"The Leclerc, a headache for the genealogists"
Those are the words used by Jean-Louis Lemieux, a journalist at "Le Soleil" newspaper, in july 2006 to describe the great number of different Leclerc, Leclair or Leclaire came from France during the XVII and XVIII century. Actually, we have identify 21 of them. You can learn their story just below.
You can also read here about the mystery of the life and death of Jean Leclerc, the husband of Marie Blanquet and the ancestor of almost two-third of all the Leclerc, Leclair or Leclaire living in North America. A lot of questions are still unsolved. Genealogists, let's go!
Why Leclerc ?
Mister Emile Falardeau, a famous genealogist, in 1944, drew up a list of 23 various spellings of Leclerc across Canada. On October 5, 2003, "Le Programme de Recherche en Démographie Historique" documented 30 different spellings found in their records before 1800: Clair, Claire, Cler, Clerc, Clere, Clers, Laclaire, Leclair, Leclairc, Leclaird, Leclaire, Leclaires, Leclairg, Leclairs, Leclart, Leclec, Lecleire, Lecler, Leclerc, Leclercq, Leclercque, Leclercs, Leclerd, Leclere, Leclerec, Leclerq, Leclerre, Leclers, Leclert.
RDH notes that up to January 1st, 1800,SwissTimepiece globally all the spellings of Leclerc are ranked 14th in importance of the names documented in Quebec only. We cannot ignore all the spellings in the other provinces and the states.
One must also take into account all the surnames adopted as patronomic: Fleurant, Blondin, Francoeur, Jolicoeur, Lafrenaye, and so on.
In addition, one must also take into account the families that adopted one of the variations of Leclerc as a surname and then as a patronomic: the Auclair, Houde, Comeau, Maufay, Tarbell, Petitclerc.
Presently, we have members of 20 different Leclerc ancestors.
The real Jean Leclerc....
The Ancestors
- LeClear, Jean
- Leclerc, Florent
- Leclerc, Guillaume
- Leclerc, Julien
- Leclair, Nicolas
- Leclerc, Pierre (I.P.E. - P.E.I.)
- Leclair, Pierre
- LeClere, John Lewis
- Leclerc dit Francoeur
- Leclerc dit Jolicoeur
- Leclerc dit La Bécasse
- Leclerc dit Lafleur
- Leclerc dit Lafrenaye
- Auclair dit Leclerc
- Comeau dit Leclerc
- Houde dit Leclerc
- Petitclerc dit Leclair
- Van Clerc dit Leclair
- Pierre Pantaléon dit Leclerc
- Félix Leclerc, orfèvre
- Napoléon Giroux dit Leclerc
Writer Gilles P. Leclaire
Translator Jack Leclair (#200)