July 23, 2023

Sixte Chameau (Chamaux) of Bordeaux was listed on the 1763 census of Annapolis Acadians sent to the Duc de Nivernois in London.  Noted at the end with Baudit Gonsault and his wife, Joseph and Marguerite (Guthrow) Paillottet, and François Nicolas, Chameau remained in Maryland because of his ties to the water and his marriage to another Annapolis exile, Marie Rose Belhisle.  The marriage date is unknown, but we do know that Sixte and Marie Rose had a child, Marie (Mary, Polly), baptized by Benedict Neale on 5 June 1768.  A son, Étienne, was baptized by Ignatius Matthews in October 1771.  Records also show that daughter Margaret (Peggy) was sacramentally received by Bernard Diderick in 1775 – perhaps born as early as 1773 if we are to believe the age of 92 ascribed to her at her death in 1865.  One last daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy) died in 1838 at the age of 60 or 70 (conflicting sources). A fifth child, Samuel, is later mentioned.

Sixte and family settled in Baltimore by 1773 and purchased land in the French Town quarter on S. Charles Street two years later. Sixte was no longer alive at the time of the 1790 U. S. Census, on which his spouse is listed as the head of the household.  Spouse Marie Rose was also noted in the 1796 Baltimore city directory and would pass away in October 1797, a few months after she had written her will (6:77, 28 June 1797), which mentioned just four children – Mary Shameaud Nery, Elizabeth Shammaud Prevotory, Margaret Shammaud Piette, and Samuel Shammaud (note spelling). Étienne was no longer living, or perhaps, he was then known as Samuel.

Sixte’s sailing days seem to have been numbered by the 1780s. His three daughters married non-Acadians: Polly united with her first spouse, Peter Neary, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on 1 August 1784.  Two of the Neary children would be received into St. Peter’s Catholic Church: Louisa (born 6 April 1791; baptized 6 February 1792) and Peter (born 9 Aug 1792; baptized 2 September 1792). Polly wed a second time, to a tailor, John Martiacq, on 1 February 1798 and lived another 29 years before dying of dropsy in 1827. 

Daughter Peggy’s marriage to John Baptist Piat (Piet) took place at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on 20 September 1790.  She, too, would marry a second time, to William Meredith on 10 February 1803, but at St. Paul’s, like her sister Polly. At that time. It was not known whether her “lost” spouse was still alive after their forced separation in the Saint-Domingue revolts of the early 1790s.  When it was discovered too late that her husband Piet was residing in France, fortune intervened.  The death of her current spouse William in 1808 greatly relieved Bishop Carroll of a moral headache that would have been quite difficult to handle, especially in light of the Merediths then having two children, Thomas and Caroline.  As a widow, Peggy reigned as a respected grande dame until her own death in 1865, at the age of 92. In spite of her earlier indiscretion, Peggy did depart this life with a Requiem Mass at the Cathedral on 3 October. Her Piet son and his descendants married well, yet her two Meredith children each met tragic ends in the 1820s (see 1:439-440).

Betsy’s story remains a little more mysterious.  If she were indeed born as late as 1778, she would have been just 14 years old when she first appeared in the St. Peter’s records as Betsy Provotary (or Provotori), a baptismal sponsor for her aforementioned niece Louisa Neary (1792) and Sophia Teucas (26 August 1792). She was also identified as a sponsor with her maiden name Elizabeth Chameau at the Margaret White baptism (12 October 1794); with her full name of Elizabeth Provotory [sic] at the baptismal ceremony for Lewis Priestly (19 June 1806); and at least one more time, as Mrs. Prevetory, for her grandniece Mary Caroline Tucker (26 July 1827, St. Patrick’s). 

