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Archivesmy last name, Blanchette
My last name is Blanchette and it is a french last name. My great grandfather was born in Canada and came to America when he was young. I know that at some time in the late 1700's my ancestors moved to Canada from France. There are not many other Blanchette's in the area other than my relatives. I was not able to find any information on this site but from my own research I have found out that it means, "Without satin".
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Blanchette is a French-Canadian alteration of Blanchet, and you can check out their relative frequency in Québec at http://www.yellow.ca/ps/. Blanchet is just one of the many derivatives of blanc 'white'. Your ancestor was Pierre Blanchet (Noël and Madeleine Valet) from Rosières-en-Santerre in the département of Somme (Picardie) who married Marie Fournier (Guillaume and Françoise Hébert) in Québec City in 1670.
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Isn't it possible that Blanchette is a feminine form of the much more common Blanchet? Or maybe the pronounciation was changed and so was the spelling to mark that Blanchet was pronounced like Blanchette?
Also I don't think that Blanchette means 'without satin', it is more plausible that it originates from the word Blanc/Blanche meaning white.
Also I don't think that Blanchette means 'without satin', it is more plausible that it originates from the word Blanc/Blanche meaning white.
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my mother said that my ancestors many have settled in Canada earlier than the late 1700's but I'm not positive.
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Interesting to note that neither of my sources for French surnames (Albert Dauzat "Dictionnaire...", www.jtosti.com/noms)notices this surname, though both notice the far more common Blanchet. It appears to be rare in France. See here -
http://www.geopatronyme.com/cgi-bin/carte/nomcarte.cgi?nom=Blanchette&submit=Valider&client=cdip
Not all that common in French Canada either, according to the Institute of Statistics of Quebec, which lists it at no. 4000 in a list of the 5000 commonest surnames in that province. But a websearch suggests that there is genalogical information about Canadian bearers of this surname in print, though in French.
http://www.geopatronyme.com/cgi-bin/carte/nomcarte.cgi?nom=Blanchette&submit=Valider&client=cdip
Not all that common in French Canada either, according to the Institute of Statistics of Quebec, which lists it at no. 4000 in a list of the 5000 commonest surnames in that province. But a websearch suggests that there is genalogical information about Canadian bearers of this surname in print, though in French.
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