Correction:
Sister Helena
Marie, C.S.J., St. Xavier, Convent, Junction City, Kansas prepared in 1971
(revised 1977) a book on the descendants of Gilles Hebert. Included is the
family of Jean Baptiste Hebert, who married Sophie Richard (daughter of Cecile
Laflamme and Charles Abraham Richards). In an excerpt about Sophie's mother,
Sister Helena Marie recounts a story said to be passed along to Sophie by her
mother. The story goes that Cecile's mother (Charlotte Cecile Yvon), at age 16, saw her Acadian parents loaded
on different ships and deported to ports unknown. Cecile was supposed to have
been sent to the district of Gaspé, where she married a Mr. Laflamme. According
to this story, 10 years later she was left a widow with 8 children, living in a
poor cabin. The supervisor helped the family, adopted Cecile, and gave her a
good education. Cecile then married Charles Abraham Richard in 1810.
The story above is
widely disseminated among descendants of the Hebert family.
Unfortunately,
the events are sometimes attributed to the wrong
ancestor (sometimes the phrasing says Sophie was the daughter of an exile from the Island of Miquelon, and sometimes the wording says that it was Cecile who saw her parents exiled . The Acadian deportations occurred during the 1755 -1763 occupation of
Nova Scotia by the British. Cecile Laflamme, could not possibly have seen her
parents deported, since Cecile wasn't born until 30 years after the expulsion
of the British and the last of these deportations. Even Cecile's mother,
Charlotte Cecile Yvon, was not born until 1765, two years after the British
expulsions.
The Bruderbund CD* contains another (but still
inaccurate) version of the story:
See note (@T156) that re-tells
the story about a girl seeing her parents deported. The wording varies from
what Sister Helena Marie (Hebert) used in her book, albeit it obviously is the
same story handed down to Sister Helena Marie. However the Bruderbund CD's
wording says:
"Charlotte's mother
had seen her parents loaded on different ships for unknown ports"
This account also more accurately
falls in the proximity of the dates of the Great Displacement, because
Charlotte's mother, Cecile Copeau is listed as being born about 1735 and
therefore could have been age 16 in 1755 (the year when the majority of these
deportations occurred), had she actually been born 1739 (five years
after her husband Etienne Yvon). It was Cecile Copeau's daughter Charlotte Cecile
Yvon, who married and was widowed by Francois Laflamme, then later met and
married Thomas Briant (aka Briand, aka Brillant) the supervisor mentioned in
Sister Helena Marie's book. It then clearly fits that Marie Cecile would have
been adopted, as per Sister Helena Marie's story. The story is greatly
complicated by the repetitive use of the pronoun "she" without
clarification as to which of three successive generations named Cecile
the original writer was describing...
However...
This Bruderbund CD
information (which is compiled from family-submitted data) is further confused
by a newspaper clipping attached to Sophie Richard's diary. In early 2000, I
received a photocopy of the original diary from Jim Crow, whose wife Faye is a
direct descendant of Sophie. The clipping is recounting a story that Sophie
told of her mother, identified as Cecile Kemineur dit Laflamme. In this
version, which presumably is the closest to the source, Cecile is
"orphaned" at age 8 (when her mother allows her to be adopted by Daniel
McPherson of Ile aux Grues. Cecile's mother (Charlotte Cecile Yvon) tells
McPherson that she was about the same age when she saw her parents
loaded onto separate ships bound for different destinations.
Another smaller round of
religious deportations occurred in 1773, while the French were at war with
England. That would make Charlotte 8 years old, which would fit with the
newspaper clipping's account.
So...
Charlotte Cecile
Yvon, born
18 November 1765,(Sophie Richard's grandmother) was the daughter of an
exile from the Island of Miquelon, the isle mentioned in Longfellow's
"Evangeline." As a result of the revolution and religious persecution
in Acadia by the British (1755 -1763 and again in 1773), Charlotte had seen her
parents Cecile Copeau and Etienne Yvon loaded on different ships bound for
unknown ports and she (Charlotte Yvon) was later transported at the age of
sixteen to the district of Gaspe'. There Charlotte married Francois Laflamme.
Ten years later she was left a widow with 8 children living in a cabin where
she was found by Daniel (or possibly his son John) McPherson, who adopted her
8-year old daughter Cecile Laflamme and gave her a good education. Thomas
Briant who later is said to have married the widow Charlotte (Yvon) Laflamme
would not have therefore been the adopting father as assumed on the Bruderbund
CD.