No record of Betsy’s marriage date can be found in Baltimore.  In any case, her spouse was Antoine Provotary, a man born on the Aegean island of Mille (sic – Milos) about 1758.  In 1787, after 4 years of residence in Saint-Domingue, Antoine applied for naturalité. Described as a “natif de Grece, habitant de Saint-Domingue,” Antoine was then living in St. Anne parish in “Lance a veau” (sic – Lanceaveaux).  His detailed application comprises 56 pages and can be found on the Archives nationales d’outre-mer website (anom.culture.gouv.fr.).¹

The Provotary naturalization process began on 28 August 1786, with the official signature of Achille Huet de Lachelle, the conseiller du roy et lieutenant de juge civil criminel de police at Petit-Goâve. An interesting coincidence, because the Huet de Lachelle family will later be mentioned extensively in Vol. 1 of Becoming the Frenchified State of Maryland, not only for Achille’s governmental and Masonic leadership, but also for his wife’s claim to a portion of the Charles White inheritance, their son’s career in Baltimore, and the fortunes of granddaughters Adele and Fanny.²

In the Saint-Domingue papers, Antoine explained that he had come from Greece to assist a cousin in his fishing business. Earning his living as a pêcheur and navigateur, he was named as the sole inheritor of his relative Sieur Cyprien Jean Nicole’s “propriété considérable,” which included an annuity of 10,000 in local currency, a 20-ton boat named La Fortune, three dinghies, 12 enslaved persons who served as fishermen, a horse, cargo, bottles, utensils, Campeche wood, and other items. According to the documentation, Nicole, who also claimed Mille (Mil [sic], or Milos as his birthplace) and Nippes as his residence in southern Saint-Domingue, was about 48 years old at his death.

Antoine’s application for naturalization required Nicole’s death certificate, a certificate de catholicité from the parish priest, and an acte de notoriété from respected locals and the commandant at Petit-Goâve confirming his desire to stay on the island, his bonne reputation, and moeurs inapprochables (high moral character).  There is no mention of his marriage to Elizabeth Chameau nor any marriage or birth references in the many original records of the état civil that can be found online from the Archives nationales d’outre-mer.

As Saint-Domingue became a tinder box for revolt, Elizabeth obviously went back to Baltimore, as attested on baptismal registers there indicating her presence as sponsor.  

Antoine could not stay safely in Saint-Domingue either.  Fast forward in time: a passport issued in New Orleans on 13 September 1814 described him as 56 years old, 5’6” in height, gray hair, hazel eyes, brown complexion, and an inhabitant of Louisiana “on the 30^th day of April 1803 and ever since . . . a resident of the city of New Orleans (surname spelled “Provatory”).³ A year and a half later, we learn that Antoine has died apart from Elizabeth: “Antoine Prasatory (sic), Greek, former resident of Santo Domingo, where he married, sp. living reportedly in Baltimore, ca. 75 yr., i. Feb 25, 1816, d. Feb 24, 1816 in the Faubourg Marigny in this parish” (St. Louis Cathedral, F11, 21).

Apparently, Antoine’s age in 1816 has been reversed from 57 to 75!  Curious as well is a birth recorded in New Orleans claiming the deceased cousin Nicol(e) as father to a son born in 1812!  Surely a mistake has been made, but I leave this information for consideration by other researchers:

Jean Baptiste Prevotory (Nicol, native of Milo in Greece, and Elisabeth Lacouve, native of Petit-Goave on Santo Domingo) b. [baptized] Sep. 22, 1812, bn. Jun. 17, 1812. s. Jean Baptista Meneget, Venetian, and Marie Gertrude Cadez Arnaud, infant’s sister, all residents of this parish (St. Louis Cathedral, B25, 45)

What is certain, however, is that Annette (Ann Catherine) Prevatori, a daughter from the union of Antoine and Betsy Chameau, married James Salenave, a boatbuilder on Fell’s Point in Baltimore, on 3 December 1819.  The wedding at St. Patrick’s Church, with the Rev. Jean François Moranvillé officiating, was reported in the Baltimore Patriot.  

Annette ‘disappears’ from St. Patrick’s records. Fortunately, it is possible to follow James through city directories all the way to his death. His estate was subject to probate in August 1837 (Baltimore County, 16:316). Annette is absent as a legatee; just her mother Elizabeth is involved. The latter’s own burial will be noted a year later, on 9 August 1838, after having succumbed to a chest tumor the previous day (St. Patrick’s Death and Interments, microfilm 3129, Maryland Center for History and Culture; Interments, Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, microfilm 3184, Maryland Center for History and Culture).

¹Cote de communication: COL E 343; Cote d’archives: COL E 343; Producteur: Secrétariat d’État à la Marine; Identifiant ark: ark:/61561/up424tnrutsf; Date(s) extrême(s) du dossier: 1786/1787.

