Doucet

dit LaVerdure

Germain Doucet was born about 1590 or 1590; many genealogists think he is from the Brie district, perhaps Couperans. His father's name was also Germain, and he had a brother named Pierre who also has descendants in Acadia, though he himself apparently never left France. There is a fief called La Verdure about ten kilometers from Couperans. Germain Doucet first appears in Acadia in 1632, coming with the military commander Isaac de Razilly and Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, the first French governor. The recent treaty of St-Germain-en-Laye had returned Acadia to France, and new settlers were arriving. Doucet was a 'captain at arms,' and his wife, son and daughter evidently came with him. The name of the wife is lost. Doucet helped build Fort Sainte-Marie-de-Grace, and then settled on a farm nearby. He remained on 'active duty' however; he accompanied d'Aulnay on a mission to retake possession of Port-Royal from the English, and went to England aboard the St-Jean when the colonists were returned there. In 1635 he was in command of the small garrison at Fort Pentagouet, and in 1645 was in charge of the colony's main fort at Port-Royal (above). He was executor of d'Aulnay's will when the governor drowned in 1650. When an English force captured Port-Royal again in 1651, Doucet and his wife were taken prisoner and sent back to France, where they died. However, their two older surviving children were already married, and stayed in Acadia.

Many genealogical sources claim to have identified Germain's wife; most think she was a Bourgeois, from the family of our ancestor Jacques Bourgeois; one thinks she was a Trahan; another claims she was a Grandjehan - this was the name of Jacques Bourgeois' biological father. Any of these is feasible, as these families all came from the same neighborhood in Brie. Both Bona Arsenault, in Histoire et Genealogie des Acadiens, and Adrien Bergeron, in Le Grand Arrangement des Acadiens au Quebec think that she must have been a Bourgeois because several records refer to Jacques Bourgeois as Doucet's brother-in-law.

Children: Pierre (c1621, married Henriette Pelletret, 9 children); Marguérite-Louise-Judith (c1625, married Abraham Dugas about 1647); a daughter (married Pierre LeJeune dit Briard); and a son Germain, born in Port-Royal, who married Marie Landry in 1664. Germain was only about ten when his parents were deported, and must have lived with one of his older siblings.

Marguérite-Louise-Judith and Abraham Dugas had eight children; Marie Eva Jean Martin was descended from three of them. See Dugas.