parents unknown

LANDRY, René, came from France with his wife Marie Bernard, according to nine depositions. One of these depositions was made by René’s granddaughter Marguerite Dupuis (Doc. inéd., Vol. III, p. 51), and another by Jean LeBlanc, husband of another granddaughter Françoise Blanchard (ibid., p. 43). Three more came from great-grandsons (ibid., pp. 48, 123, 132), three from the husbands of great-granddaughters (ibid., Vol. II, pp. 176-177, 181; Vol. III, p. 118), and one from two great-great-grandsons (ibid., Vol. II, p. 189).

Here is an article published by Stephen, and later posted online with his
permission:
    From, "Acadian Genealogy Exchange", Vol. XXII, No. 2, pp. 39-42,
'Steve White's Corner' - Response to letter from Dr. Donald J. Landry of Metarie,
LA:

     "Without doubt there is no other great Acadian family whose origin
has been the object of such speculation and even fantasy, as the LANDRYS. As a
result, what we know about the first LANDRYs from France is unfortunately
embedded in a melange of confusion and errors.

    Four people named LANDRY, all of whom were born in France, appear on
the Acadian census of 1671, 1678, 1686 and 1693. Two were brothers, both
named Rene and two were women, named
Perrine and Antoinette. Most researchers presumed that these four LANDRYS
were all from the same family, but that's not the case. Actually, even if it
was possible for us to show that
Antoinette LANDRY was the sister of one of the two Rene's (Rene the elder)
and that we could believe that Perrine LANDRY was also his sister, we have
also proof that these three people could not be connected to the other Rene
(the younger) inside of the third degree of consanguinity. The proofs to
which we make reference are found in the dispensations, or lack of same, in
marriage records of LANDRY descendants.

    As for the line of parentage between Antoinette LANDRY and Rene LANDRY
the elder, we find that in the marriage of Francois BRUN, great-grandson of
Antoinette and Madeleine DUPUIS, great-granddaughter of Rene the elder,
done at Port Royal October 24, 1735, a dispensation from the fourth degree of
consanguinity was granted. Moreover, there exist in the area of eight other
marriage records between great-grandchildren of Antoinette and
great-grandchildren of Rene the elder, where equal dispensations were written... [see René
l’âiné for section on his siblings].

    On the other hand, Rene LANDRY the younger was not of the same family
as the others. We can agree to this starting with the lack of dispensations
from relationship in the marriage records of his descendants who married, as
with those of Rene LANDRY the elder and Antoinette LANDRY. We mention that,
for example, of Germain DUPUIS, grandson of Rene LANDRY the younger and
Marie GRANGER, great-granddaughter of Rene the elder, in the registres of
Grand- Pre dated November 3, 1717, which discloses no dispensation from cons
anguinity. Even if the two Renes had only been cousins germain, a dispensation
from the fourth degree would have been necessary in the marriage.

    As for Antoinette LANDRY and Rene LANDRY the younger, we note that
there was no other dispensation of relationship in the marriage record of
Joseph LANDRY and Marie Josephe BOURG (at Grand-Pre Jan. 11, 1745), of Francois
LANDRY and Dorothee BOURG (at the sample place November 21, 1731) and of Jean
DAIGRE and Madeleine LANDRY (again at Grand-Pre November 6, 1721). Of these
three couples, the LANDRYS were grandchildren of Rene LANDRY the younger
and their spouses were grand-children of Antoinette LANDRY.. We can then
exclude the possibility that Rene LANDRY the younger was the brother, or even the
nephew, of Antoinette LANDRY.

    Some researchers are under the impression that the ancestor of the
LANDRYS was Jean Claude LANDRY, spouse of Marie SALLE, but no one of this name
appears in any document concerning Acadians from the beginning.

    In the censuses of 1671 and 1678, the deceased husband of Marie SALLE
is simply called Jean (or even Jehan according to the 1671 census) Claude. A
researcher with a lot imagination added LANDRY to the name of Jean Claude
in order to explain why Marie SALLE lived between Rene LANDRY the younger and
his son Antoine LANDRY on the census of 1686. It was long presumed that
this Marie SALLE was the same as the one who was married to Martin AUCOIN at
LaRochelle in 1632, which could be true and that she was related, by the first
marriage to Michelle AUCOIN, to the daughter at whose home she lived in the
censuses of 1671 and 1678, which is also possible. The only way the
researchers could prove the association of Marie SALLE to Rene LANDRY the younger
was in transforming her husband Jean Claude to Jean Claude LANDRY and in
presuming moreover that this would be the father of Rene the younger. We add
that this reasoning doesn't hold water. It isn't logical to suppose that the
family name of Jean Claude was omitted by two distinct census takers. we note
that there are those who have already rejected the faulty idea that the
second spouse of Marie SALLE was a LANDRY and have even advanced the hypothesis
that he was an Amerindian. This is possible, but we mention that it is also
possible he was a Frenchman because CLAUDE was a distinguished family name
in French households in the 17th century. Censuses give us no other
indication of the origin of Jean Claude so his origin as all the French origins of
the LANDRYS, too, remain to be determined."
+++++

Ben Londeree, an Isle Madame listmember, is the administrator of the LANDRY
DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com. Ben posted this information to the list:
    "The data do show that Rene l'aine and Rene le jeune were related. The
two groups of descendants had a common pair of differences that must have
occurred in one of the ancestors of one of the Renes. White showed with
analyses of dispensations that they did not have a common father or grandfather.
We do need more direct male descendants of both lines who know their lineage
back to each Rene to strengthen the case. Ideally, these new descendants
will have descended through different male children of the two Renes. In
addition, we identified the DNA pattern for descendants of Guillaume Landry and
tentatively, the Switzerland line of Landrys..."