 ²See pp. 391, 428, 463, and 465-67.

³U.S. Citizenship Affidavits of US-born Seamen at Select Ports, 1792-1869, microfilm 1826, roll 06, image 299, National Archives and Records Administration (642).  Of course, Provotary was not actually born in America as the file suggests.

May 3, 2023 (with additions on July 26, 2023)

In reading the chapter on the Landry Family in Volume 1 of Becoming the Frenchified State of Maryland, all should agree that Eliza M. C. Landry was a unique and energetic woman in nineteenth-century Baltimore. She is covered extensively on pages 349-86.

Eliza was quite loyal to her siblings and to her religious beliefs.  After the deaths of her sisters, Rose White and Harriet Gold, she kept a good eye on Harriet’s survivors until her own passing in February 1870, at the age of 77.

As stated previously, many Marylanders were supportive of the Confederate cause. For that reason and because Baltimore was just 40-some miles from the national capital, the state’s most populous city was under federal martial law from the very beginning of the war. John B. Piet III, a Catholic, was threatened in his position as a publisher and bookseller with strong Southern sympathies (1:503-4). 

In the fall of 1864, Eliza’s nephew, Charles W. Gold, was being detained at Fort Warren, a P.O.W. camp on Georges Island, at the entrance to Boston harbor.  Having heard that he was ill, Aunt Eliza took it upon herself to write the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners in Washington on 23 October to make sure that his spiritual needs were being attended to. The following is the reply from “W. Hoffman, Com’y Gen’l Pris:”

Madam:

          Your note of the 23^rd inst, requesting that Charles W. Gold a Prisoner at Fort Warren may enjoy the sacraments of the Church in his last moments has been referred to this office and in reply I beg to say that such privileges have not been refused to prisoners, and when a request is made to the Commanding Officer to permit a clergyman to visit Mr. Gold under the circumstances you mention he will be admitted.

The good news is that Gold survived his confinement and was freed by an order from Major H. A. Allen to an official at the fort, dated 15 January 1865:

Sir,

I have the honor to report that Charles W. Gold, late master of the prize Schooner Swallow, was released yesterday the 14^th inst upon his taking the oath of allegiance in pursuance of instructions received from the Hon. Sec’y of the Navy.

The signed oath, with the countersignature of William Ray, can still be viewed today. As an extra benefit for researchers, it is known from this document that the seaman and Georgia volunteer measured 5’7¼” and possessed a dark complexion, black hair, and hazel eyes. 

Charles remained active after the Civil War, then was lost at sea on a mini-schooner that the forty-two-year-old was commanding as he sailed to France in the summer of 1867 (see 1:385 for a description of this ill-fated venture).

¹https://www.fold3.com/image/251631131.

²https://www.fold3.com/image/286616008.

³https://fold3.com/image/251631130.

May 2, 2023 (with additions on July 16, 2023)

Some forty-six years after his death in Baltimore in 1839 at the age of 82+, Dr. John J. Giraud was back in the news in the 6 August 1885 edition of the Sun. It appears that his will was being contested in France, and it was even suggested that two Girauds had resided in the city.

Much of the issue stems, in this historian’s opinion, from the anglicization of the physician’s given names and two wedding ceremonies with Ann Harriet Wheeler, in 1796 and in 1826.  The first union took place on 18 Jun 1796, at the First Baptist Church, Baltimore (Rev. Lewis Richards, MS 690, Maryland Center for History and Culture, as noted in Robert Barnes, Maryland Marriages, 1778-1800, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1978). 

John James/Jean Jacques Giraud practiced medicine in Baltimore from the 1790s until his passing. Clearly identified as Jean Jacques at his marriage to Ann Harriet Wheeler at the cathedral on 13 December 1826 (Archbishop Maréchal officiating), Giraud had been listed in the very first city directory in 1796, where he was noted as part of I. I. [sic, J.J.] Giraud & Co., druggists and chemists, 40 Baltimore Street, and as John James Giraud, surgeon and apothecary, Bond Street, Fell’s Point.  From 1802 to 1833-34, he was located at four different addresses on South Street, and, at one point in the final years of his life, on Water Street, near the bridge.  In the inventory of his estate in 1840, Baltimore County Register of Wills, 49:574, his name is reduced to John J.  Two of his children with Harriet (Harriot) had passed away in 1804 (Catharine Adelaide, 3 yrs. 2 mos.) and 1811 (Emmeline, about 18 mos.).  Note that these burials recorded at St. Peter’s greatly preceded in time his Catholic nuptials with Harriet.

