From the desk of Stephen White....
                          Mathurin LeBlanc & Modeste Fougère

Thank you for the information you sent me on the LeBlancs, both in Ontario and Cape Breton. Mathurin LeBlanc died sometime between the making of his will in 1822 and its probate in 1823. It is actually more likely that the actual date of his death was early in 1823, because folks did not as a rule wait around too long in those days before bringing a will to court. I know of no record that would enable us to fix Modeste Fougère's birthdate. She was still living in 1831, when she was involved in a sale of land, and it is probably fair to presume that she died sometime before the extant parish records of Arichat pick up in 1839, but it could also be that she lived on quietly much longer than that, because there are later gaps in the records, in 1852-1853, and after 1863. A very long life is a distinct possibility in her case, considering that her brother Boniface was the "vieux Fougère," supposedly over a hundred years old at the time, but really only about ninety-six, who met Rameau de Saint-Père in 1860. So Modeste might have died in her mid-nineties in either 1852 or 1853. Jean-Baptiste LeBlanc's wife was called Judith, and there is no Marguerite that comes into it. And she must have been born quite a bit later than suggested in the information you were given, because her parents were only married about 1787. I have Judith's marriage placed about 1806, and I think her son Désiré was a little younger.