Tareau, Tario, Téio, Terau, Terault, Tereaux, Teriau, Teriault, Teriaut, Terio, Teriot, Terrault, Terreau, Terreault, Terriau, Terriaud, Terriault, Terriaux, Terrieux, Terrio, Terriot, Terriou, Terrot, Teryo, Thario, Therall, Therault, Therialt, Theriatt, Theriau, Thériaud, Theriault, Thériault, Theriaut, Therieau, Theriet, Therioult, Theroux, Therriau, Thérriault, Therio, Theriott, Thériot, Therrio, Therriot, Theuriet, Theurillat, Thierault, Thieret, Thierie, Thieriot, Thierot, Thierrot, Thireault, Thirieau, Thiriet, Thiriez, Thirion, Thiriot, Tourault.

Consistent with the spelling found in the Census of 1671, contemporary genealogists Arsenault [ref: 1] and Beauregard [ref: 15] use 'TERRIAU' for the first two generations (Jehan and his children) and 'TERRIOT' for the third generation (Arsenault). Lanctot [ref: 9] uses 'THÉRRIOT' for Jehan's family name perhaps based on his understanding of the spelling currently used in France. The census notwithstanding, Stephen A. White in his new work "DICTIONNAIRE GÉNÉALOGIQUE DES FAMILLES ACADIENNES", chose THÉRIOT as his preferred variant with TERRIOT and THÉRIAULT as alternatives. Although some of these choices demand explanations, no explanations are offered by any of these researchers.

It is interesting to note however that in the history of Acadia, the periodic census reveals a very definite consensus (no pun intended) on one particular variant. The following table identifies the variants which show up in each census:
 

It is clear that for nearly one hundred years the 'TERRIOT' variant was recorded repeatedly by several different census takers as reported to them by several different Terriot families and generations of Terriot's. Thus, we have chosen to use the ‘Terriot’ variant for the early Acadian generations (pre-Deportation). For the post-Deportation generations, we use the variant as recorded in our sources.  But in general, the predominant variants for the those generations are 'Theriault' for the Canadian families and 'Theriot' for the Louisianan families. The modern variant that is currently used in France is 'Thérriot' or 'Terriot'.

So to summarize, we use the 'TERRIOT' form of the family name in this archive for the first five generations of the family for the following reasons: (1) it is a variant that is most commonly found in the census records of Acadia, (2) it is one of the forms still used today in the TERRIOT ancestral region of France, (3) it is a variant identified and acknowledged by many researchers including most recently Stephen White, and (4) it more clearly shows the evolution of the name to 'THERRIOT' in the early 1700's and then  to the Louisiana 'THERIOT' variation and the Canadian variations 'THERIAULT', 'THÉRIAULT, 'THÉRRIAULT'.

Finally, a note regarding Jehan's first name. Jehan is the medieval version of our contemporary 'Jean'. Going back earlier to the 15th century, it was Jehanne D'Arc, not Jeanne D'Arc who pushed the English off the continent. Although some researchers consider Jehan to be archaic and prefer the modern 'Jean', I think that from a historic viewpoint, using the medieval form sets the timeframe for this important person. There is also an distinction to be made in the pronunciation because the medieval form has two syllables compared to the monosyllabic modern 'Jean'. And so, for us in our Archive, it will be 'Jehan TERRIOT'.

2.  In the 1671 Census of Acadia [ref: 4],  Perrine's maiden name is recorded as 'Rau' or 'Reau'. In other records, her maiden name is recorded as Ruau, Bau, Beau, or Breau. No records exist of the identity of her parents. So, much speculation exists today as to Perrine's real maiden name. But it is very clear that in the 1671 Cenus of Acadia, her name is recorded as 'Rau' or 'Reau' depending on the interpretation of the letters 'e' and 'a'.

So, for the record-keepers and genealogists, there is no controversy as to the record. But for others who are interested in determining the history of the Theriault family, there are several questions.