In any case, widow Ann H. is noted in Inventories, Register of Wills, 69:65 in 1853.  A son, Dr. Augustus T. Giraud, appears in the 1842 city directory on Lombard Street, west of Front Street.

The aforementioned notice in the Sun in 1885 mentions that Étienne Richard, of Passage de l’Avenir 36, St. Onen [sic – St. Ouen], Préfecture de Paris, had asked Baltimore’s mayor to hand over to the “presiding judge of the Baltimore bench” an inquiry contesting estate heirs following the death of Augustus John Turenne Giraud, on 28 June 1880.  In short, Monsieur Richard was in someone’s employ in France to investigate legal “obstacles in the way of the proper heirs getting their rights.”  It was suggested that “there has been some error in regard to the identity of two Girauds,” so M. Richard petitioned the mayor and chief justice “to aid him in securing justice.”

Dr. Giraud, the father, had originally left $11,859 in his will, with two-thirds given to Augustus and one-third distributed to Ann H.  Further complicating the matter later on was the fact that Augustus left no will in 1880.  When affairs were thought to be resolved in 1884, the estate of the son was determined to be nearly $15,000.  Upon settlement, three individuals – W. N. Robertson, Mary E. Mann, and Eliza Dacamara – each received a net of $4200.

It just goes to show that dying intestate can complicate matters and that the evolution of one’s name – however practical in an American setting – might cause some confusion in legal documents.

For those wishing more, it may be beneficial to view official documents in the Giraud genealogical file, Filing Case A, Box 70, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore, Papers from the 1880s. Claimants to the family inheritance included Catherine Giraud, supposedly a niece of the doctor residing in Fleurieux, France (département of the Rhône), and Louisa Giraud, a grandniece in Nîmes (département of the Gard).  The “genealogist” assisting in the case wrote that “no act of Decease can be found,” yet that date and a will from 1839 (Baltimore County, 17:257) are known and mentioned in the second volume of my work.  It was thought that Giraud probably had sailed for the Antilles in 1789 or 1790 to escape family issues in France and that he subsequently acquired a large fortune in the United States!

April 30, 2023

Last week at a book festival I had a long conversation with an Ellicott City physician about Francophones in the medical field who set up practices in Baltimore in the nineteenth century. The Chatard dynasty and James J. Giraud were just a few to be considered.

In the summer of 1857, a classified ad in the Sun [29 June] announced a “French Medical House” at 16 South Frederick Street:

>>Dr. A Huet has returned to this establishment, founded by him over fifteen years ago, and resumed his former practice. Distant patients and others who were disappointed during his absence may now apply with the certainty of being cured of any of those complaints in which Dr. H. has been so eminently successful for thirty odd years, viz: Consumption, Bronchitis, Disease of the Heart, Premature Decline, and all the train of infirmities arising from improper indulgences, excess or imprudence in youth or adults. See his Book on those complaints, to be had at his office.

>>Those who had their disease palliated or driven into the system by Buchu, &c., or rendered almost incurable by Mercury, or who have been otherwise maltreated, may rely upon having their systems thoroughly cleansed, and every vestige of the disease fully eradicated by a short course of Dr. H.’s treatment. Recollect he still continues his former method of guaranteeing his cures.

>>TO STRANGERS. – Dr. H. is the only regular Physician of the Baltimore Faculty who advertises; is also a member of several other faculties in this country and Europe, and a graduate of the medical school of Paris, as his diploma will show.”

Some time back, Francis O’Neill, the longtime Reference Librarian at the Library of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, passed on to me an article that he had photocopied from a 1913 issue of the Maryland Medical Journal, in which an address by Dr. William J. Todd was read before the Baltimore County Medical Association on the previous 16 July. Dr. Todd was honoring a colleague, Dr. A. V. Cherbonnier, a retired United States Army officer.

