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Laurent René was born in St Servan 7 months after his parents, Georges Cyprien and Anne Dugast, were deported in 1778 to France by the englishmen. On 1783, restoring St Pierre et Miquelon to the french domination, he returned to the Islands with all his family. But in 1787 they are all back in France, this time in La Rochelle, where Georges Cyprien died that year, when Laurent was 8 years old. In 1789 bursts the French Revolution, and Laurent witnessed the age of the Robespierre Reign of Terror and how Louis XVI y Marie Antoinette were guillotined in 1793. On 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France, and after he was defeated in the Battle of Trafalgar in hands of Great Britain, he militarized the whole Navy, creating the Grande Armée. Laurent René entered to the French Navy. Marriages of the Navy Officers used to be delayed until the end of their careers, and showing a notable endogamy, almost always with Marine Officers' daughters.

Ingouville: The Church

Laurent was married in Ingouville, Le Havre at that time, on October 2nd. 1802, with Marie Louise Félicité Turgot, daughter of Louis Turgot, from Miquelon, and of Louise Hebert. Marie Louise Turgot's father was also an officer of the French Navy.

In 1814 , at his 35 years, Laurent René is admitted at the Brest Navy with the degree of Captain.

At that time he was already living with his wife, and his mother, Anne Dugas, 71 years old, at Brest.

On 1815 he is shipped on board of the Royal Barge "La Pourvoyuse" and made prisoner by the englishmen on June 24th at that year, a week after Napoleon is definitevely defeated in the Battle of Waterloo, during the war against Great Britain and his allies. On December 12th 1815 Laurent is embarked as Captain of the Royal Barge "La Prèvoyante", coming back to Brest on October 1816.

(Click to see document of the Brest Navy)

At the end of 1815 Napoleon had been exiled to Saint Helen, and the French monarchy was reigning again, now with a parliamentary style, with Louis XVIII on the throne. That period was named "The Restoration" and France went back to the Bourbons reign.

In August 21st 1815 was born in Brest the first daughter of Laurent René,

Aimable Briand.

In September 26th 1817 they had his second son in Brest, Ange Briand.

Ange is my great-great-grandfather.

Aimable Briand

Aimable was living with his mother in Brest, at 5th Fraisier Street, until at her 26 years, she was married with Philippe Desiré Dierce, born in Brest on February 17th 1815, merchant, addressed at 14th Siam Street, son of Georges Louis Dierce, a Lieutenant of the French Navy , Acadian, (at that time already missing since more than 25 years ago) and of Marie Becot, deceased at Miquelon on that year.

They were married in Brest, in April 16th 1842.

As a witness of the marriage assisted Ange Briand, Aimable's brother, who was 24 years old at that time.

Shipwreck of Schooner La Fanchette:

In August 31st 1818, sailing by the waters of the Grand Banks of Newfounland, Laurent René Briand shipwrecked and died on board of his schooner La Fanchette.

The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland, relatively shallow and with a surface of 282,500 km2, where are recorded numerous shipwrecks along several centuries, and where the Titanic shipwrecked in 1912.

The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream on the Grand Banks. This often causes an almost permanent fog and storms in the area. But, these conditions also helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.



		Laurent René Briand was born in Saint Servan, Saint Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on June 14th 1779. He was a Captain of Long Crossings Merchant Ships; he commanded Royal Barges at the service of Napoleon I Bonaparte and of Louis XVIII, and also owned a schooner, La Fanchette.