Claude Guédry

Claude Guédry, the progenitor of the Guédry family in Acadia, was born about 1648 in France. He arrived in Acadia shortly before 1681. About 1682 he married the widow Marguerite Petitpas and they had eleven children - 2 daughters and 9 sons. At least six of their children (2 daughters and 4 sons) reached adulthood and had offspring. Although Claude Guédry resided briefly near Port-Royal, he spent most of his life in the small community of Merliguèche where he and Marguerite raised their family. Here among a small group of Acadians and the friendly Mi'kmaq, he earned a living from the forests and seas being a fisherman, woodsman, farmer, coasting pilot and trader. Life was not easy in the backwoods of Acadia as Claude and his family had to endure harsh winters, living off the land often with scarce resources, being mistaken for Mi'kmaq and treated as such by the British, captured and sent to Boston for a year in 1722, the hanging in Boston of a son and grandson in 1726 and other harsh realities of a pioneer life. Claude certainly had some education in his early life as he had a flowing, cursive signature; however, he chose the beautiful, yet undeveloped, Merliguèche as his home. Today all known Guédry's of North America, which includes the surnames Guédry, Guedry, Guidry, Guildry, Guidery, Guidrey, Gaidry, Grivois, Geddry, Gedry, Gidry, Jeddry, Jedry, Labine, LaBine, LaBean and other variations, descend from Claude Guédry and Marguerite Petitpas.