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CORMIER, THOMAS-CHARLES

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Occupation: Charpentier
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Cormier family

Telegraph-Journal, Friday, July 29, 1994; p. A4

The ancestor of the Cormier family in Acadia - Thomas - was born around1636 in La Rochelle, France. He was the son of master carpenter RobertCormier and of Marie Piraude. He came to Acadia as a child with his father to work on Nicolas Deny's fort at Saint Peters on Cape Breton.

The enlistment contract, signed at La Rochelle on January 8, 1644 was found in the archives of notary Teuleron. Robert Cormier agreed to come to Acadia with his family and to work there for three years.

It appears that Robert returned to France and that his only son, Thomas, stayed in Acadia. The census taken in 1671 in Port-Royal indicates that Thomas Cormier was - like his father - a carpenter by trade, that hewas 35 years old and married to 17-year-old Madeleine Girouard. He hada small farm with seven horned animals and seven sheep.

A few years later, Thomas moved, with his family to Beaubassin, where he was one of the pioneers of the new Acadian colony. All Cormiers have their roots in Beaubassin. Thomas left a family of 10 children, including four sons: Frantois, Alexis, Germain and Pierre. Their families endured the miseries and deprivations brought about by the 1755 deportations.

Because of their proximity to the present-day border of New Brunswick; many of the Cormiers were able to escape their persecutors by fleeing tothe northern part of the province and Quebec, where they found a safe haven and where numerous descendants of that family settled, particularly in the Trois-Rivières, Richelieu and the Gasped areas.

Certain Cormier families were deported to South Carolina and eventuallymade their way to Louisiana. Others found refuge on Miquelon and rejoined the land of their ancestors in France.

In New Brunswick, the Cormier family pioneered the establishment of several Acadian communities such as Caraquet, Petit-Rocher, Memramcook andBouctouche.

The ancestor of the Memramcook Cormiers, Pierre, married to Anne Gaudet, was captured by the British in 1755 and imprisoned in Fort Cumberland(BeausTjour).

Tradition has it that Pierre escaped disguised as a woman. On the eve of the day when he and other Acadians were slated to be deported to Georgia, his sister brought him food as well as female garments.

Pierre Cormier and his family lived on the St. John River in 1770, but he decided to leave in 1786 after the arrival of the Loyalists. He settled at Memramcook, where he died.

Contributed by Fidele Theriault of Fredericton, New Brunswick
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