This family, one of the oldest in Acadia, originated in the province of Maine southwest of Paris. Nicolas Trahan (born c1580) and his wife Renée Desloges lived in Montreuil-Bellay (above), and had at least six children: Guillaume (the immigrant, see below); Anne (c 1605, married Pierre Mollay and Paul Benoit); François (married Renée Pinsonneau); Renée (1611); Lucrèce (1614); and Nicolas (married Lorande Belliard). The birth order is uncertain. There was also an Antoine Trahan in Montreuil who may have been Nicolas' brother.

Guillaume Trahan was born probably in 1610, and died in Port-Royal, Acadia about 1685. Several sources have him born not in Montreuil but in the parish of St-Germain in Bourgueil, which is some thirty miles eastward from Montreuil (and is also the parish of some of our Martin ancestors). The source of this information is the record of his embarkation at la Rochelle. It seems unlikely that he would be born so far from the place where his siblings were born; but other fragmentary records do place him in Bourgueil later. There is a court record preserved in Bourgueil which indicates Guillaume was fined for cutting wood without permission in a forest belonging to a convent (1634). He married Françoise Charbonneau (sometimes Corbineau; in her hometown of Chinon, July 13, 1627 - if later census record in Acadia are correct, he was only 17) and they came to Acadia in 1636 on the St-Jehan. (Pierre Martin of Bourgueil was on the same ship.) With them came two daughters: one, name unknown, may or may not have been the wife of our ancestor Germain Doucet; the other, Jeanne (c1631-p1698) definitely married our ancestor Jacques Bourgeois. (See Bourgeois for descendants.) Census records call him a "mareschal de trenchant" (master toolmaker). Françoise evidently died a few years after their arrival, because Guillaume married Madeleine Brun (daughter of Vincent Brun and Renée Brault, natives of La Chaussée who came to Acadia in 1648 with their children). Guillaume and Madeleine had six children: Alexandre (married Marie Pellerin); Guillaume (married Jacqueline Benoit); Jean-Charles (married Marie Boudreau); Jeanne (married Pierre Vincent); Madeleine (married Jacques Léger); and Marie (married Jean Doiron). As far as I can tell we are not descended from any of these six, although they and their children intermarried with Comeaus, Bourgs, Landrys, Terriots and others in our ancestry. Most Trahans can now be found in Louisiana.

There is a Trahan family association.