History and origin of the Renaud-Blanchard family

L'Ancêtre Jean Raynaud-Blanchard (1648-1690). Our ancestor, Jean Raynaud-Blanchard (1648-1690), was most likely born in the parish of St. François de Bussière, Diocese of Limoges, in the Limousin area of France. He comes from the hamlet of Planchât, in the parish of Saint-François de Bussière-Vieille in Auvergne. I say most likely, because over the decades there has been some confusion among researchers in Quebec, as to which Bussière is actually referred to - Bussière-Gallant, or Serre-Bussière-Vieille, the commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine area. The latter commune is the result of a merger at the end of the eighteenth century, which included the former parish of Saint-François de Bussière-Vieille. And which ‘St François’ is referred to; rather who is this saint? This has been something of a wild goose chase (une chasse à l'oie sauvage) for me, quite appropriate in the Limousin area. My hunch is that it was St. Francis of Assisi, as the Franciscans of various flavours have had a presence in the area for centuries. But St. François de Bussière just seems to have disappeared, apart from references which googley originate in Quebec. St. François de Bussière merged with the parish of La Serre to form the municipality of La Serre-Bussière-Vieille. Now for an English speaking Australian who is also a Francophile, whose grandfather Blanchard came from Swanton, Vermont, this is somewhat confusing, from a number of perspectives. As in Quebec, and I may be off with the wombats, some communes in France often take the name of the Parish church? But let me not chase that goose. In a 1681 index of immigrants (New France), our ancestor is listed as 33 years of age which means he was born and baptised in 1648. He died, in a well-documented and memorialised account, on the 2nd of July, 1690, at the hands of native Americans, the ‘Onëiouts’ (Onneyouts) belonging to the Iroquois. The exact date of his arrival in New France is most likely August, 1665, on the ship L'Aigle d'Or de Brouage (The Golden Eagle of Brouage). It is reasonably certain that he was a soldier of the Carignan-Salière Regiment, under the command of Captain Pierre de St. Paul, Sieur de La Motte (?-d. November 27, 1685). This is ascertained by the fact that three soldiers of the Regiment of Sieur de La Motte and Captain Michel-Sidrac Dugué de Boisbriand (1638-1688) witnessed his marriage contract. On this contract he was designated as a soldier. Our ancestor settled in Pointe-aux-Trembles. On April 7, 1670 he signed a marriage contract with the 12 year old child, Catherine Millet (born June 14, 1658, died 1722), before the notary Sieur Bénigne Basset des Lauriers (1639-1699). They were married January 7, 1671 in Montreal. Catherine was now 13 years old and Jean Raynaud-Blanchard was 23. Kyrie eleison… Witnesses to the marriage were: Jean-Baptiste Migeon Debranssat (1636-1693), ‘Tax Attorney’; Andre Carriere (most likely André-François Carrière, 1640-1715); Pierre Pertuis (most likely Pierre Perthuis dit Lalime, 1645-1708); and Matthurin Laurion (most likely Mathurin Lorion, about 1604-1683). From their union, 9 children are born, some of whom die as infants. The family lived at Pointe-aux-Trembles. In July 1690, our ancestor was taken prisoner by the Iroquois Onneyouts and burnt alive. He was about 44 years of age. On November 2, 1694, he was later buried with Christian rites at Pointe-aux-Trembles. The site of his death, with others, is known as the ‘Battle of Rivière des Prairies / Battle of Coulée’ and is memorialised with a plaque. There are hundreds of thousands of descendants from our ancestors Catherine Millet and Jean Raynaud-Blanchard, extending to Australia. As an Australian I am proud to have this link with Quebec and my French ancestors. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land; and, the many researchers who have assisted in this summary; in particular, Muguette Marsan.

Submitted by Stephen N.

According to the pedagogue and linguist in Quebec, Roland Jacob, the name Blanchard is a challenging one in North America, namely in New France (Quebec), established by a number of ancestors, with some twenty patronyms, including Renaud or Raynault and Turenne. Technically the name Blanchard can be explained in various ways. 1) it may be a sobriquet (nickname) derived from Blanc. 2) It is also a name of Germanic origin – Blankhard, with the roots of ‘blank’ and ‘hard, strong’, with a Corsican and Italian equivalent of Biancardi. 3) It can also be a confusion between two paronymes – a word that resembles another, Planchard and Blanchard, presumably caused by the dialectal accent caused by the carrier. So planchard is less frequent than the word blanchard. It is plausible that the ‘p’ was perceived as a ‘b’. The interest of the latter hypothesis is that the nickname Planchar, sometimes written as Planchard, was associated with our single ancestor, Jean Raynaud dit Planchar (1646-1690, aka Jean Raynaud-Planchard) and the Raynaud and Renaud forms were interchangeable from one generation to the other. So from our ancestor we have the following descendants: Raynaud-Planchard, Rainau-Planchar, Renaud, Renod, Rainaud, Raynaud, Raynault, Rainault, Renaud-Blanchard, coming down to Blanchard. Finally, our ancestor Jean Raynaud dit Planchar, whose descendants will be called Blanchard, comes from the hamlet of Planchât, parish of Saint-François de Bussière-Vieille in Auvergne, France. I write this as an Australian and am happy to be corrected. Stephen Blanchard dit Nuske.

Submitted by Stephen N.