Andre (Rene)  BERNARD

BERNARD
(Sax.) From Beam or Bairn, a child, and ard (Teut.), nature, disposition; of a child-like disposition; filial affection. Verstegan brings it from Beorn, heart one of a stout heart.

'Marie Bernard was born ca.1645 probably in Beauvoir-Sur-Mer, France. There is some question also as to who her parents were. There is considerable proof that her mother was 'Marie' Andree Guyon (Guidon). Professor White in his 'Dictionaire genealogique des families acadiennes, partie I (1636-1714) ' states .....'Marie Bernard d/ o (?? Bernard) & Andree Guion , born 1645'. However, Bona Arcenault's 'Histoire et genealogie des Acadians', Vol 2, p428-429, states that Marie Bernard's father was Andre Bernard:

ANDRE BERNARD, born 1620, Macon, originating in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, arrived in Acadia in 1641, 'pour aller servir en l'habitation' for Charles de Latour, a Jemseg, on the river Saint-Jean in New Brunswick. He is the father of Jeanne, born 1643; Marie, born 1645; Nicholas, born 1662; and Rene, born 1663. 'Apres la prise du fort de Jemseg par D'Aulnay', in 1645, he returned to France to return to Acadia 'apres la rehabitation de Charles de LaTour, par la cour de France.' According to

The Acadian genealogist Bona Arsenault asserts that the progenitor of this family in Acadia was André Bernard, a mason from Beauvoir-sur-Mer, Poitou, France, who came to the colony in 1641, age 21, to work for Governor Charles La Tour at La Tour's fort on Rivière St.-Jean. Arsenault does not record the name of André's wife but says that he fathered two daughters, Jeanne and Marie, and two sons, Nicolas and René. Nicolas married an Indian and remained on Rivière St.-Jean. René moved to Chignecto, where he established a family of his own and from which the Acadian Bernards are descended.

Acadian genealogist Stephen A. White tells a different story: André Bernard did indeed come to Acadia in 1641 to work for Charles La Tour, and André was one of the lucky survivors of the sieur d'Aulnay's assault on La Tour's fort in 1645. White even suggests that Bernard may have been forced to serve as executioner for La Tour's men whom d'Aulnay ordered to be hanged after the fort was taken.