A.V. hailed from a medical family. His father Pierre had been a naval medical officer who decided to leave Bonapartist France to seek his fortune first in New York and then in New Orleans. A native of Saintes, in the southwest of France, Pierre settled in Harford County, Maryland, in 1830, where he remarried.¹ His son Pierre Ovide was the first of two children to receive medical degrees as well, returning to the States in 1840 after completing his studies at the University of Paris. Pierre Ovide took up residence in Baltimore and then in Talbot County. His younger brother, A. V., was just fourteen years old when Pierre returned. St. Mary’s College in Baltimore records show him enrolled under the name Victor from 1840 to 1842. In 1848, he graduated from the University of Maryland, having “read medicine with Professor Dunbar” before spending a year in New York City hospitals to gain more experience. He established a practice in a rented home on Belair Road and then moved in 1855 to another rental in Mount Washington. That second office, on Falls Road, was owned by Victor Sirata, Rev. Louis Régis Deluol’s nephew who came to America in 1832. A little later, Cherbonnier purchased a stone cottage and three acres in the Slabtown, or Hampden, area and remained there until he joined the Union cause in 1862 as an acting assistant surgeon. A veteran of the devastating battle of Antietam, A. V. served in Frederick, Annapolis, Baltimore, Camp Parole, and Washington, DC. Named a captain in the Army Medical Corps, he was assigned to St. Louis (twice), Santa Fe, San Antonio, and New York, retiring in October 1890.

The doctor had three marriages and was known as a sort of bon vivant and an avid card and chess player.

¹ Pierre helped organize the French Citizens’ Association in the Spring of 1854 and served as its first president (Sun, 5 May 1854). He passed away at the age of 85 on 5 Apr 1866 (Sun, 6 Apr 1866).

Source: William J. Todd, MD, “The Medical Fathers of Baltimore County, Maryland,” Maryland Medical Journal, Vo. 56, No. 11 (November, 1913), 287-290.

December 19, 2022

In the 1760s, over 600 Acadian Neutrals exiled in Maryland joined a growing number of “cousins” in Louisiana.  In 1762, that territory passed by treaty into Spanish hands which welcomed colonists to protect their interests against the British.  In 1765 Joseph Broussard led a group from Halifax to New Orleans, with approximately 200 of that group moving on to the Attakapas region along the Bayou Teche.  Maryland exiles were originally settled quite a distance east in Cabanocey (St. James Parish) and St. Gabriel, on the Mississippi and Bayou Lafourche and to the north in Natchez.

Among the first known Marylanders in the Attakapas, however, were the Castilles, listed on the “census” of 1763 in Upper Marlboro (Prince George’s County) with Babins, Marie Brasseu, Forays, Landrys, Richards, and Rivettes. Joseph was not Acadian, but Menorcan.  He had married Osite Landry, widow of Joseph Broussard, in exile, year unknown.  His sole compatriot from Menorca, Dique Landre (Diego Hernandez) and his wife Théotiste Babin, lived nearby in the Upper Marlboro region.  In any case, Castille and Landre/Hernández were such a part of the “Acadian” Neutral community that they left for Louisiana in 1767 and first settled at St. Gabriel.  By 1777, the Castille family moved from the wetlands to the Attakapas prairie; the Hernández family continued to grow while remaining in St. Gabriel.

Steven A. Cormier can best speak to the specifics of Castille history.  What interests me most is the family’s move to St. Martin Parish and the fact that an actual grave marker for son Joseph Ignace (b. 1764) can be seen in the church cemetery in St. Martinville. To see it, cross the Teche in St. Martinville, turn right on Center Street, park alongside the road and enter the cemetery grounds by the first set of steps, turn right on the first sidewalk, and then proceed about nine plots. According to the marker, young Joseph was born in Baltimore, not in Upper Marlboro: “Git Joseph Ignace Castille né à Baltimore Amérique du nord Le 22 Janvier 1764 décédé à son habitation dans la Paroisse St Martin Le 10 Aout 1833.” Of course, Joseph Ignace was not yet born as his parents sought relief from the Duc de Nivernois in London in 1763 because he was not noted on the census.

