L'Acadie & The Bourgeois family

Anthyme Roy's and Georgiana Paré's eldest son Émile married Eulalie Bourgeois in Bennington, Vt. The Bourgeois family has a most interesting history and settled in L'Acadie, Qc. - an area in close proximity to where I live. The Bourgeois came to L'Acadie after being deported from Beau Bassin, Nova Scotia to Boston in 1755. As soon as they were allowed to depart from Boston they and a number of other Acadian families made their way north on foot following the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, and the Richelieu River. Some 500 Acadians thus settled in the area of la Petite Rivière de Montréal (the small Montreal River) which they promptly renamed Petite Cadie and subsequently L'Acadie in honour of their ancestral home. They arrived in small bands - as many as 80, 0n August 19th 1768 but some had managed to escape (illegally) from Boston as early as 1758. In those days L'Acadie (which was also to be spelled Lacadie) was a huge tract of land covering an area from Chambly to the Richelieu river and from Laprairie to the American border. At first, civil records were entered in the registers of the parish of St-Philipe-de-Laprairie as there were no churches on the territory. These registers include marriages (these were validated in Laprairie) and baptisms having taken place during the exile period as Acadians were not allowed to practice their religion in Massachussets and had no access to priests in any event.
A church was erected in the village of L'Acadie as early as 1784. The parish is named Ste-Marguerite de Blairfindie in honour of the wife of the scottish seigneur David Alexander Grant.
This church is considered an architectural jewel. Its picture and those of houses in the village can be found at:
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~marcotte/Velo/Villes/Lacadie.html

As population grew, more villages and parishes were created: St-Cyprien de Napierville to the South, St-Luc to the north, St-Blaise to the east, and St-Jacques-le-mineur to the west.
Two years ago, the village of L'Acadie was annexed to the city of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It remains a charming village where old houses have been well preserved and restored surrounded by a thriving agricultural area.