Travel by ancestry -- to the Big Y DNA signature (R-FT55255) for the lineage of Acadian ancestor Daniel LeBlanc (b. ca 1626)

The Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project announces the following addition to the The Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project Wall of Big Y DNA Markers:
The LeBlanc Big Y DNA marker R-FT55255!
October 12, 2020

Advanced “Big Y” DNA testing offers members of the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project insights into their surname lines and origins like none other.  Big Y DNA testing has proven to be an excellent partner for those engaged with surname studies as Big Y DNA tests pinpoint specific genetic markers, called SNPs, that are unique to individual surnames.  That marker is passed from father to father to father, from an earliest-known paternal ancestor to living male descendants who carry an Acadian surname. As with the project, we are inclusive of “allied” surnames as we know that post-exile, many of our Acadian ancestors intermarried with others and their DNA has since become an integral part of our genetic legacy.

Because not all descendants of Acadian and allied ancestors have had the Big Y DNA tests, and right now, our Big Y DNA test results are intermixed with other project information, our list is in no way complete, and as we find more of the Big Y DNA results in our project, and new results come in, we will continue add to the list.  We hope that the “Acadian Amerindian Ancestry Project Wall of Big Y DNA Markers” will help others in completing their genealogies and as always, inspire more to have Big Y DNA tests. We want to have all of our historic Acadian and allied surnames “on the map.” Please contact project administrators if you have any questions about how to order a Big Y DNA test.

In early October of 2020, Acadian genealogist Paul L. LeBlanc of Louisiana, whose BIG Y DNA test from Family Tree DNA of Houston, Texas, was sponsored by the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project and members of Paul's Acadian Genealogy Groups, shared that his Big Y DNA test results had come in and that he belonged to the R-FT55255 haplogroup.

Review of Paul's Big Y DNA test results revealed that he had inherited the Y DNA signature SNP, R-FT55255, which formed a NEW branch of the R-BY592 haplogroup subclade.  This new haplogroup, to which Paul and one other LeBlanc man belong, is one-step-down from the R-BY592 haplogroup to which one other LeBlanc man who also traces his patrilineal lines (from father-to-father) to ancestor Daniel LeBlanc of Acadia (b. ca 1626) belongs! The R-BY592 haplogroup is in turn one step down from the R-DF63 branch.  It is strongly recommended that LeBlanc men in the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry and other Family Tree DNA projects who have tested positively for the R-DF63 SNP also add the Big Y DNA test to further refine their results!

Paul's Big Y DNA test results proved his LeBlanc lineage twice over: once through his meticulous genealogy research and again by way of his matching 111-marker and Big Y DNA test results. Paul's Big Y DNA test results, and those of another LeBlanc man, have now formed a brand-new branch of the Y DNA tree: R-FT55255. It cannot be said enough: Big Y DNA tests are essential for identifying the descendants of specific male ancestors.  A Big Y DNA test result may reveal that a descendant is an adoptee, a product of a non-patrilineal event (NPE), or (as in Paul LeBlanc's case) the surname descendant of an ancestor born in the early 1600s!

The R-FT55255 haplogroup is one-step down from the R-BY592 haplogroup, which is a branch of the L21 haplogroup.  The L21 haplogroup, a subclade of the R-M269 haplogroup (also referred to as the R1b haplogroup), is "the most common Y chromosome subclade of paternal lineages in the British Isles and is also significant in France." (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/r-l21/about/background)  The L21 haplogroup, and those ancestors who belonged to it, came on the scene in Europe during the Bronze Age and proliferated in short order, relatively speaking.

The position of Paul's R-FT55255 haplogroup, within the current Y DNA tree, is highlighted in the following graphic: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/y-dna-haplotree/R;name=R-FT55255.  If you look one step "upstream" in the tree from Paul LeBlanc's haplogroup, you'll discover three little flags icons that depict the R-BY592 parent haplogroup's European origins. One flag represents France. The other two flags represent Northern Ireland  and the United Kingdom.

