The first settlers of Acadia arrived in 1604, led by the Sieur du Monts; they established a permanent settlement at Port-Royal in 1605. Over the next ten years or so settlers came and went, all of them male; there were some liaisons with native Micmac or Abenaki women. Our ancestor Jehan or Jean Lambert was born about 1591 - place and parents unknown; but some sources claim he was from Dieppe - and he was in Acadia probably by 1610 (there is a Jehan Lambert on the ship Jonas that year) and certainly by 1612, when his name appears as a witness to an affidavit. There is no record of his marriage, but he had a daughter called Radegonde or Jeanne-Radegonde, born either in 1621 or 1629 (based on her age given in two censuses; 1621 is regarded as the more likely date). She was probably born at Fort Lomeron on the Chebogue River (above), where Jean lived in the 1620s. Jean was dead by 1671; probably well before that.

Circumstantial evidence points to a Micmac woman as Radegonde's mother. No French women were in Acadia in 1621, and very few in 1629. Most if not all of the women who arrived in the 1620s were already married. We do know for certain that Radegonde married the immigrant Jean Blanchard at Port-Royal in 1642, and that she was still alive in 1700.

Also note that there are Lamberts among the Micmac Indians today (some of whom still live on reservations in Nova Scotia). This suggests that Radegonde may have had brothers.

See Blanchard for Radegonde's children.