For a number of years the Association has operated under the assumption that there were four founding families from France with the Leduc surname; they being Antoine, Jean, Pierre and René. These ancestors arrived during the seventeenth century. It has now come to light that a fifth Leduc arrived from France, likely in the early eighteenth century.

The earlyest record we have discovered, lists the marriage of Jean-Baptiste Leduc to Marguerite Deshayes on January 9th,1736, at Bécancour, Quebec. The marriage was recorded in the civil not the parish register.

Upon checking through the Programme de Recherche en Demographie Historique (PRDH) we ascertained that Jean-Baptiste was from the parish town of St-Jean-du-Luz situated on the Atlantic coast, in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantique, France, just north of the Franco-Spanish border. His parents, Jean and Marie Tourangeau, did not come to Canada.

The PRDH records show that he had two children: Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Catherine Leduc. Each child had ten children of their own, therefore, it is likely that we have descendants of Jean-Baptiste Leduc among us.

Our information on Jean-Baptiste Leduc and his family is very limited. What we have discovered brings us to about 1799. We encourage anyone who is descended from or who has done research on Jean Baptiste Leduc to contact the Association so that we may continue to expand our data about Leduc families.

Members Guy Leduc (#60) and Claude Leduc (#312) assisted in the research of this article.

Our genealogical research into other Leduc families is an on-going project of your Association. Look for articles in future issues of the journal.