Joseph Castille the Younger married Scholastique Borda, a 15-year-old resident of the Attakapas, on 29 March 1785. Her father was a surgeon. When Joseph died, his age was apparently overestimated by the local curé in the St. Martin de Tours registry. Do the math: he was still a few years from reaching 75 – “l’an mil huit trente trois le dix aout a été inhumé dans le cimetière de cette paroisse par moi curé soussigné le corps de Joseph Castille natif de cette paroisse décédé ce matin sur son habitation à la pointe agé d’environ soixante et quinze ans en foi de quoi j’ai signé Marcel Borella Curé” (Sépultures, Book V, p. 31, No. 70).  [*La Pointe is near the community of Parks, between Breaux Bridge and St. Martinville.]

Nearly three years later, spouse Scholastique died.  Her marker is affixed on the same slab of cement as her husband, and again age is estimated or mischiseled: “Sous cette pierre repose Scholastique Borda veuve de Joseph Ignace Castille décédée à son Habitation dans la Paroisse St. Martin le 3 Juin 1836 dans la 61eme [sic, 66eme] année.” We do know that 66 is the correct age because two documents attest that she was born on 18 February 1770 (St. Martin de Tours Church, Folio A-1, p. 8; and Vol. 1, p. 19).  There was no pastor as yet at St. Martin, so her baptism a year later was officiated by Father Irénée, a Capucin priest from Pointe Coupée.

To those reading this, I offer a challenge to photograph any early markers of Maryland exiles that may have survived weather and decay to this day.

December 17, 2022

It has been nearly two months since the Grand Réveil Acadien took place in Louisiana.  My wife and I were present for all nine days of the much-delayed celebration, and I could write quite a bit about our car trip from Maryland south and include interesting stops going and returning in Abingdon (VA), Jackson (MS), Baton Rouge, Laurel (MS), Birmingham, Atlanta, and Raleigh.  A mixture of friends and notable places in covering some 3300 miles of road!  The highlights of Jackson were the Eudora Welty House and Museum and the positively overwhelming Civil Rights Museum. Atlanta once again won the “worst traffic award,” with the constant Petersburg (VA) to DC Beltway mess garnering honorable mention. In this blog, however, southwestern Louisiana will be the main focus.

Weather was perfect in Louisiana in early October – 80s and blue skies, with only one stifling afternoon in the low 90s.  Though the national midterms were just around the corner, conversation centered comfortably around history, genealogy, music, and food.  New and old acquaintances kept popping into our lives.  Acadians enjoy life and never miss an occasion to speak about their past, present, and future.  Of course, Maryland played a major role in the settlement of early Acadiana and that story is always open for further research. While my Morin Acadian ancestors were not a part of the Louisiana narrative, I have found more than enough satisfaction in the last half-century documenting the journey of other exiles from the Maritimes southward and to have been included as an honorary Guidry.

Normally our many trips to the Pelican State center on lodging in Lafayette, but this year’s séjour involved both country and city.  Our friends the Perrins invited us to first enjoy their family farm in Henry, where we spent five nights amid rice and cane fields.  The once-extensive property is now limited to a comfortable elevated ancestral house, outbuildings, live oaks, and some gardens, with many personal mementos, photos, and books inviting guests to relax in appropriate reverence to the region.  Henry has no more than its small Catholic parish and is just a few miles from historic Erath, Abbeville, and Delcambre, the Vermilion Parish shrimp capital.  Erath is known for its jam-packed Musée Acadien and two deceased icons, politician and entrepreneur Dudley LeBlanc and musician D. L. Menard.

Abbeville is a most remarkable city, with an impressive Catholic church, Magdalen Square, and older structures, as well as an enthusiastic tourist bureau staff.  It was just the right venue to open the GRA on Saturday, October 1.  Magdalen Square, with its oaks, fountain, and constant shade was perfect for food demonstrations (oyster shucking, jambalaya, cracklins), local tents, a cameo by Abbeville’s famous Giant Omelette chefs, and entertainment involving immersion students and professional musicians. Activities lasted from early morning to mid-evening, capped by a theatrical presentation of Warren Perrin’s The Birth of Cajun Culture and a musical performance by Steve Riley, David Greely, and friends. The “play” allowed me to relate how Marylanders complemented Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil’s settling in the Attakapas in the 1760s. A first for me: donning late-eighteenth-century clothing to “perform” with Warren Perrin, Marty Guidry, Brenda Trahan, Natial d’Augereau, Earlene Broussard, Michael Vincent, Richard Landry, Barry Toups, two Donalds (Arceneaux and Landry), and Melissa Bonin. What an honor and lot of fun!

