Germain Jean Pitre
1714 Acadia - 20 October 1764 West Indies
Germain Jean Pitre was born about 1714 in Pisiquid, Acadia, the 10th child of Jean Denis Pitre and Francoise Babin. Shortly thereafter it seems the family removed to Ile Royale (now Cape Breton) and they were still there for the 1717 census.
About 1736, probably in Cobequid, Germain Jean married Marie Josephe Girouard, the 2nd daughter of Pierre Girouard and Marie Doiron of Grand Pre. They had at least a dozen children over the next two decades. (As records of these births probably no longer exist, the family has been constructed from other records.)
On the 'General List of the Acadian Families Distributed in the Government of Konehtoket (Connecticut) who desire to go to France' is found Germain Piteve(?), his wife, his mother-in-law and three children. [For the children I've identified four, not three: Elizabeth, Madeleine, Camille & Pierre. As Elizabeth, Madeleine & Pierre's death records did not indicate parentage, it's possible one of these children is not a child of Germain's.] Were they on the sloop which departed Minas Basin arriving in New London, Connecticut on 21st January 1756? Had the remainder of the family escaped this particular round-up, only to be deported from Ile St. Jean to France in January of 1759 (Pierre-Olivier 21, Marguerite 19 and married, Anne-Josephe 17 and married, Ozite 13, Charles 11, and Marie-Blanche 8).
Germain Jean and Marie Josephe's last two children Joseph and Michel are born in New England. The following notice appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette (25 March 1756): "WHEREAS the wife and seven children of Francis Tibaudau, nine Children of Germain John Petre, and Anthony Landry and his wife, the two first of Pisguit river, and the latter of the Inhabitants river, have been sent to some of the king colonies, and the said Francis Tibaudau, Germain John Petre, and some of the children of the said Anthony Landry being in the city of Philadelphia; This publick notice is given, that if possible intelligence may be received by the abovementioned late inhabitants of Nova Scotia, or by the commissioners hereunder named, William Griffitts, Jacob Duchee, and Thomas Say."
In 1763, with the Seven Years War at an end, France instructed the governors of St. Domingue and Martinique to send ships for the Acadians. Stephen White noted that Germain was to be found in a 1763 census in Connecticut. Against the wishes of the British, the Acadians secretly boarded merchant vessels bound for the Caribbean. By August of 1764, 180 Acadians had settled at Mirebalais. Germain Jean, his wife and now six children were amongst that group. The long journey, the tropical heat, malnutrition and disease took their toll. They never left the island.
Germain Jean and his 20-year-old daughter Madeleine died on the 20th of October 1764, his 13-year-old son Pierre barely a month later, followed by his widow Marie Josephe three days after. That left 21-year-old Elisabeth and 19-year-old Camille to care for their 4-year-old brother Joseph and 10-month-old Michel. But three months later both boys died within 24 hours of each other. Camille married French-born Pierre Bidaut in 1766, but their fate is unknown. Elisabeth died unmarried three years later.
Of Germain’s other children, Pierre Olivier had survived the crossing to France from Ile St. Jean on one of the “Five Ships”, married another Acadian exile, Rosalie Hebert, and eventually lived out the last 20 years of his life in Louisiana; Marguerite married Pierre Michel on Ile St. Jean and died in Nantes at the age of 45; Anne Josephe married Louis Bourg on Ile St. Jean shortly before the deportations but he died two months later in Nantes (She remarried five years later to Joseph Gautrot and died in Louisiana); Ozite died at sea during the crossing to France; Charles had landed at St. Malo on 16 January 1759 from the Tamerlan and settled in St. Suliac, but his fate is unknown after 1770; Marie Blanche also survived the crossing, married Jerome Guerin in France in 1773, and died at the age of 79 in Louisiana.
Continuation of tree (10th child of Jean Denis Pitre/Francoise Babin); all known surname descendants:
3 Germain Jean Pitre b: Abt. 1714 Pisiquid, Acadia; d: 20 October 1764 Le Mirebalais, St. Domingue, West Indies
+Marie Josephe Girouard b: 27 October 1717 Grand Pre, Acadia; m: Abt. 1736 Acadia [Pierre/Marie Doiron]; d: 16 November 1764 Le Mirebalais, St. Domingue, West Indies
4 Pierre Olivier Pitre b: Abt. 1737 Cobequid, Acadia; d: Bet. 1804 - 1809 Lafourche, LA
+Rosalie Hebert b: Abt. 1745 Acadia; m: 7 October 1765 St. Suliac, Bretagne, France [Jean/(Marie) Madeleine Doiron]; d: Bet. 1788 - 1791 Lafourche, LA
4 Marguerite Pitre b: Abt. 1739 Acadia; d: 20 March 1784 Nantes, France
+Pierre Michel b: Abt. 1737 Port Royal, Acadia; m: Abt. 1756 Ile St. Jean [Francois/Marie Anne Leger]; d: Aft. 1785
4 Anne Josephe Pitre b: Abt. 1741 Cobequid, Acadia; d: Abt. 1798 Lafourche, LA
+Louis Bourg b: Abt. 1730 Acadia; m: Abt. 1758 Acadia [Louis/Cecile Michel]; d: 16 March 1759 hospital, St. Malo, Bretagne, France
*2nd Husband of Anne Josephe Pitre:
+Joseph Gautrot b: Abt. 1723 Acadia; m: 2 November 1764 St. Suliac, Bretagne, France [Francois/Louise Aucoin]; d: Abt. 1786 Lafourche, LA
4 Elisabeth Pitre b: Abt. 1743 Cobequid, Acadia; d: 30 April 1769 La Croix des Bouquets, St. Domingue, West Indies
4 Madeleine Pitre b: Abt. 1744 Acadia; d: 20 October 1764 Mirebalais, St. Domingue, West Indies
4 Camille Pitre b: Abt. 1745 Ste. Famille, Acadia
+Pierre Bidaut b: St. Jean, Belleville, Paris, France; m: 5 May 1766 La Croix des Bouquets, St. Domingue, West Indies [Pierre Francois/Marie Legrand]
4 Ozite Pitre b: Abt. 1748 Acadia; d: 1758 At sea during the crossing to France
4 Charles Pitre b: Abt. 1750 Acadia; d: Aft. 1770 France
4 Pierre Pitre b: Abt. 1751 Acadia; d: 13 November 1764 Mirebalais, St. Domingue, West Indies
4 Marie Blanche Pitre b: Abt. 1753 Acadia; d: 11 October 1832 Thibodaux, Lafourche, LA
+Jerome Guerin b: Abt. 1752 Isle Royale; m: 23 November 1773 St. Jouan des Guerets, Ille et Vilaine, France [Jean Baptiste/Marie Madeleine Bourg]; d: Aft. 1798 Lafourche, LA
4 Joseph Pitre b: 1760 New England; d: 21 February 1765 Mirabalais, St. Domingue, West Indies
4 Michel Pitre b: January 1764 New England; d: 20 February 1765 Mirabalais, St. Dominigue, West Indies
Back one generation to parents of Germain Jean Pitre
Family Page of Germain Jean Pitre & Marie Josephe Girouard
Items in RED transcribed from the following sources:
- Mariages de Haute-Bretagne, France (online)
- Acadians in Exile (Rev. Donald J. Hebert)
- Thanks to Lucie Leblanc Consentino's site for the exile list!
Last updated: 6 March 2011.