The most likely place of origin for Jacques Bourgeois is probably La Ferté-Gaucher, where the parish records of St-Romain record (in Latin) the birth of "Jacobus," son of the deceased Nicolas Grandjehan and Marguérite Bourgeois - if this is the right Jacques, then he was illegitimate. The January 1621 date matches with his own later account of when he was born. We know that he trained as a surgeon, and there was a Knights of Malta teaching hospital in nearby Coutrans. In any case, he joined the army, and by 1643 was in Acadia serving as surgeon to the Port Royal garrison. He married fourteen-year-old Jeanne Trahan (from one of the colony's first families; see Trahan).

In 1646, Governor d'Aulnay granted Jacques and Jeanne Bourgeois an island called the Île aux Cochons situated in the Dauphin (now Annapolis) River just upstream from Port-Royal. When Port-Royal surrendered to the English in 1654, he was listed as a surgeon and a lieutenant, but he must have been a full-time farmer too. The English held the colony until 1670, when the French returned and took a census; Jacques now had eight children and was one of the richest farmers in Acadia. He owned several small ships engaged in trade with the Indians and with New England. He was one of the founders of the new settlement at Beaubassin in 1671, and moved there permanently in 1687. He built a flour mill and a sawmill there. At the age of 75, in 1696, he was chosen by the Beaubassin settlers to negotiate with an English force that had invaded from Massachusetts. His wife Jeanne died in 1686, and Jacques died in 1701 at Port-Royal.

The Bourgeois clan was large and widespread when the British conquered Acadia in 1755, and most of them were removed to Louisiana (some went to South Carolina and New Brunswick). After 1800 many Bourgeois could be found around Bayou LaForche in Louisiana.

Jacques and Jeanne Bourgeois' children: Jeanne (1645-1730); Charles (1646-1678, married Anne Dugas); Germain (1650, see below); Marie (1653, married Pierre Sire); Guillaume (1655, married Marie-Anne De Martignon); Marguérite (1658-1693, married Pierre Maisonnat); Marie-Françoise (1659-1696, married Claude Dugas, 13 children); Anne (1661-1747, married René Leblanc); another Marie (1664); and another Jeanne (1667, married Pierre Comeau).

Germain Bourgeois married Madeleine Béliveau in 1673, and she died in 1682. Children: Guillaume (1674-1747, married Marie-Marguérite Mius); Marie (1677, married Pierre Brot); and Michel (1679). Germain married secondly Marie-Madeleine Dugas (daughter of Abraham Dugas and Marguérite-Louise Doucet). Children: Madeleine-Jeanne (1683-1760, married Michel Poirer, 13 children); Agnès (1686-1757, married Michel Richard, our ancestors via Richard and Prince); Anne (1687, died young); Joseph (1690, married Anne Leblanc); Marie-Josèphe (1691, died young?); Claude (1695-1760, see below); Françoise (1698, died young); Marie-Marguérite (1700, married Jacques Leblanc); Marie-Madeleine (1704); and Jeanne (1708).

Claude Bourgeois married Marie Leblanc in 1721 at Port-Royal (she was the daughter of Pierre Leblanc and Madeleine Bourg, and several of her brothers and sisters married Claude's brothers and sisters). Their children: Pierre-Benjamin (1726, married Cécile Aucoin, Anne Leblanc, and Anne Thébeau); Marie-Madeleine (1728); Anastasie (1730); Élisabeth (1730, twin); Joseph-Abel (1733); Armand (1735, see below); Amable (1737); Gertrude (1738); Marguérite (1741), and Germain. This family lived mostly around Memramcook.

The British conquest of Acadia and the subsequent deportations took many of Claude's family to Massachusetts. Armand Bourgeois and Marguérite Dugas were married there, without Catholic rites, in 1764. In 1767, they went to Québec, where they settled at St-Jacques de l'Achigan (in Montcalm, photo above). The marriage was revalidated on 26 July 1767.

Armand Bourgeois (1735-) re-married Marguérite Dugas in 1767. They had nine children, mostly baptised and married at the church of St-Jacques: Marie-Anne (1767); Marie-Josèphe (1768, married Pierre Dupuis); Abraham (1770, married Angélique Breau); Marie-Marguérite (1772, married Firmin Dupuis); Claude (1774, married Isabelle Martin); Marie-Angélique (1774); Marie-Esther (1776, married Victor Prince); Jean-Baptiste (1778, married Vénérande Poirier); and Joseph (1780, married Rosalie Poirier).

Victor and Marie-Esther Prince, married in August 1795 at St-Jacques de l'Achigan in Montcalm, were maternal great-grandparents of Marie Eva Jean Martin.