Je Suis Acadienne!

JE SUIS ACADIENNE!

Once I had a copy of the genealogy, which Dottie had arranged to be prepared, things began to fall into place. Our Martins came from the longtime Acadian Capital, Port Royal, in present-day Nova Scotia.

                Port Royal, D’Acadie

                  

                           

 Port Royal was now well established.  The colony, founded by Champlain on St. Croix Island in Maine in 1604, barely survives a brutal winter and the decision is made to move to the Minas Basin.  The ship “St. Jehan” arrives with both men and women in 1636. A church,“aboiteau”dyked fields, and a Fort with an imposing view of the Riviere Dauphin are part of the settlement they create. It is securely French, but that safety will not last long.

 Port Royal went from French hands to English hands many times during the Martin's time there.

                                               Fish and fur, both valuable commodities for trade.

                              a Rochelle slave ship Le Saphir ex-voto, 1741.

                                              Anonymous, 18th century - "La Traite Rochelaise" Jean-Michel Deveau

                                          Transporting slaves needed in sugar plantations of the West Indies 

         First Generation:

Barnabe Martin (about 1635-between 1678-1686) marries Jeanne Pelletret (about 1643-1706)

Barnabe is coming to Acadia, most likely, on a resupply boat from La Rochelle. According to George L. Findlen, author of book on the Martins of the St. John River Valley, the name Barnabe is a Protestant name. La Rochelle, a Calvinist center, was heavily involved in the triangular trade routes involving fish and fur from New France, slaves from Africa and sugar plantations in the West Indies.

           

LaRochelle Connection:

                                                                                                               

   Early Acadian marriage records often did not survived due to repeated attacks by New England Militia during clashes between France and England that occurred during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. (Acadia was only a day’s sail from Boston.) But Jeanne’s first child’s birth is recorded, and Barnabe‘s occupation is listed in the 1671 census as “laboureur”. (Findlen, pg. 2) Etienne’s male line has since died out, leaving Rene as the link to descendants living in Canada, New England and Louisiana.

 Dykeland Construction

A) Aboiteau at low tide

1. Flow of fresh water from the marsh
2. Clapper valve opened by the pressure of the flow of the fresh water
3. Sluice (aboiteau)
4. Dyke

                                 

 

 B) Aboiteau at high tide 

1. The drained marsh is below sea level
2. Clapper valve closed to prevent salt water from entering the dyked area
3. Sluice (aboiteau)
4. Dyke

© Parks Canada

 Resources 

BLEAKNEY, J. Sherman. Sods, soil, and spades: the Acadians at Grand Pré and their dykeland legacy, McGill University Press, 2007. 

  RENE

Rene, Barnebe and Jeanne’s son is born sometime around 1671.

Second generation: Rene Martin dit Barnabe (1671-1756) marries Marie dit Lagasse (1671-1756)

Rene’s name appears in six censuses between 1693 and 1714. He and brother Etienne move about five miles upriver to an area known as “Village Barnabe”, near another larger area known as “Bellisle”. The Martin family will remain in Bellisle until they flee Acadia in 1754.                         

 

Understanding the Port Royal that Rene and his wife live in is helped by discoveries made in nearly Parks Canada Site, The Melanson Settlement. Located near the recreated buildings of Champlain’s second  habitation, the Melanson site is one of few that have not been too disturbed or built upon and reveal much about early Acadian life in Port Royal.

                                                                              
          

Revealed by a grass fire in the 1980’s, this multifamily habitation founded in 1664 by Englishman Charles Melanson and his French Huguenot wife, Marie Dugas . the sites content reveals ceramic shards from China, Germany and England, scissors, beads and coins. It also shows evidence of a garden space where cabbages, turnips herbs and flax could be grown as well as what appears to be an orchard.

Heavy timbered buildings had grass and clay fill. (The clay in Riviere Dauphine is red and plentiful. I dug some and brought it back with me after my visit to the Marie Brun home site.) It had a large fireplace inside and outdoor brick ovens, as are evidenced in homes in Bellilse. The home also had lead camed windows, one of which is stamped 1740. Buildings were rebuilt various times throughout the Melanson settlement, and various styles of architecture are evident.

Many lower river Acadians, such as Rene, moved up river to avoid the disruption of constant skirmishes with the British, which fired on Port Royal  during its French period five times from Goat Island, near the Melanson site. Several times, area homes were fired upon and burned.

After deportation, English officers described returning to the Melanson site and finding pear and apple trees so heavily laden with unpicked fruit that their branches were weighed down.