Joseph LeBlanc

                                               
  Joseph LeBlanc, my 5th g-Grandfather, was born on 10 November 1718 in Grand-Pre' Acadia. Joseph was the son of Jacques LeBlanc and Elizabeth-Isabelle Boudrot

  On 26 Nov 1742, at the age of 24, Joseph took for his wife a Marie Madeleine Melancon (Melanson). The couple were married in Grand-Pre' and would remain there till world events forced them to be deported from their home in 1755. See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_deportation

  On 2 September 1743 Joseph and Marie Madeleine's son Etienne was born. Unfortunately this son would live only eighteen days. Joseph and Marie would have three more children, a girl named Marie Madeleine, and two boys named Anselme and another Etienne.

  On 5 September 1755, Joseph, along with the other males of Grand-Pre', were locked in the Parish Church and informed that all but their personal property was being forfeited to the British Crown. The men would remain in captivity until transports arrived to take them to the Colonies.

  Joseph and his family were transported to the Colonies, where they were held captive at Sutton Massachusetts until the end of the "French and Indian War".  Massachusetts records indicate that Joseph was "in poor health, unable to do much work" Records indicate that the family grew by four girls and one boy while in captivity, but lack of records cannot confirm if these children were born to Joseph and Marie or orphans that they took charge of.

  Upon release from captivity, most Acadian families returned to Canada. There are no records indicating that Joseph and his family ever returned to Canada and it is speculated that he may have taken his family to "The West Indies" were many famlies died of disease.

  The only member of Joseph's family known to survive  is the son "Etienne". Etienne appears to have reached Quebec by 1776 when he was recruited into the American Continental Army to fight the British in the American Revolution. A marriage of the son "Etienne" in 1778 indicates that his parents were deceased.

  Grand-Pre Acadia is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site;(See;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand-Pr%C3%A9_National_Historic_Site

  For family Genealogy See  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=m-leblanc&id=I1586