First, is there a chance that her name was not correctly recorded? The answer to that is of course there is a very good chance that her name was not correctly recorded. The principle fact that brings that name into question is that there is no knowledge of the 'Reau' or 'Rau' family every having lived in the ancient province of Poitou.

Census-takers, immigration officials, cartographers have notoriously misrecorded names either through lack of written information, ignorance or cultural or language differences. Some of the more notorious examples are reflected in the Ellis Island records of US immigrants as recently as 1920. A quick review of almost any of the US censuses will reveal many very obvious errors in spellings.

In this controversy, the researchers are divided into three groups: (1) those who will either not speculate or who believe that the census-taker correctly recorded her maiden name;  (2) those who believe that Perrine's last name was incorrectly recorded and was actually Brault or some variant, and (3) those who believe that Perrine's last name was incorrectly recorded and was actually Bourg or some variant.

Arsenault asserts that Bourg is the correct choice, while Lanctot chooses Breau. Unfortunately, neither support their claims. Steven White in his new work "DICTIONNAIRE GÉNÉALOGIQUE DES FAMILLES ACADIENNES", does not identify  Perrine's parents and correctly reflects the record of the Census of 1671.  It should be noted that while some published records including the Linda Dubé and Father Cyr genealogies record Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry as the father and mother, respectively, of Perrine, there is no established record which supports this claim. So, all claims regarding Perrine's maiden name remain hypothetical. The only fact pertaining to Perrine's maiden name is that the Census of 1671 identifies that name as being 'Reau' or 'Rau'. That is not to say, that her maiden name was actually 'Reau (Rau)', it simply says that the census-taker understood and recorded her name as Perrine Reau (Rau).

If we take a look at the names of the families at that time in Martaisé, La Chaussée and Aulnay, we find that the Bourg name is well established as is also 'Brault' but there is no evidence of the 'Reau', 'Rau'  'Ruau' 'Bau', 'Beau', 'Breau', 'Beaux', or 'Breaux' families during that time period. Here is what Madame Genevieve Massignon had to say about the parochial records of the parish of La (Grande) Chaussée in the ancient province of Poitou, France (I translate from Bona Arsenault's account [ref: 1]) :

"More than half of the records from 1626 to 1650 concern the names of families which we find among the families listed in the 1671 Census of Acadia:  Babin, Belliveau, Bertrand, Bour, Brault (in the feminine Braude), Brun..." She continues "The names of  Blanchard, Bourg, Brault, Giroire, Godet, Guerin, Poirier, Terriot were among the tenants of the mother of Charles d'Aulnay."

3. There are different accounts of the year that Jehan and Perrine Therriot emigrated to Acadia. See EndNote 15 for details.

4.  Le Have is the anglicized version of the original name, Le Hève. Le Have was actually the government seat of Acadia from 1632- 1636.

5.  Actually, a more complete account of the sail is given in the "The Sail from La Havre to Le Hève" section.

6.  There are some questions regarding our data pertaining to elder Joseph, and his father Claude. Joseph is shown to have been born in Sainte Anne de Pocatiere, PQ in 1726

7.  According to some accounts, the last point of departure from France was La Havre. See "The Sail from La Havre to Le Hève" section.

8.  Not far from Roiffe is a 'working' castle, Chevigny located a very short distance and almost due east of Roiffe. The family who owns the 'chateau' are there to welcome the visitors who are welcome to tour certain parts of the castle. The grounds are beautifully manicured. It makes for a very pleasant day visit. We also recommend Chenonceau and Chambord, in the order. The two are further east not too far.

9.  Our 'Joseph T. Theriault' archive is largely based on three sources: (1) the Theriault genealogy research of Father Louis J. Cyr [ref: 16], (2) the compilation of Theriault family data by Linda Dube [ref:10] and information received from individual family members.