Acadian genealogist Paul L. LeBlanc provides the following notes about his ancestor, Daniel LeBlanc (spelling variations of Paul's surname include LeBlanc, Leblanc, and LE BLANC):

Modified Register for (1) DANIEL LE BLANC

First Generation

1.    (1) DANIEL LE BLANC[1,2] was born about 1626. He died 1695/1698 in Port-Royal, Acadia.
Location: .
1671 Port-Royal 45a
1686 Port-Royal 60a
1693 Port-Royal 66a
.
 In the 1671 census Daniel had 17 cattle & 26 sheep. In the 1678 census, he had 12 acres and 12 cattle. His sons (Rene, Antoine, and Pierre) were living with him [Source - S White Dictionnaire].
.
LE BLANC, Daniel, came from France with his wife, according to ten depositions: five from his great-grandsons (Doc. inéd., Vol. III, pp. 42, 48, 50, 88, 117), four from his great-great-grandsons (ibid., Vol. II, p. 189; Vol. III, pp. 55, 115, 120), and one from the husband of one of his great-great-granddaughters (ibid., Vol. III, p. 54). An eleventh, from his great-grandson Honoré LeBlanc, but in which his grandson Joseph LeBlanc dit Le Maigre seems to have collaborated (ibid., Vol. II, p. 170), adds that this wife was Daniel's second, and that she and her husband had brought with them Marie LeBlanc, the daughter of Daniel's first marriage. Unfortunately, none of the eleven depositions that speak of her French origin mentions this wife's name, but Françoise Gaudet is shown to have been Daniel LeBlanc's wife by four Acadian censuses (see DGFA-1, p. 666). Father Archange Godbout proved through an analysis of various marriage dispensations in an article published in 1952 ("Daniel Leblanc," SGCF, Vol. V, pp. 4-9) that the first marriage was actually Françoise Gaudet's, and that while her daughter was indeed named Marie, she was Marie Mercier, and not Marie LeBlanc.
Stephen A. White, Genealogist,Centre d'études acadiennes January 17, 2005

BIRTH:
Possibly born in Martiaize, Loudon, Vienne, France

Census: Rc PR 1671 45a
Rc PR 1686 60a
Rc PR 1693 66a
.
.
Charles C Trahan Acadian Census 1671-1752
1671 p 4
Farmer Daniel Leblanc age 45, his wife Francoise Gaudet age 48; their 7 children: one married daughter Marie-Francoise 18, not married Jacque 20, Etienne 15, Rene 14, Andre 1, Anthoine 9, Pierre 7; 18 cattle, 26 sheep, 10 arpents.
.
 
DANIEL married[1,2] (1a) FRANCOISE GAUDET[1,2,3], daughter of (1) JEAN GAUDET Jehan and FEMALE, on 1650. FRANCOISE was born about 1623. She died before 1700 in Port-Royal, Acadia.
Location: maybe from near MartIaize, Loudon, Vienne, France
.
GAUDET, Françoise, came from France with her husband Daniel LeBlanc, according to ten depositions: five from her great-grandsons (Doc. inéd., Vol. III, pp. 42, 48, 50, 88, 117), four from her great-great-grandsons (ibid., Vol. II, p. 189; Vol. III, pp. 55, 115, 120), and one from the husband of one of her great-great-granddaughters (ibid., Vol. III, p. 54). An eleventh, from her great-grandson Honoré LeBlanc, but in which her grandson Joseph LeBlanc dit Le Maigre seems to have collaborated (ibid., Vol. II, p. 170), adds that she was Daniel's second wife, and that she and her husband had brought with them Marie LeBlanc, the daughter of Daniel's first marriage. Father Archange Godbout proved through an analysis of various marriage dispensations in an article published in 1952 ("Daniel Leblanc," SGCF, Vol. V, pp. 4-9) that the first marriage was actually Françoise Gaudet's, and that while her daughter was indeed named Marie, she was Marie Mercier, and not Marie LeBlanc. Unfortunately, none of the eleven depositions that speak of her French origin mentions Françoise's name, but she is shown to have been Daniel LeBlanc's wife by four Acadian censuses (see DGFA-1, p. 666).
 Stephen A. White, Genealogist,Centre d'études acadiennes January 17, 2005

Census: Rc PR 1671 48a
Rc PR 1686 60a [sic]
Rc PR 1693 76a [sic]
Rc PR 1698 80a [sic]
.
Charles C Trahan Acadian Census 1671-1752
1671 p 4
Farmer Daniel Leblanc age 45, his wife Francoise Gaudet age 48;their 7 children: one married daughter Marie-Francoise 18, not married: Jacques 20, Etienne 15, Rene 14, Andre 12, Antyhoine 9, Pierre 7; 18 cattle, 26 sheep, 10 arpents.
1686 p 4
Daniel LeBlanc 60, Francoise Godet 60; 2 guns, 6 arpents, 15 cattle, 20 sheep, 7 hogs.

