In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, France explored territories in North America creating the colony of Nouvelle-France including the province of Acadia (l’Acadie en francais) with the first important settlement at Port Royal.
Jacques Bourgeois (unknown if he is ancestor), a farmer, shipbuilder, and merchant at Port Royal sold a part of his holdings there to settle in the Chignecto Basin. Around the same time Michel Leneuf de la Vallière de Beaubassin set up a fur-trading post on the isthmus. Following success, in 1676 governor Frontenac granted him 100 square leagues land which became the settlement of Beaubassin. The settlement prospered on the fertile marshes and surrounding high ground, suitable for farming
The Expulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764) occurred during the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War) and was part of the British military campaign against New France. The British first deported Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies, and after 1758 transported additional Acadians to Britain and France. Many of them continued to Louisiana.
John Baptiste Bourgeois and his wife Marie Magdelaine Bourg were both born in Beaubassin. They were married in February, 1757 somewhere in Acadia. Their first child also named Jean Baptiste was baptized somewhere in Acadia about 1757. Their second child Joseph Marie was born in 1763 at an unknown location and baptized at St. Louis Church (now Cathedral) in New Orleans in 1765.
It is my conjecture that they were on the move from Acadia to Louisiana in 1763 because of the expulsion. It is possible that there is no record of their arrival because they were moving from one French colony to another and did need any papers.
They had several more children, Claude in 1765, Pierre Victorin in 1769, Amand Alcide in 1772, and Paul Benjamin in 1775. Paul’s birth must have been a difficult one because Marie died four months later. Except for Claude who died at age seven, each of his children were married and had their own children.
The family moved to St. James Parish, most probably on the East bank. The civil parish is named after the church parish with the church on the west bank of the Mississippi. By 1769 Pierre Victorin and the later children were born and baptized there. How they as Catholics managed to attend church each week could be a separate story.
The next year, 1776, Jean Baptiste married Osite Melancon, a widow, and the two formed a blended family with the children of their previous marriages. Osite died around 1803 and Jean married again in 1804 to Rosalie Leblanc.
It should be noted to anyone doing genealogy research that in the early 1800’s there were four individuals alive with the same name, Jean Baptiste Bourgeois, with no suffix attached, no Sr., no Jr, etc. This got to be very confusing when in 1816, there is a record of a land title transfer with both grantor and grantee named Jean Baptiste Bourgeois.
Also note that the first effective Spanish government was installed in Louisiana in 1769. They were to control the colony until 1803 when they transferred it back to France. The records, especially church records, of this period translated names into Spanish. Jean Baptiste became Juan Bautista, Marie became Maria, Bourg became Borque. Only after the transfer of Louisiana to the USA did the French spellings return.
