Seventh episode
The Origins of the Bastarache, Bastrash and Basque Families

he Bastarache, Bastrash and Basque families living in Quebec, the Maritimes and elsewhere all descend from a common ancestor, Jean Bastarache dit Le Basque. Jean Bastarache was born in about 1658. Originally from the Pays Basque (and probably from Bayonne), he arrived at Port-Royal, in Acadia, between 1680 and 1684, since he married Huguette Vincent, daughter of Pierre Vincent and Anne Gaudet, that year. They had five children: Marie, François, Anne, Jean and Pierre. Jean and his wife Huguette lived along the south shore of the Dauphin River (now called the Annapolis River, in Nova Scotia), approximately 20 km upstream from Port-Royal -which later became Annapolis Royal - near a place called Paradise today. Jean was a farmer. He died on September 5, 1733 at Port-Royal. He is the ancestor of all the Bastarache, Bastrash and Basterash families, as well as a line of the Basque families, descended from Michel Bastarache, who settled in Tracadie, in New Brunswick, in about 1786.

At the time of the Deportation, the Acadian families were chased from their lands and dispersed throughout the world. Some of Jean’s descendants took refuge in Quebec. Others were imprisoned and then deported, but they returned, after lengthy pilgrimages, to settle in the Maritimes, specifically the regions of Bouctouche and Tracadie, in New Brunswick. Finally, some of Jean’s descendents, who married men from the Mouton and Saulnier families, followed their husbands and settled in Louisiana (in the case of the Moutons) and the St. Mary’s Bay region in Nova Scotia (in the case of the Saulniers). In this way:

• Anselme Bastarache, Jean’s grandson, who settled in Yamachiche after the Deportation of 1760, is the ancestor of the Bastarache and Bastrash families who settled that region in Quebec.
  
  
• Pierre Bastarache, Anselme’s cousin, whose sons Isidore and Joseph founded Bouctouche in 1785 with François and Charles Leblanc, is the ancestor of the Acadian Bastaraches.
  
  
• Michel Bastarache dit Basque, Pierre’s brother, who settled in Tracadie in about 1786 with his son-in-law Joseph Saulnier, is the ancestor of the Acadian Basques.
  
  
• François (Francis) Bastarache, Anselme’s great-grandson, who emigrated to Wisconsin (U.S.) in about 1860, is the ancestor of the Basterash families in the American Midwest and the Canadian West.
  
  
• Finally, several Bastaraches from Bouctouche and Basques from Tracadie settled in Massachusetts as of 1880 leaving numerous descendents.
  
  

For information:

Email: raoul@colba.net
Site: www.geocities.com/a3bas

To be continued on July 15, 2003, with the Association des familles Perron.