The Acadian Connection
My Acadian Connection
My mother's paternal grandfather was Robert Joseph Denis LECOMTE (1904-1975). He possessed Acadian heritage through his maternal grandmother, Hermine CHAMPAGNE (1854-about 1874) who was married to his non-Acadian maternal grandfather David Louis TRIAL (1854-1932).
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| A stylized Acadian flag |
It possibly came about as Hermine died young, shortly after giving birth to her only child Olivine (Trial) LECOMTE (1872-1954, Robert's mother).
After Hermine's death, and her widowed spouse David Louis TRIAL's subsequent re-marriage, it appears knowledge of her Acadian family's origins and cultural traditions was suppressed or forgotten.
I have since confirmed through my AncestryDNA test kit (in conjunction with their October 2025 re-categorization of ancestral regions) that 4% of my DNA is Acadian. The only logical source of this Acadian DNA was the last member of the only Acadian ancestral line in the family: my 3rd great-grandmother Hermine CHAMPAGNE.
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| Map 1: AncestryDNA's "Acadia" ancestral region showing my 4% Acadian DNA result |
In the above graphic, snipped from my AncestryDNA Ancestral Regions results, AncestryDNA uses blue to outline the region known as Acadia (l'Acadie). The dark blue colouring on the map suggests the location where my Acadian heritage likely originated. In terms of political boundaries, Acadia included:
- the Canadian maritime provinces (exlcuding Labrador) of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia;
- the Gaspé region of Québec; and
- the U.S. state of Maine.
Acadian Settlement and the Great Deportation of 1755
European settlement of Acadia began in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, initiated by French explorer Samuel de CHAMPLAIN. Over the years, Acadia had periodically switched back and forth from French to British territory. But it wasn't until the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) formally ended the War of Spanish Succession in Europe, that large portions of Acadian territory were permanently transferred from France to Britain. Under British rule, Acadian families were subjected to brutal policies, ending with the government's attempt to erase Acadians' heritage by such actions as:
- the forced removal of several thousand Acadians from their homes, deporting them to random parts of the globe during the Great Deportation | Grand Dérangement of 1755; and
- destroying French-language burial markers at Acadian cemeteries such as Garrison Graveyard at Port-Royal...leaving only English-language markers standing.
After the mass deportation, some of my Acadian family returned to Canada (from parts currently unknown) nearly a decade later to re-settle in Québec. Even the manner in which these deportation survivors were listed in the Québec church records is haunting -- not recorded in the usual format as son or daughter of named parents belonging to / hailing from a particular parish in re-named Nova Scotia. Instead, they were listed simply as "Acadian."
The CHAMPAGNEs of Port-Royal, Acadie
Tracing my 3rd great-grandmother Hermine's CHAMPAGNE family origins led me to discover that the surname (ORION / ORILLON / AURILLON dit) CHAMPAGNE is one of several French-Canadian family names known to be Acadian. And it is among some of the earliest surnames recorded at Samuel de CHAMPLAIN's settlement at Port-Royal. These other early Acadian surnames are associated with Hermine's CHAMPAGNE family line:
- Bastarache (dit Le Basque)
- Boudreau
- Cloutier
- Comeau
- Doucet
- Gaudet
- Hébert
- Richard
- Vincent.
The CHAMPAGNEs and their related families settled around the last half of the 17th century in the Port-Royal area of Acadia. Now known as Annapolis Royal, this part of Acadian territory is located in today's Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and is also a part of Parks Canada's Fort Anne National Historic Site and Port-Royal National Historic Site.
CHAMPAGNE family founder and my Acadian 8th great-grandfather, Charles ORION dit CHAMPAGNE (1652-1742), was born in Sarthe Department of the Loire region of France. A soldier and mason, he was known to be in Port-Royal certainly by the date of his 1704 marriage to CHAMPAGNE co-founder Marie Anne BASTARACHE (1681-1726). Marie Anne was born at Port-Royal; also known as BASTARACHE dit LE BASQUE, her family had settled at Port-Royal a generation earlier.