Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/291

LeBland or LeBlanc. Madeline, the oldest daughter, whose age is given as 28, was the wife of Michel Richard and had seven children. As her oldest child was 14, she must have either been married very young or there is some mistake in her age. But early marriages seem to have been the rule in that family, for her sister Anne, the widow of François Aucoin, although her age is only given as 26, had a child 12 years old. Many of the Acadian women of that time married when very young, most of them were wives before they had reached the age of 20.

The other children of Jean Blanchard, William, aged 21, Bernard, aged 18, and Marie, aged 15, were living at home with their parents when the census of 1671 was taken. When the census of 1686 was taken, all the members of the Blanchard family were still living. at Port Royal, but the census of 1714 shows that some of them had removed to Mines. Port Royal, however, continued the home of most of the Blanchards for many years. In 1730, when the inhabitants of the Annapolis River took the oath of allegiance, the roll was signed by six adult males of the name of Blanchard. There were only two families of that name deported from Mines by Winslow in 1755, but in 1752, among the Acadians who were under the protection of Fort Beausejour, were thirteen families of Blanchards, two from Port Royal, two from Petitcodiac, one from Menurdy, three from Shepody and six from Memramcook. There are now about one hundred families of the name in New Brunswick, three fourths of whom live in the County of Gloucester, and most of the remainder in Kent. In Nova Scotia there are only a few families of that name. In this province the Blanchards have flourished, contributing members to the legislature and to Parliament.

Antoine Babin, aged forty-five, was a resident of