It is believed for a long time that this family originally came from Scotland. However, Father Clarence d'Entremont has established that this family is of French origin. The ancestor in Acadia, Pierre Laverdure, was a French Huguenot and was exiled to England where he married an Englishwoman named Priscilla Melanson. Pierre Laverdure came to Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple during the English occupation. After Acadia was returned to France following the treaty of Breda, in 1667, the family settled in Boston, Ma. with the exception of Pierre's two sons, Pierre and Charles Melanson who had married Acadians and converted to Roman Catholicism. These two sons adopted their mother's surname, Melanson, and stayed in Acadia while the youngest, John, kept the
surname Laverdure and moved to Boston with his parents.

In the fall of LaRochelle and the death blow to the Calvinistsin France. Pierre Leverdure went to England where he married and had three sons. In the spring of 1657 the family moved to Acadia. In 1667 Pierre and his wife sought
refuge under Protestant government in Boston, leaving behind two of their sons and family. These two sons became Catholics when they married Acadian women.

Pierre Laverdure, his wife Priscilla Melanson and their three children arrived in Port Royal aboard the ship the Satisfaction, with Sir Thomas Temple, the new English Governor of Acadia, which arrived in 1657. During
almost a century, just until the deportation of the Acadians in 1755, the new settlement was the place of residence of Charles Melanson and his wife Marie Dugas, and their descendants and associates.