10.  Here you are at the Endnote referenced in the Introduction section. Now, before returning to the section you were reading, close this window by clicking on the 'X" at the top right corner of this window.

11.  See Note 1 for the rationale behind using 'TERRIOT' for the Acadian generations of the THERIAULT/THERIOT family.

12.  During our visit with M/Mme Reno Therriot of Loudun, France in May 1993, Monsieur Therriot explained that Jehan Terriault had worked as an apprentice in a major project to reclaim the marshlands around La Rochelle. This work was apparently conducted under the direction of an order of monks from the Netherlands who were skilled at dyke-building and land reclamation. Monsieur Therriot is genealogist for the Therriot family in France. William Faulkner Rushton[ref: 14]  makes reference to these projects in his book and of the role of the Dutch in the land-reclamation projects. He writes that a "mid-century expedition brought to Port Royal colonists who were familiar with Dutch-aided land-reclamation projects along the western coast of France." Rushton also discusses the possibility that the Acadians may also have acquired or refined their dyke-building skills from the local Micmac Indians in Acadia.

13.   Here, a ‘seigneurie’ is an area owned by a Lord or ‘Seigneur’, in this case Lord d’Aulnay.  To help with the pronunciation of some of the other French words, here are a few pronunciations:  La Chaussée (‘la show-say’), Aulnay (‘ol-nay’), Martaizé (‘mar-tay-zay’)

14.  This note was intentionally left blank.

15.  There are three schools of thought on the sequence of events leading to Jehan and Perrine’s move to Acadia:

Father Lanctôt who believes that they both came over in 1632 to help settle La Hève presents the first hypothesis.  The second hypothesis as presented by Arsenault is that Jehan and Perrine took the voyage together in 1636 and settled in Port Royal, one year after their wedding. And there are others like  Denis Beauregard iin his 'Dictionnaire Généalogique de nos Origines (DGO)', [ref: 15]  who goes no farther than to say that "Peut-etre arrive entre 1632 et 1636/Probably arrived between 1632 and 1636". Source: Robert Rumilly's historical reference on people in French Acadia or English Acadia.

The third is a hypothesis that I do not believe is yet documented so we will give it the name, the ‘Theriault Hypothesis’.  It is far from original and is shared by many others.  It is based on interpretations of several arguments and facts, which I will present here.

The hypothesis is that Jehan first came over by himself as a single man in 1632 and helped establish the settlement of La Hève.  Some time before 1636, he received Charles de Menou’s permission to return to France to marry Perrine with the intent to return with his new bride the following year.  At the time, Charles de Menou had similar plans for his bride-to-be, Jeanne Motin.  Of course with Isaac de Razilly’s death in November 1635, Charles de Menou abandoned the plan for La Hève and moved the La Hève settlement to Port Royal the following year.  Jehan and Perrine arrived in April 1636 with Charles de Menou’s bride-to-be in time to help move the La Hève settlement to Port Royal and start their family.

As noted by Arsenault, it was also the opinion of Father Archangel Godbout, genealogist, that a certain number of these so-called ‘select men’ subsequently (after their initial arrival to La Hève) married French women and were thus established in Acadia.  A related point is also mentioned by Arsenault that “…the colonials who had first come with d’Aulnay had returned to Europe.”

Notwithstanding Mr. Arsenault’s assertions to the contrary, it is generally accepted that Jehan was part of the first expedition in 1632 to La Hève and is widely recorded as such in several museums including at the museum of Pointe-du-Fort in La Have.  The basis for Mr. Arsenault’s assertion is Madame Massignon’s research, which shows only that most of the family names of the settlers, recorded in the Acadian census of 1671 were family names from the La Chaussée area.  It stops short of identifying specific individuals and clarifying the departure dates for any of specific settlers.  For details of Arsenault’s account of these events, see Arsenault Account.

