Acadian Family History and Genealogy

My husband's Franco-American family never knew about Lumina Savoie's Acadian genealogy

Honoring the family’s Acadian heritage with a Tourtiere icon

Maybe this idea will catch on as a way for carrying forth the Acadian heritage via the tradition of baking our tourtieres during les fêtes- the Holidays.

My friend Gail Dubay gave me the idea to create a heritage symbol on our family’s traditional New Year’s tourtiere. Using a simple cookie cutter, I cut a star out of the top crust and placed it in a stand out position on the top crust. This symbol is created for the purpose of recognizing my husband’s connection to the Acadian culture inherited through his Grandmother Lumina Savoie L’Heureux. In fact, the star is symbolic of the Stella Maris, an enduring icon representing the Acadian culture and exhibited on the Acadian flag. The yellow star located in the blue section represents the star of Mary, Stella Maris, Patron Saint of the Acadians, and serves as a crest in the Acadian flag

My husband’s family was unaware about the Acadian history lived by his grandmother’s ancestors until we connected with Lucie LeBlanc Consentino. She is a well known and admired Acadian genealogist who manages the Acadian and French-Canadian History social media page (site here).

“Savoie is definitely an Acadian name” she told me. “Your husband's Savoie line is as follows. As you will see, the lineage connects to other Acadian lines: Thibodeau, Richard, Breau, Petitpas, Comeau, etc..etc.. Parents of Lumina Savoie: Edouard and Therese Boucher. Parents of Lumina Savoie were Edouard and Therese Boucher. Parents of Edouard Savoie were Michel Savoie and Charlotte Avare. Parents of Michel Savoie were Simon Savoie and Anastasie Thibodeau. Parents of Simon Savoie: Germain Savoie and Marie Josephe Richard. Parents of Germain Savoie: Germain and Marie (dit Vincelotte) BREAU. Parents of Germain Savoie: Francois Savoie and and Catherine Lejeune. ”

Specific to the Savoie, she provided fascinating data about how the Savoie family arrived as refugees from Le Grand Dérangement, the brutal British expulsion of the Acadians who were forced out of their homeland in Nova Scotia (Acadie). Simon and his wife Francoise Anastasie had gone to Miramichi, in New Brunswick All of the displaced Acadians who went there were escaping from the British. Although his wife died before 03 Aug 1757, the family with Simon and his children proceeded on to Quebec.

She provided a link to the “Find A Grave” site created by George L’Heureux, who is my husband’s first cousin once removed whose family are directly related to the marriage of Narcisse L’Heureux and Lumina Marie (Savoie) L’Heureux.

Narcisse L’Heureux

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138383100/narcisse_l

Birth: 31 Jul 1857 Lorette, Capitale-Nationale Region, Quebec, Canada

Death: 4 Apr 1933 (aged 75) Sanford, York County, Maine, USALumina

épouse Lumina Marie Savoie L'Heureux

Birth: 18 Dec 1865 Arthabaska, Centre-du-Quebec Region, Quebec, Canada

Death: 20 Jul 1943 (aged 77) Sanford, York County, Maine, USA

Burial: Saint Ignatius Cemetery Sanford, York County, Maine, USA

Burials: Saint Ignatius Cemetery Sanford, York County, Maine, USA

Lumina was born in Arthabaska, Quebec to Edouard and Adele (Vaillancourt) Savoie.

She married Narcisse L'Heureux on July 8, 1884 in Arthabaska. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1905, had thirteen children, and lived at 15 Lebanon Street in Sanford, Maine.

After her husband died, Lumina continued to live in her Lebanon Street home with several of her daughters and their husbands. She eventually moved with one of her daughters to 9 Payne Street in Springvale, Maine. She died in that home.

“Savoie is definitely an Acadian name,” Lucie Leblanc Consentino.

Un grand merci à Lucie LeBlanc Consentino and George L’Heureux.

My family appreciates the opportunity to learn and remember my husband’s Acadian heritage supported with expert genealogy data.

To simplify my husband’s paternal link to the Acadian genealogy of Savoie/Thibodeau:

In 1857, while fleeing from the British who brutally forced the Acadians out of their land in Acadie, today’s Nova Scotia, the Savoie/Thibodeau ancestors to Lumina Savoie (my husband’s grandmother), found their way to Quebec via New Brunswick. Although Lumina’s mother Adele Vallincourt was not of Acadian heritage, the family of her father Edouard can be traced to 1623, in France, before the first generation is documented as being among colonial era French settlers in Acadie.

Lumina Savoie L'Heureux and her husband Narcisse with their family picure taken in 1917