jean Aucoin b: Abt. 1700 Mines, Acadia; m: Abt. 1722 Port Royal, Acadia [Martin/Marie Gaudet]
3 Jean Pitre b: 29 November 1702 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 24 October 1717 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
3 Marie Pitre b: 31 March 1705 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 24 August 1757 St. Pierre du Nord, Ile St. Jean
+Jean Baptiste Chiasson b: Abt. 1693 Acadia; m: 28 May 1722 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia [Gabriel (dit Pierre)/Marie Savoie]; d: 12 February 1758 St. Pierre du Nord, Ile St. Jean
3 Angelique Pitre b: 9 June 1707 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 21 December 1762 Notre Dame du Havre, Normandie, France
+Francois Robichaud b: Abt. 1703 Acadia; m: 24 February 1727 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia [Francois/Madeleine Theriot]; d: Abt. 1729 Acadia
3 Francoise Pitre b: 9 June 1707 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: Aft. 1772
+Jacques Lavergne b: 20 April 1706 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; m: 18 November 1727 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia [Pierre/Anne Bernon]; d: 29 December 1759 Notre Dame, Le Havre, Normandie, France
*2nd Wife of Claude Pitre:
+Anne (Jeanne) Henry b: Abt. 1688 Mines, Acadia; m: 17 February 1710 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia [Robert/Marie Madeleine Godin]; d: 29 November 1757 Hospital General, Quebec
3 Marie Marguerite Pitre b: Abt. 1711 Port Royal, Acadia; d: 28 December 1758 hospital, St. Malo, Ille-et-Villaine, France
+Francois Fardel b: Abt. 1709 Vannes; m: Abt. 1747
3 Marie Josephe Pitre b: 29 May 1712 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 2 December 1757 Basilica, Notre Dame, Quebec
+Jean Joseph Forest b: Abt. 1703 Beaubassin, Acadia; m: 24 May 1734 Chipoudy, Acadia [Jean Baptiste/Marie Elisabeth Labarre]; d: 22 December 1757 Basilica, Notre Dame, Quebec
3 infant Pitre b: Abt. 1714 Port Royal, Acadia; d: 3 April 1714 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
3 Rene Pitre b: 31 March 1717 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 13 April 1717 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
3 Joseph Pitre b: 27 December 1718 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: Abt. 1765 Quebec
+Catherine Josephe Thibodeau b: 25 March 1721 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; m: 3 July 1741 Beaubassin, Acadia [Pierre/Anne Marie Aucoin]; d: 12 January 1790 St. Francois du Lac, Yamaska, Quebec
3 Brigitte Pitre b: 9 May 1721 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
3 Charles Pitre b: 17 November 1723 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia; d: 11 September 1772 St. Francois du Lac, Yamaska, Quebec
+Marie Angelique Blanchard b: Abt. 1743 Acadia; m: Abt. 1759 Chipoudy, Acadia [Jean/(Marie) Rose Thibodeau]; d: 5 March 1772 St. Francois du Lac, Yamaska, Quebec
3 Therese Pitre b: 22 March 1726 St. Jean Baptiste, Port Royal, Acadia
Back one generation to parents of Claude Pitre
- Earliest items in RED sourced from Dictionnaire Genealogique Des Familles Acadiennes (Stephen A. White) and from extant registers.
Items in RED have been verified against parish register entries.
- Ile St. Jean entries in RED from Rev. Donald J. Hebert's published transcriptions.
- Acadians in Exile (Rev. Hebert)
Last updated: 15 October 2011.