The Yvon Family
of
L'Ardoise, Cape Breton
 by:  Sharon Kelly
 

When Port Royale was turned over to the English in 1713, the English wanted the Acadians to take an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown. Most Acadians refused and some Acadians decided to leave. On the 1714 census of Port Royale, there was a YVON and wife, one son and one daughter, living at Port Royale. If this was Guillaume Yvon and his family, they must have left for Ile Royale (Cape Breton) since it was the only French territory not turned over to the British.

Guillaume Yvon and his wife, Madeleine HARANBOURG (DAREMBOURG) show up in the Louisbourg Parish Records for the wedding of his son, Charles Yvon and Louise DESROCHES in 1731.

Louise Desroches' (Charles Yvon's wife) parents were Gabrielle Le Manquet (born in 1682 at Plaisance, Nfld. and died 21 May 1752 at Petit Laurenbec) and Etienne Desroches (born 1650, St. Malo, Isle de Vilaine, France). Gabrielle was reported as a widow in 1722 census. At Petit Lorembec - their children: Francoise, b. 1704, married Jean Dubordieu; Etienne; Perrine married Francois Dupont; Marguerite married Julien Bannet; Louise, Jean, Marie-Anne, Antoine married Jeanne Simon, Guillaume married Marie-Louise Solet .) The older children were born at Plaisance.

Charles Yvon and Louise Desroches's family grew, intermarried with the population around Louisbourg, and in the Louisbourg Parish Records, he attended at least 70+ baptisms and marriages and deaths of his family and friends and neighbours. Charles Yvon lived in Petit Lorembec. He was a land grant/property owner there and records show that he was granted land in 1733; he was a fisherman; he had a wharf; he had flakes for a fish catch of four shallops (french fishing boats); he had a grave (a specially prepared area on the beach for drying fish); he had 120 toises (fathoms) in garden; and three hens.

His land was bordered on south by Dominique Mahé. Some of his neighbours and in-laws were Julien Banet and Marguerite Desroches; Guillaume Valet; Jean Le Corps; Jean Dubordieu and Francoise Desroches; Louise's parents: Etienne Desroches and Gabrielle LeManquet and their children; Francois Dupont; Jean Le Prieur; Michel Vallé; Simon Gaultier who's land bordered on north by Dominique Mahé.

Petit Lorembec had become, according to the 1753 census, the best established and most populous community in the colony after Louisbourg. There were at least 25 habitations on the shore around the Barachois (harbour). Pontleroy noted in 1756 that there were 22 families living at Petit Lorembec - all of whom earned a living in the fishery. It was said that 200 men came each year to help with the fishery.

However, the fortunes of Petit Lorembec changed dramatically after 1758. Ste-Claire de Lorembec, Dioscese Quebec, was located at the present day site of Little Loran. 

Note: The names Lorembec, Laurenbec and Laurent Le Bec are all the same place but written differently by others. Today Lorembec is called Big Lorraine and Petit Lorembec is called Little Lorraine/Little Loran. They are located on the coastal road between Louisbourg and Main-a-Dieu, Cape Breton, NS.

When the British deported the residents of Little Loran, they "razed" burned and pillaged the Village of Little Loran. The residents of Little Loran were herded, like cattle, onto ships and expelled from Ile Royale. Charles and his family were put on ships and deported. 
  

 
When Louisbourg fell, in 1758, I have no idea what happened to Charles and Maturine, and some of their children, except for Charlotte, Etienne, perhaps Guillaume, and perhaps Marie, end up in St. Pierre. I don't know if the rest ended up in France or not, or at St. Pierre, and I have found no more information on them at this time. 

Between 1792 and 1793, and after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, several hundred Acadians who had taken refuge on the Island of St. Pierre returned to Cape Breton, mainly to Isle Madame. They decided to leave the French islands because they refused to take an oath under the new constitution of France instituted in 1792 after the French Revolution. Etienne's son, Etienne-Charles Yvon, came from St. Pierre to Isle Madame in about 1801.

Etienne-Charles Yvon: Born July 26, 1769 at St. Pierre et Miquelon. Son of Etienne Yvon and Cecile-Charlotte Coupiau Desalleurs of Lorembec Habitation at Louisbourg. (Etienne-Charles died between 1831-1845 at Arichat). His godparents were Pierre-Joseph Bannet and Jeanne Simon. He came to Arichat about 1801 according to a letter from the missionary there, Father Francois Lejamtel, to the Bishop of Quebec. In 1803/1804, he married Angelique Boucher (born Sept. 15, 1784 at Arichat; was dead before 1838). Angelique was the daughter of Pierre Boucher and Dorothee Boudrot of Arichat. (Stephen White, 1979 letter and Registre de L'Abbe Charles-Francois Bailly).

There is a listing that Etienne Yvon was married to Marie Boudreau. Edouard De Coste married Rosalie Yvon, daughter of Etienne Yvon and Marie Boudreau. Was there another Etienne Yvon living in the area at that time? In the Cape Breton Militia Papers, 1813, Captain John Jean's Company, there was an Stephen Yvon, 32 years (which would make him born in 1781 and not 1769 like Etienne-Charles Yvon) born in North America, living in Greater Arichat, a fisherman with his wife, one boy and two girls.

It would be interesting to know if Etienne-Charles Yvon, William Ivon, who settled in D'Escousse, and the Etienne (Stephen) Yvon mentioned above, were related and how they were related. They all lived at the same time in Descousse and Arichat area.

(Sources: Stephen White, 1979 letter; St. Pierre Marriages, Louisbourg Parish Records taken from the Archives Nationale (France); Patrick Burke; Ed Galvin; George Rose; "Margaret Fortier, The Cultural Landscape of 18th Century Louisbourg" microfiche on loan from Parks Canada; Bona Arsenault's books on the Acadians; other numerous Genealogy sites on the internet, and my father, William Evong, and my mother, Jonie (Briand) Evong, and family members.) 
  

Descendants of Etienne-Charles Yvon