A Little Piece of Home - The Guédry Rock
“The Guédry Rock from Lunenburg”, says Chuck Guidry, president of Les Guidry d'Asteur during the 1999 Guedry/Labine Family Reunion, “will stimulate Guédry descendants as they touch it to contemplate how our ancestors lived in their small Acadian village of Mirligueche. It provides the bridge between those who came before and those are here now.”
The Guédry Rock, a small boulder from the coast of Lunenburg, N.S, was transported in the Spring of 1999 by truck from Old Acadia to New Acadia in south Louisiana. Lunenburg is the site of the old Acadian settlement of Merligueche where Claude Guédry, our original ancestor in the Americas, raised his family. It was from here that at least one of his sons Paul became a coastal pilot plying the waters as far north as Ile Royale (today Cap-Breton) while other sons began trading with the nearby Micmac Indians. The Guédry Rock has witnessed the many and sundry happenings of the Guédry family in the late 1600’s and early 1700’s as they struggled to establish a strong family on this land. Surely it saw the marriage of at least two Guédry siblings Paul and Charles to wives of Amerindian heritage and the young daughter Jeanne born in 1681 to Claude, our forefather, and her Amerindian mother Kesk8a. Oh, what it must have observed during those many days as the Guédry family grew and expanded.
With the Expulsion of 1755 the Guédry family was dispersed worldwide - from the shores of England and France to the American colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Eventually most of the displaced Guédry’s settled in Louisiana, Québec and the midwestern United States. Today their names take varied forms - Guédry, Guidry, Guitry, Guildry, Geddry, Jeddry, Jedry, Gedry, Gidry, Labine, LaBine and LaBean. But we’re all Guédry’s and have a common heritage that began with Claude Guédry, Marguerite Petitpas, his wife, and their young family in Mirligueche.
During the worldwide reunion of Guédrys on 7 August 1999 in Houma, Louisiana officers of Les Guidry d'Asteur unveiled the Guédry Rock and told its story to our many relatives. As the day progressed each Guédry descendant had the opportunity to privately touch the rock and connect with the lives of his Acadian ancestors.
At the conclusion of the reunion the Guédry Rock became a permanent memorial in Houma, Louisiana to our Guédry ancestors from Merligueche and to all Acadians. Over the coming years countless Acadian cousins and Guédry relatives will experience the Acadian connection of the Guédry Rock - binding all Acadians to our homeland.