For those members
who had paid their membership either prior to or at the time of the
reunion, the association decided to extend their membership through
December, 2001without payment of any additional amount. Persons with
Breau ancestry who are not already members are invited to become members
at a membership of $10.00 (U. S.) to cover two years, that is for 2000 and
2001. In your application, please give your postal mailing address,
e-mail address and telephone number. If you know of any person who
might be interested, please make a copy of this bulletin and give it to
them. Applications for membership, together with due payments,
should be sent to the Treasurer at the address in the opening page of this
BREAUX SITE. Present members who have acquired an e-mail address, or
who have changed their earlier e-mail address, are asked to inform the
association of their present address.
The present association web site is being updated and
improved. The Breaux Association plans to publish a semi-annual
newsletter, this being the first issue. The newsletter will also
carry brief articles about notable Breau descendants, present or past, or
items relating to Breau descendants in the news. However, for such a
publication to succeed , much input will be needed from the
membership. An example of such an article is titled "Father
Jean Baptiste Bro" further on in this bulletin. Please
submit all articles and items to the President at the address on the
opening page of this BREAUX SITE.
Should the input of news items and articles be sufficient, consideration
will be given to increasing the publication to quarterly. The
association would like to hear from you any comments or suggestions you
have concerning the association and its planned activities, including
family reunions. Again please address these to the President.
Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Acadiennes
The long awaited book resulting from the
research by Stephen A. White, genealogist at the Center for Acadian
Studies, University of Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, was published and
released to the public in August, 1999. It is considered the most
authoritative genealogical work on the Acadians. The first volume,
in two books, covers the persons in Acadia in its early days, from 1636 to
1714. This family's groups include only those headed by Breau men who
married before 1714. Although written in French, the personal data
can be easily understood by non-French readers in that abbreviations are
used throughout the book and a list of these abbreviations, set down in
both French and English, is included under the heading just before the
first family group.
In line with the foregoing explanation, the only
Breau families in the book are Vincent Breau/Marie Bourg, Antoine Breau/Marguerite
Babin, Pierre Breau/Marie Joseph Bourgeois & Anne Leblanc, Francois
Breau/Marie Comeau, Jean Breau/Anne Chiasson dit Lavalee, and Antoine
Breau/Marguerite Dugas. Comparing the data in the "Dictionnaire"
with the data in "A Breau Genealogy", many dates vary by a year
or so, and he has found a number of deaths or burial dates.
A Breaux Genealogy/Généalogie Breau
Over 300 copies of this book have
already been mailed out and numerous laudatory comments have been
received. However, the book is still available. It tracks the
descendants of Vincent BRAULT, the Acadian who came to North America
around 1652. This book results from the 26 years of research by
Clarence Breaux of Louisiana and 15 years by Robert Brault of
Quebec. They have put the sum of their work together to publish the
most comprehensive book on Vincent's descendants.
This book contains the first seven generations of
descendants and their children, so in fact you get eight
generations. While family group sheets are restricted to the male
line (i.e. those carrying the family name), all known offspring (including
women) in each family are identified with their spouses and parents of
spouses when known. The book, 8 1/2 by 11 inches, is 440 pages long.
Contents include: Introduction; Historical
brief; Geographical Locations; Maps of France, Quebec, Acadia,
Louisiana; Origin of the Family Name; Explanation of the Henry
System; Family group sheets; Sources; Index;
Addenda. Some sections are bilingual.
The book can be obtained in a loose leaf version,
or spiral bound, costing $30.00 US. USA orders should be directed
to: Clarence Breaux, 801 Rue Dauphine, Apt. 338, Metairie,
La. 70005-4609. Canadian orders should go to Robert
Brault, 3207 Boul. Levesque est. Laval, Quebec H7E 2P4. A deluxe
hard bound version is available for $50.00 US from Robert Brault.
All prices includes postage.
Those descendants who have not yet submitted
complete family group data on Breau-surnamed families for the eight and
later generations are urged to do so. We need your collaboration to
ensure that our genealogy data base is as complete as possible, not only
for revision of the present book but also for probable future volumes and
for gratis assistance to Breau persons searching for their ancestry.
Please submit all data to eith of the Breau genealogists show in the
preceding paragraph.
Father Jean Baptiste Bro
Jean Baptiste Bro and Joseph Mathurin Bourg,
ordained priests two months apart in 1772, were the first two Acadian
priests native to Acadia. Jean Baptiste was born 17 April 1743 at
Riviere aux Canards, in the Grand Pre area. In 1755, when he was
only 12 years old, he was deported, along with his parents and siblings,
to Virginia and thence to England in 1756, where he was held as a prisoner
at Bristol. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 February 1763, ended
the Seven Years War between England and France and Jean Baptiste was then
allowed to go to France, arriving at ST. Malo Ile et Vilaine, 17 May
1763. He completed his classical studies at the College de St. Malo
and then studied theology at the seminary of the Peres du Saint Esprit in
Paris, where Joseph Mathurin Bourg also studied. He returned to
Canada for his ordination by Msgr. d Esgly which took place 15 November
1772 in the chapel of the seminary in Quebec. In 1773 he was sent to
L'Assomption, Quebec, from where he was to minister to the congregation of
Acadians who had returned from exile and had settled at St. Jacques de
l'Achigan and St. Roche de l'Achigan. He also took care of the
mission at Longue Pointe. In 1774 he was appointed first pastor of
St. Jacques de l'Achigan, a position he occupied until his retirement in
1814. He died 11 January 1824 and was buried in the church at St.
Jacques de l'Achigan. Jean Baptiste was the son of Seraphin, son of
Francois, son of Vincent, and therefore first cousin to Pierre Firmin
Breaux, one of the first settlers at what is now Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
Rendez-Vous Neguac 2000 - Breaux Family Reunion
Information received from Melissa Near,
Secretary for Rendez-Vous Neguac 2000, has the date of the event from July
14 to July 23 in Neguac, New Brunswick. There will be a Breau
reunion in conjunction with Rendez-Vous 2000. Richard Breault, mayor
of Neguac attended the Breaux reunion during the Congres Mondial
Acadian-1999. Therefore any Breauxs attending will get a special
welcome from Richard. The Breau reunion is scheduled for Saturday
July 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Neguac. Most of the Breaus
in New Brunswick are located in the areas of Neguac and Tracadie. So
if you want to meet your cousins, plan to attend. For more
information, you can e-mail to: village@nbnet.nb.ca.
You may also call Denis Bujoid or Melissa Near at 506-776-3950.
Genealogy Lost and Found
This part of the newsletter will be
dedicated, on each newsletter, to helping those who are having difficulty
in locating links to their family tree. We encourage links to any
surname, not just Breaux! Just drop us a line, or e-mail, including
your name, address, telephone number so that the response can be directed
to you. Officers are listed on this sites Bourque
Home Page.
by Editor: James Bourque, Vice President,
L'Association des Breaux du Monde