The Origins of the Acadian Families 17 
     
    
   
   
    
     Cormier 
     
    
   
   
    
     The ancestors of the Cormier family are Robert Cormier 
     
     and Marie Peraude from La Rochelle, France. They were mar- 
     
     ried around 1634 and arrived in Saint-Pierre (St. Peters, Cape 
     
     Breton) in 1644. Their son Thomas was one of the founders 
     
     of Beaubassin. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Cormiers on the Island descend from Hilaire Cormier 
     
     who settled in Malpeque around 1800. It is not known where 
     
     he lived before that. He married Angélique Gallant. The 
     
     Cormiers later moved to Egmont Bay. 
     
    
   
   
    
        
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
     
           
     
    
   
   
    
     Gallant / Hashie 
     
    
   
   
    
     Michel Haché, nicknamed Gallant, married Anne Cormier 
     
     in 1690 in Beaubassin. They are the ancestors of all the fami- 
     
     lies named Haché and Gallant in North America. Michel’s 
     
     origins are uncertain. Until 1693, documents refer to him as 
     
     Larché and not Haché. His parents might have been Pierre 
     
     Larché, born in France around 1662, and a Native woman 
     
     whose name is not known. Orphaned at a young age, Michel 
     
     was entrusted to Michel LeNeuf de la Valliere of Trois-Rivieres 
     
     (Québec), who brought him to Acadie when he took posses- 
     
     sion of his seigneury in Beaubassin around 1676. Some gene- 
     
     alogists believe that de la Valliere was Michel’s biological 
     
     father. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In 1720, Michel Haché, nicknamed Gallant, and Anne 
     
     Cormier left Beaubassin with 11 of their 12 children to settle 
     
     in Port-Lajoie. Most of the members of this large family es- 
     
     caped deportation in 1758 by fleeing to the Chaleur Bay area. 
     
     A number of them eventually made their way back to the 
     
     Island. By 1798, there were 12 Gallant families in Rustico and 
     
     10 in Malpeque. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Grégoire Gallant 
     
     (1820-1908) and Marie 
     
     Arsenault (1824-1922). 
     
     This Mont-Carmel couple 
     
     was married in 1844. 
     
     Their only child, Firmin, 
     
     was the father of Benoit, 
     
     who was the father of 
     
     Tilmon, who was the fa- 
     
     ther of Wilfred! Wilfred 
     
     and his wife Anne Gallant 
     
     are still living on the fam- 
     
     ily farm in St. Timothy. 
     
     (Musée acadien Collection)