Other Names Associated with Burke Ancestry...


Over the years, some ancestral names became changed by marriage to Burke. These names include : Digout, LandryPottie, Robertson, Thibeau, Wauthy

Follow the links above to see more information on these families and how they are associated with the Burke family...


Who came to Canada, from where, and when they came...

The Burke name, in direct line to Theresa Mary Burke, came into Canada in the person of Antoine Bourg. Other ancestral paths leading into Canada are outlined below...


Antoine Bourg, born 1609, left France and arrived in Acadia with Commander Isaac de Razilly in 1632. In 1636, he moved to Port Royal (Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia today) and established a farm. By 1642, in Port Royal, Antoine Bourg had met and married Antoinette Landry, sister of a transport ship's captain.

Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry had as many as 13 children in Port Royal.

Over the years, Bourg has become "anglicized" into Burke. Theresa Burke is a ninth generation Burke.


Pacien Landry and Angele Digout were the parents of Eugenie Landry, the wife of Damien Bourg, Jr. These families have not yet been added in any significant way to this site.


Raphael Pottie, born in 1799, married Marie Biret and had ten children with her. Their sixth child, born in 1832, was Susan Pottie. Susan married John Thibeau. Their third child, John Antoine Pius Thibeau, born in 1859, married Annie Robertson. Their daughter, Ellen Jane Thibeau, born in 1886, married into the Burke family through Abraham Alfred Damien Burke.

Raphael Pottie would be one of Theresa Burke's great great grandfathers on her mother's side.


William Sands, born in 1787 at "Wreck Sound" in the West Indies, came to live in Cape Breton c1813. By 1819, William had changed his name to "Robertson", had married Marie Beaver and had one child, when he petitioned for land near Barrahead, and received a plot of 230 acres.

William's son Peter Robertson, born in 1829, married and had a daughter named Annie. Annie Robertson, born in 1863, married John Antoine Pius Thibeau. Their first child was Ellen Jane Thibeau, born in 1886. Ellen Jane married into the Burke family through Abraham Alfred Damien Burke.

William (Sands) Robertson would be one of Theresa Burke's great great grandfathers on her mother's side.


Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau is believed to have arrived in Nova Scotia in 1814. His name appears on an 1824 petition for a land grant more than once, mispelled or manipulated, as "Jacob Chibault". His signature, though, is clearly written as "jaccob thibaut". Details on the petition suggest Jacob was 33 years old, of Spanish descent, has lived in the province for ten years, has a wife and two daughters. The 200 acres granted and the land around it would be settled by he and his family and his descendants, with the area becoming known as Thibeauville.

On the 1817 census for Nova Scotia, Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau appeared as Jacob Tiboo, with a wife and daughter, which fits well with having arrived in the province in 1814.

With nothing further about JJT's earlier history, his documented timeline begins in 1817, in Manchester, Sydney County (now Guysborough County), Nova Scotia.

In the summer of 2023, I was presented with DNA evidence linking an 18th century French Belgian man named Louis Wauthy (born 1788 in Namur, Belgium), descendant of Feuillen Wauthy (born 1696 in Namur, Belgium), to a living 20th century Thibeau descendant who was born in Thibeauville.

This information came to me from a living Feuillen Wauthy descendant on a different branch of the Wauthy family. Over the summer, we were able to piece together a timeline of circumstantial evidence coming forward from Louis' birth that dovetails with the timeline going backwards for JJT which makes us believe that Louis Wauthy and Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau may well be one and the same.

For Louis Wauthy, aka Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau, his history now continues through the Thibeau descendants of JJT.

Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau, aka Louis Wauthy, would be one of my mother Theresa Burke's great great grandfathers on her mother's side.

Click on Thibeau (above) to view the history and descendancy of Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau. At present, Jacob's story begins here in 1814.

Click on Wauthy (above) to view the history and ancestry of Louis Wauthy. At present, Louis' story ends here in 1814.

Jean Jacques (Jacob) Thibeau's son, Jean Pierre Thibeau, born in 1832, had a son named John Antoine Pius Thibeau in 1859. This son married Annie Robertson, and their first child, born in 1886, was Ellen Jane Thibeau, Theresa Burke's mother.


This file last modified 9/6/2023...

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