Lanctôt’s hypothesis on the other hand does not explain a serious discrepancy in the marriage year.  If it is true that that Jehan and Perrine came over in 1632, why is their marriage date given as 1635?  In addition, it is not conceivable (no pun intended) that Jehan and Perrine would marry and not have any children for five years.  It is a recorded fact that their first-born, Charles was born in 1637.  If they married in 1632 or some time before, can it be that they waited for five years before having their first child?  Or, did Father Molin misunderstand the marriage year the same way that he did not understand Perrine’s maiden name correctly.  We know as given by Genevieve Massignon that the custom at that time was for a couple to marry just before leaving for the New World.  For details of Lanctôt’s account of these events, see Lanctôt Account.

17.  Translated from ‘Familles Acadiennes’, Tome II, Léopold Lanctôt, o.m.i, Éditions du Libre-Échange.

18.  Translated from: ‘Histoire et Genealogie des Acadiens, Histoire des Acadiens’, Tomes I and II, Bona Arsenault, Television de la Baie des Chaleurs Inc.

19.  Footnote from Arsenault: Taken from Genevieve Massignon’s “Les parlers français d’Acadie”, Vol. I.

20.  Footnote from Arsenault: “Les parlers français d’Acadie”, Vol.  I, Librairie Klincksieck, Paris.

21.  Footnote from Arsenault: Ibid.

22.  Footnote from Arsenault: Genevieve Massignon, “Les parlers français d’Acadie”, vol. 1, p. 40.

23. The Fort Point museum is operated by the Lunenberg County Historical Society.

24. The inhabitants of the upper Saint John Valley still to this day consider themselves Acadian instead of French Canadian, largely because of the origins of most of their ancestors from Acadia. In fact, to many the Acadian distinction is even more important than the American-Canadian distinction.

25.  The term 'sequencing' is the art of composing music by using a computer and music composition software.

26.  On a question to Barry Taylor about sets, he answered: "The playing of sets probably originated with structured folk dancing, which required music to be played to defined lengths corresponding to the completion of a series of planned manoeuvres by the dancers. Scottish country dancing, for example, frequently requires exactly 64 measures of music to complete all the dancing patterns.

Fiddlers playing at 'sessions' also chained tunes together to avoid having to stop after each tune to discuss what to play next. So all players could learn the same tunes and know what was coming next, these 'sets'... especially the well-planned ones... tended to become defined or fixed. Though I don't particularly follow the mould in my arrangements, there are tunes that are traditionally played in a particular order, especially in isolated communities in Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and areas in Québec. Sets sometimes end with the players repeating the first tune... 'bringing it home' so to speak.

As part of my own entertainment, I prefer to conjure up my own sets... tunes that fit nicely together.

A good example of construction of a new set is The Cricket Set. David Chiasson, who plays some of my midis for his radio program, asked me to sequence a few of his tunes when I had the time and motivation. Two were designed to be played together (the two 'cricket' tunes), and he was planning to write a third at some time in the future make a set. I surprised
him by taking another of his tunes, changing the key, and sandwiching it between the two cricket tunes. Now it's a great little medley with really effective key changes. http://members.home.net/bntaylor/canmidi/cricket.mid

27. Describing the sail to Acadia, Father Lanctôt notes in his book [ref: 29]  that "...It is probable that a brother of Perrine Breau, Vincent, was also one of Razilly and Charles de Menou's recruits and on board along with Jehan and Perrine." He writes that Vincent was accompanied by his wife and their three year old son also named Vincent. Lanctôt does not explain why he considers this probable. Arsenault disagrees with Lanctôt and claims that Vincent, the younger came to Acadia apparently on his own around 1652 (at the age of 21). White makes no commitment as to where Vincent, the younger was born or as to when he came to Acadia. If it is true that the Breau's came over with Jehan and Perrine in 1636, then the question must be raised as to what happened to Vincent, the elder and his wife and why did they only have the one child, Vincent?

