First Generation:

Jean Roy Laliberte was born in 1648 at St. Malo, France. When he was 23 years old, in 1671, he boarded a ship and landed in Port Royal, Acadia. In 1684 he married Marie Aubois, a native of Acadia. They had the following children: Anne, Marie, Jean, Francois, Philippe, Charles, M. Francoise, M. Madeleine and Renaud.

Second Generation:

Francois Roy was born in 1692 at Port Royal, the son Jean Roy and Marie Aubois. On January 17, 1717, he married Marie Bergeron, the daughter of Barthelemy Bergeron and Genevieve Serreau dit St. Aubin. They gave birth to these children: M. Josephe, Francois, Benoit, Joseph, Madeleine, Abraham, Marie, M. Rose and M. Elizabeth.

Marie Bergeron passed away shortly after the birth of M. Elizabeth in 1740.

Francois (Sr.) remarried in 1741 to Marguerite Bujeau. Of interesting note, Francois and Marie’s on Abraham, born in 1731, was deported to Louisiana by the English in 1755.

Third Generation:

Benoit Roy was born in 1720, the son of Francois Roy and Marie Bergeron. In 1762 he married Euphrosine Bourg. They had these childfree: Charles Boniface, M. Osithe, Anne Marguerite, Wenceslas, Firman and Francois.

In 1763, Benoit, Euphrosine and Charles Boniface were held prisoner by the English at Halifax. By 1768 they were released and they settled at Ste. Anne de Pays Bas (Fredericton), on the banks of the St. John River.

In 1791, Benoit and his family settled in the county of Madawaska. Benoit passed away on May 9, 1819, at Bouctouche, New Brunswick, the land of the Sagouine.

Fourth Generation:

Charles Boniface Roy was born around 1762 and was baptized on July 12, 1768, at the age of 5 years and 7 months.

In 1785 at Ste. Anne des Pays Bas, he married Helene Martin, the daughter of Jean Baptiste Martin and Helene Godin dit Bellefontaine.

In 1791, Charles and his family settled in Madawaska, where they built a log cabin on Lot 116 in Hamlin Plantation. The Roy home is currently being preserved at the Acadian Village in Van Buren.

They had these children: Euphemie, Helene Scholastique, Joseph Joachim, Sylvain, Laurent, Jean Baptiste, Alexandre, Francois, Firmin and Julien. Charles and Helene adopted a young girl of French Huguenot origin, Marguerite Densys-Roy, who later married Germain Dube. Alexandre settled across the river in St. Leonard, where most of his descendants carry the last name of King.

ROY FAMILY REUNION NOTES

Dan Berube, a Madawaska Historical Society official, informed the Roy Family Reunion organized that the CD-TOM computer program lists 36,000 Roy Family household in the United States alone. To date we have no numbers for our Canadian kin.

Most of these families are descendants from the original 36 pioneers that immigrated to North America during the Colonization era (1600 and 1700) and to make our story more complicated exciting and interesting, many took on surnames (soubriguets) often stemming from place of origin, occupation or social and personal events in their lives.

The genealogy series, "Our French-Canadian Ancestors", by Thomas Laforest, English version translated from the 20 French volumes published by the Reverend Gerard Lebel C.Ss.R., lists more than 30 of these surnames. Of these, the most commonly found are Desjardins, Lausier or Lauzier, Voisine and King.

The reunion organizers agreed to try to simplify their task by focusing the 1994 Reunion on the four ancestors that left the largest and most tangible heritage. Namely Antoine, Mathurin, Simon, and Jean, as well as the surnames Desjardins, Lausier, Voisine and King.

Much help will be needed to determine when the original Roy name was changed to the present day subrequet. This should make interesting reading for future columns. Therefore the organizing committee welcomes information on family trees, history and photographs.  The officers are Guy Roy, U.S. chairman, Maurice Roy, Canadian, Nancy Roy Dube, Rachel Roy.