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Jean Gaudet - 1) Name Unknown and 2) Nicole Colleson

Jean Gaudet (1575 - 1671) married twice. Historian Reverend Archange Godbout states that Jean had four children: Francoise, Denis, Marie and Jean. He reasoned that Francoise and Denis were born of Jean's first wife (Unknown); that Marie and Jean were born of Nicole Colleson (1606 - post 1686), his second wife; that the first three were born in France; and that Jean came to Acadia after 1633 with his second wife. Godbout considered that Colleson was a French name rather than traceable to the Scotch settlers who accompanied Sir William Alexander, as has been suggested by others.

Genealogist Bona Arsenault states that Jean Gaudet probably came to Acadia after 1636, having married Nicole Colleson "en deuxième noces", about 1628. Jean is listed in the 1671 census as a 96-year-old farmer (laboureur) living in Port Royal with his 64-year-old wife, Nicole Colleson. Still living with them, was their 18-year-old son, Jean. They had six heads of cattle, three sheep, and three acres of land under cultivation.

Historian Geneviève Massignon born in France, identified Gaudet as a name found in Martaizé among tenants of d"Aulnay's seigniory. She also noted that in 1671 Jean Gaudet had 22 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, thus becoming the ancestor of 1/10 (one tenth) of the Acadian population!

Click here for details on the GAUDET(TE)/GODET Genealogy CD-ROM, now available

I am very grateful to my uncle Roch Cyr, for having provided me a copy of this source document, originating from his friend Leo G. Cyr