Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/209

LeBourg, Pierre Doucet, Denis LeBlanc and Abraham Dugast signed with a mark.

There are now about 200 families of the name of Bourgeois in the Maritime Provinces, most of them being residents of Kent and Westmorland, and all descendants of the old judge at Port Royal.

The free and easy way in which the census takers of ancient Acadia spelled the names of the inhabitants is a source of much embarrassment to the student of the history of that time. In the census of 1671 Blanchard is spelled in two different ways, Terriau is similarly treated; and the same is true of other names which will be more particularly referred to hereafter. A notable instance of misspelling occurs in connection with the name of Jacques Belou, cooper, who lived at Port Royal in 1671. His wife was Marie Girouard, a daughter of François Girouard, and he had then one child, a girl. The census of 1686 does not contain the name of Belou, either at Port Royal or anywhere else in Acadia, and the natural presumption would be that Mr. Jacques Belou had removed with his family to some other part of the world. A more particular examination of the census of 1686, however, describes Jacques Belou under a new name. He was then a resident of Chignecto but his name has been changed to Blou, which the transposition of a letter in Murdoch's history converts into Blon, so that we would never recognize our old friend under his new name. His wife however, is the same Marie Girouard, and his little daughter Marie has grown to be a young woman of 17. He has now another daughter, Jeanne, who is 5 years old, and a son François 18 months old, who has been named after his grandfather, François Girouard. It is to be feard that little François Belou did not live to manhood, for I am unable to find any further trace of the name in the annals of Acadia.