Appendix A  -  Sources

1. Stephen A White, Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes 1636-1714 v1, p 666-668 Gaudet Jean (1).
2. Stephen A White, Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes 1636-1714 v2, p 983-985 LeBlanc Daniel (1).
3. Stephen A White, DGFA v2, p 1173-1174 Mercier (1).
Index

Online References:
​

• Karen Theriot's database: https://gw.geneanet.org/katheriot?lang=en&n=le+blanc&nz=theriot&oc=0&p=paul+lewis&pz=karen+ann&type=fiche
• "The Acadians," Dictionary of Acadian Biography: www.biographi.ca/en/theme_essays.html?p=27
• Paul has also entered his family tree into the Family Tree DNA and My Heritage databases.

Research of Cajun-Acadian genealogies often reveals that a single individual may descend from the same ancestor multiple times!  Intermarriage is indeed a hallmark of many Acadian-Cajun lines which have their earliest roots in Port Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada. Paul LeBlanc is no different from many of his Louisiana cousins in this respect: Paul LeBlanc has fifteen lines from Daniel, from all of his children except Etienne who went to sea never to return and Pierre whose families ended up in Quebec. He has four lines from Stepdaughter Marie Mercier.

Within historically Acadian parishes,  Acadian brides and grooms having the exact same surnames may be found in marriage records and this trend continues today! Notably, Paul has one LeBlanc - LeBlanc marriage in his Cajun - Acadian lines.

1.    (186) VI.I.1.b SIMON-JOSEPH LE BLANC[1,2] [s/o (70) Eienne & (12e) Isabella Boudreau ] was born 16 Dec 1744 and was baptized[3] 17 Dec 1744 in St-Charles-aux-Mines Catholic Church, Grand-Pre, Acadia. He was buried[4] 14 Jul 1810 in Ascension Church, Donaldsonville, Ascension, LA. Baptism: spo Jean Baptiste LeBlanc & Marguerite Halen

SIMON-JOSEPH married[5] IV.A.10.e ELIZABETH LE BLANC Isabelle[1,6], daughter of (69) IV.A.10 JOSEPH LE BLANC and (6h) ISABELLE GAUDET Elizabeth Gode, on 21 Sep 1772 in Ascension Church, Donaldsonville, Ascension, LA. ELIZABETH was born 18 Apr 1753 in Port-Royal, Acadia and was baptized 19 Apr 1753 in Port-Royal, Acadia . She was buried[7] 24 May 1815 in Ascension Church Cemetery, Donaldsonville, Ascension, LA.

Appendix A  -  Sources

1. Stephen A White, Dictionnaire Genealogique des Families Acadiennes (2) - unpublished, v L p 606-607, ?74 Le Blanc Etienne (70).
2. Lynette Le Blanc Kleinpeter, The LeBlanc Legacy, Remembrances of thr Past, 1626-1999, p 388-389 LeBlanc Simon Joseph VI.I.1.b.
3. Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records v 1aR, p 152 (SGA-3, 30a).
4. Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records v 3, p 556 (ASC-4, 92).
5. Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records, v 2 p 463-464  483 (ASC-1, 120).
6. Stephen A White, DGFA (2) - unpublished, v L p 606 Le Blanc Joseph (69).
7. DOBR v 3, p 538 (ASC-4, 121).

After Katrina, Paul LeBlanc moved away from New Orleans and now makes his home in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. In fact, Paul lives across the river from where his Le Blanc - Le Blanc ancestors were married back in the late 1700s, and, like his ancestors, Paul's surname at birth was also spelled "Le Blanc." Just this year, Paul learned through research that his middle name was given as "Louis" at baptism -- and not the civil name, "Lewis," which he had used all of his life.  Paul wants all to know that his only relatives in the British Isles came over in 1066 (the year of the Norman conquest of England).

The Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project invites all men of Acadian lines to have the Big Y DNA test and add their Big Y DNA test results to the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project Wall of Big Y DNA Markers.  For more information about the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project, visit: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/acadian-amerindian/about/background