Similarly, Father Lanctôt also declares unequivocally that Jehan's sister, Perrine and her husband, Martin DuPuy who were also newly-weds, joined Jehan and Perrine in the move to Acadia. Arsenault again disagrees with Lanctôt and asserts that Michel is the  DuPuy (Dupuis) progenitor arriving in Acadia around 1648. Again, if Martin and his wife were to have come to Acadia, they should have been identified in the Census of 1671 unless they died in the interim. Here as well, Lanctôt does not explain the basis for his assertion.

28. We are using 'acre' here in the same context as the french word 'arpent' is used in the original text of our source. [ref: 30] 'Arpent' was not only a measurement applied to measure acreage (one 'arpent' is about an acre), but an 'arpent' was always understood to be roughly 200 feet square and could also be used as an expression of length or distance. So to say that you had a river frontage of 'deux arpents / two acres' made sense. And to say that your land ran back to the forests some 'une trentenne d'arpents / some thirty acres' was appropriate usage of the word.

29. François Gautherot who also originated from Martaizé, came to Acadia with Jehan and other men in 1632[ref: 32]. But unlike Jehan who married the 'girl back home', François Gautherot who was about 12 years younger than Jehan, married a local Acadian girl, Edmée Lejeune.

So, it would not be too much to speculate that Jehan and François Gautherot were probably close friends. When they moved from La Hève to Port Royal, I believe that they took up lands in the same area about 10km up the river from Port Royal. I further believe that the land marked as belonging to Pierre Lanoue in the 1707 Port Royal Census Takers' Map (shown in the 'Promise of L'Acadie' section) is the land that François was granted when he and Jehan Terriot came to Port Royal. Later, when he married Edmée, the two raised eleven children of which six were sons. Also close by was the family of François Savoie and Catherine Lejeune (Edmée's younger sister) who were neighbors (to the west) of the Terriot's. Although François Savoie arrived a little later than Jehan to Acadia, it would make sense that when he and Catherine married, they would seek the same area where François Gautherot and Edmée lived.

It is also very interesting to note that Edmée Lejeune came from a very ancient Acadian family. Her father is thought to have come to Acadia with Poutrincourt and Biencourt around 1611[ref: 32]. According to Lanctôt and Rameau de Saint-Père ("Une colonie féodale en Amérique, L'Acadie, 1604-1881", vol. 2., p. 318-320), the Lejeune family was a native Acadian Métis family "...established in Mirligouesh (Indian and Métis village) situated between Cap-de-Sable and La-Hève, We know this because François Gautherot and François Savoye married two daughters from the Lejeune family between 1638 and 1650."  Lanctôt goes on to say that three of François Gautherot's sons apparently became 'coureurs de bois / backwoods runners' with the Métis and the Indians. This is evident in that Jean, François and Germain disappeared from the census rolls as each became adults. Two of François Gautherot's sons, Claude and Charles moved to Grand-Pré and we have no records of the other sons. All of the six sons were recorded in the Census of 1671 but in 1678, only two, Claude and Charles were recorded at the ages of 20 and 18, respectively. By 1693, no Gautherot heads of households are recorded in Port Royal. The only remaining members of the Gautherot family at that time were the daughters and their mother: Jeanne (married to Pierre Lanoue), Marguerite (married to Jacob Giroud), Marie (married to Claude Terriot), Marie (married to Michel DePuy) and François' widow, Edmée (at age 71). Therefore by 1707 (the time of our 1707 Port Royal Census Takers' Map shown on the "Promise of L'Acadie" section), there were no Gautherot families in Port Royal. The old Gautherot land was apparently inherited and occupied by one of the remaining daughters, most likely the youngest daughter, Jeanne who married Pierre Lanoue. Pierre Lanoue arrived late in Acadia around 1668 and married Jeane Gautherot in 1681. By then, the remaining Gautherot sons were gone to Grand Pré leaving François Gautherot, if he was still living, and his wife Edmée with their daughters.

30.

31.

32.