Placide Gaudet

Who was Placide Gaudet?

Placide Gaudet was a Canadian historian, educator, genealogist and journalist. He signed his name as Placide P. Gaudet. Gaudet is noted for his research into the history and genealogy of the Acadian people and played an important role in the preservation of their history.

He was born at Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick, the son of Placide Gaudet and Marie Vienneau dit Michaud. Gaudet's father died shortly before his birth and his mother returned to her father's farm. She moved to her father-in-law's farm in Dorchester in 1862. Gaudet was educated at St. Joseph's College in Memramcook. He began studies for the priesthood at the Grand Séminaire de Montréal but left in 1874 due to poor health, returning to New Brunswick. He then took on a number of short term teaching positions. From 1883 to 1885, he was given a contract by the Canadian archives to copy church archives in Acadian areas, supplementing his income by teaching. Gaudet worked for several newspapers including the Courrier des provinces Maritimes, Le Moniteur acadien and L'Évangéline. In 1890, Gaudet married Marie-Rose Arsenault. He taught at the Collège Sainte-Anne from 1895 until the college was destroyed in a fire in 1899. Later in 1899, he was hired by the Canadian archives to copy Acadian parish archives from Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. In 1906, Gaudet published Report concerning Canadian archives for the year 1905, a genealogy of Acadian families. As a result of his work and his own private research into local history, he became a noted authority and speaker on Acadian genealogy and history. Gaudet published Le grand dérangement in 1922. He retired on a small pension in 1924, moving to Moncton. Gaudet died at a hospice in Shediac at the age of 79.