Cécile Thibodeau1

F, (5 November 1712 - circa 1787)
Father-Biological*Jean Thibodeau1 b. c 1674, d. 9 Dec 1746
Mother-Biological*Marguerite Hébert1 b. c 1682, d. c 1723
Family Lines
Boudreau Line
Last Edited=26 Oct 2023
     Cécile Thibodeau was born on 5 November 1712 at Grand-Pré, Acadia, New France.1 She was the daughter of Jean Thibodeau and Marguerite Hébert.1

Cécile Thibodeau, age 17, married Pierre Cormier dit Palette, son of Pierre Cormier and Catherine LeBlanc, on 17 July 1730 at Grand-Pré, Colony of Nova Scotia, British North America, They settled on a farm at Ouescoque, as his father was able to provide land for all of his children.
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Children:
1. Jean-Baptiste Cormier
2. Pierre Cormier
3. Marie Cormier
4. Étienne Cormier
5. François Cormier
6. Joseph Cormier
7. Michel Cormier
8. Marie-Joseph Cormier
9. Charles Cormier
10. Marie-Cécile Cormier
11. Jacques Cormier
12. Amand-Charles Cormier.1


In 1750, Beaubassin was the center of a boundary dispute between the French and English. French soldiers erected small forts on the north side of the Mesagoueche River (the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) including one at Beauséjour ridge. When the British Commander Lawrence tried to gain a foothold on the river, the priests LeLoutre and Germain burned the Beaubassin church and forced the villagers to burn their houses. The British retreated but eventually built fortifications on the south side (Fort Lawrence). The French soldiers ordered the Acadian families in the southern villages to move to the north side for their protection. Virtually no one complied with the order, including Pierre's family, whose Ouescoque homestead was located south. To force them to move, the soldiers and Mi'kmaq warriors (of the fanatical priest Jean-Louis Le Loutre burned the southern villages, including Ouescoque, where the Cormiers had lived for three generations. The attitudes of the southern villagers are described below:
The missionary Le Loutre thought that they were ready to abandon their land, and even to take up arms against the British... They were, however, perhaps not as determined to emigrate as Le Loutre maintained. Since 1713 the Acadians had always accommodated themselves to the British régime, and it was difficult for them to leave fertile lands that they had cleared and settle in French territory without being assured that sooner or later it would not become British. On behalf of the French government Le Loutre promised to establish and feed them for three years, and even to compensate them for their losses. They were not easily convinced, and the missionary apparently used questionable means to force them to emigrate – threatening them, among other things, with reprisals from the Indians. The Acadians who moved, whether of their own free will or not, found themselves in an unenviable situation. Both on Île Saint-Jean and in the Fort Beauséjour region it was difficult to produce sufficient food to meet the needs of the new arrivals
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After the destruction of their home, Pierre's family sought refuge with relatives who lived on the French side at Le Lac (Aulac) across from Jolicoeur (Jolicure NB). At Le Lac, several refugees died "from the shock of their upheaval or from the ill treatment they endured." This included 46-year-old Pierre Cormier.1,2,3 By 1755 Cécile and her children had sought refuge in the village of Jolicoeur. Cécile and many of her children would stick together in their perilous exile to the French territories (New Brunswick and Quebec). Many of the children would eventually settle in Cormier's Cove, New Brunswick.1 Cécile Thibodeau died circa 1787 at Memramcook, Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Canada.1

Children of Cécile Thibodeau and Pierre Cormier dit Palette

Citations

  1. WikiTree. Online https://www.wikitree.com/
  2. Finn, Gérard. "LE LOUTRE, JEAN-LOUIS", Dictionary of Canadian Biography volume 4 (2005).
  3. Surette, Paul. Atlas of the Acadian Settlement of the Beaubassin 1660 to 1755. Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada: (Tintamarre and Le Lac: Tantramar Heritage Trust, 2005.
  4. Moore, Keith. "The Consanguinity of the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou", Foundations: Journal of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy volume 8 (2016).