ORIGINS of the SÉGUIN in America

1- François Séguin alias Ladéroute of Saint-Aubin-en-Bray was married to Jeanne Petit of La Rochelle in Boucherville (QC) on October 31st 1672.

Where does this surname Ladéroute come from ? Nobody knows why this surname was given to François Séguin. It seems that in military regiments, the tradition was to give a surname to each other to tease themselves or to hide their identity from the enemy. Curiously, it appears that Ladéroute is the opposite of the etymology, or filiation of Séguin.

François Séguin alias Ladéroute, son of Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu, is the ancestor of 95% of the Séguin descendants in America. It seems that he was a soldier of the Carignan regiment, but there is no documentation to certify this affirmation. It is only by deduction that we can say that he is from the Carignan regiment.

He originated from the Bray region (Pays de Bray) which is located in the area of Beauvais in the district of Oise, about 80 km north of Paris. He was born in Saint-Aubin-en-Bray in Picardy, on July 4th 1644. In old times, the limits of French provinces were not precisely defined; the Bray region (Pays de Bray) was shared between Normandy, Picardy and Île-de-France. On many old maps, Saint-Aubin-en-Bray is in Île-de-France but today, this small village is included in the Picardy tourist area.

Jeanne Petit, daughter of Jean Petit and Jeanne Gaudreau, was part of a group of voluntary women called Filles du roi (literally “daughters of the king”) sent to help the colonization of New-France; her origin is from La Rochelle but we don’t know exactly her place of birth.

The island of Ré would be the region from which the Gaudreau and Petit families originate.

Three sons of François and Jeanne assured the descending families of the Séguin alias Ladéroute in New-France. They are Jean-Baptiste in Vaudreuil county, Simon in Chambly county and Joseph in the post of Detroit.

The sons of Jean-Baptiste, Louis, Pierre, Jean-Baptiste, Jeannot and Joseph were the origins of numerous Séguin families in the Montréal area which later spread to Eastern Ontario, Western Québec (Outaouais), mid-Northern Ontario, Windsor and Detroit, New-England, the Rouge River in the Prairies and even Oregon.

2- Joseph Séguin of Burgundy married Madeleine Dorion in Québec city June 19, 1741. They have descendants in Québec city area and also around Lac Saint-Jean.

3- Guillaume Séguin alias Bellerose of Paris married Geneviève Hervieux in Montréal February 1st, 1734. There are no descendants.

4- Jacques Séguin of Bellac du Marche married Marie Badel in Montréal the 28th of November, 1689. There were female descendants only.

5- Charles Séguin of Niort in Poitou married Marie Bertin alias Breval at Île-d'Orléans the 3rd of October, 1669. There were no descendants.

6- Jean Segouin of Ferté-Macé in Normandy married Lucrèce Billot in Québec City, August 26th, 1669. They are the ancestors of the Sigouin families in Canada. In many family trees, confusion appears with the Séguin and the Sigouin. In English, both have the same pronunciation.

Besides setting along the St.Lawrence River, other Séguin families from France settled elsewhere in America, including Guillermo Seguin who went to Mexico. One of his descendants, Juan Seguin, gave his name to a town in Texas. In Acadia, we notice the occurrence of one Séguin but he didn’t stay there. In New Orleans, we found a boat builder named André Séguin. This file is incomplete but we are continuing to work on it. In Haiti, there is a town named Seguin.

Fernand Seguin, a scientific popularizer well known in Québec, was born in Montréal in 1929 ; his name is written Seguin instead of Séguin. His grandfather Georges Seguin arrived in Montréal from Poitou in 1887.

We found in the United States of America several Sayah and Sawyer family names; we verified that many of them are descendants of François Séguin, alias Ladéroute.

Finally, one of Séguin’s ancestors Denis Saillant alias Sansoucy, comes from Niort in Poitou. In some civil registers, it was written Séguin instead of Saillant; some kept the Saillant name, others preferred Séguin as their patronymic family name.

The global Séguin family includes derivative adopted names such as Fagnan, Ladéroute, Laderoot, Ladrow, Saillant, Sawyer, Sayah, Sayan, Sayen, Seghin, Seguin, Seguine, Sequin and Sigouin.

We suggest that you read the bi-annual journal of l'Association des Séguin d'Amérique, «La Séguinière», which is the history book of all the Séguin families of America.

This text was written by André Séguin of Gatineau QC.