Sunday the 2^nd was more or less a quiet day to attend religious services, walk the streets of New Iberia, have lunch at the Church Alley Café Bistro, and then examine Delcambre’s shrimp fleet.

I had greatly anticipated my presentation in St. Martinville at the Longfellow-Evangeline State Park on Monday, October 3.  For technical reasons, the folks at the Acadian Memorial could not use the upstairs of their facility downtown, so the park was an excellent substitute. Its main building has wonderful historical displays and a hall for my power point talk that led off St. Martin Parish’s assigned day of festivities.  I had more than enough time and opportunity to interact with the friendly audience. Lynn and I were then treated to a fine lunch at the local St. John Restaurant, an establishment that has continued to be an excellent go-to.  The afternoon brought us back to the state park and a tour of the grounds and its Creole house.  By late afternoon, we were again downtown on the church lawn for a free community jambalaya and other treats.

New Iberia had its turn to share its heritage on Tuesday, October 4.  At this city on the Bayou Teche, we were treated to interesting speakers en plein air. Gumbo and homemade potato salad were prepared for visitors at the old Evangeline Theater down the street.  Later, I could not forego exploring the parish cemetery back in St. Martinville and I tracked down the tombstone of Martin Castille Jr., said to have been born in Baltimore in 1764.  It was also time to end our rural stay and move on to the city of Lafayette.  Shane and Anne, the farm’s caretakers, delightfully shared some of their experiences with us as we readied ourselves for the transition.

Early on Wednesday, October 5, we set off on a 100-mile-plus trek to Thibodaux, via Morgan City. The day’s activities took place at the National Park Service’s Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center there, under the auspices of the Center for Bayou Studies at Nicholls State University.  The symposium ran all day and featured a number of well-known speakers (Glen Pitre, Nathalie Dajko, Windell Curole, John Doucet, Gary LaFleur, Shana Walton, and Patty Walton, among others) addressing environmental, cultural, and linguistic aspects of the Terrebonne-Lafourche area.  Lunch was purchased at Gina’s at the Legion across the street.  Alas, just spaghetti and meat balls this time around, although an Acadian fricot made a quiet appearance just outside the center!  The ride back to Lafayette provided everchanging skyscapes and a great bit to ponder as to southern Louisiana’s ecological future.

Thursday, October 6, was technically a free day from formal GRA activities, but it served us well to return to St. Martinville to visit with one of our newest acquaintances, Jason Vidrine, pastor of St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church.  We had met Father Vidrine on Monday at the state park, and he had invited us to continue our adventures by visiting the parish archives and the historic presbytère (rectory).  Father Vidrine is himself a historian – author of two books (La Famille de Vidrine at 275 Years and The Religious History of the Vidrine Family).  As thanks for his gracious tour and assistance, we again shared a noon meal at the St. John Restaurant and then stopped by the local library to visit Patty GuteKunst, an archivist who so welcomed me in July 2018 at a Saturday morning presentation and also helped make this year’s visit possible. She was generous in pulling up microfilm of the Attakapas Gazette, which was established by a Maryland native and Acadian descendant, Theodore De Valcourt.

The community of Broussard, just south of Lafayette, showed off its best on Friday, October 7.  The Valsin Broussard home on Main Street is becoming the town’s cultural center, so people were on hand to visit the structure and witness the twinning ceremony with the town of Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick.  The Canadian community’s mayor, Serge Léger, and others were present as a band, a mini-parade of family signs, and good conversation filled the morning before Lynn and I found Cajun lunch entrées at Ton’s Restaurant down the street.  The pleasant morning out on the lawn gave way to some overwhelming fall heat in the afternoon, a visit to the famous Borden’s Ice Cream shop on Johnston Street in Lafayette (always on our schedule), and a first visit to Billy’s Boudin, up the road on the way to Carencro.

On Saturday, October 8, the Guédry-Petitpas/Hébert Family Reunion took place in Rayne, about 20 miles west of Lafayette on I-10.  The all-day event was very much in full swing by 9 am and gave Marty Guidry and me a second chance to dress à l’acadienne and tromp around in sabots (wooden shoes) for several hours.  By all accounts, this family reunion attracted the most attendees of the week – some 200 assembled in the Civic Center for a Cajun band in the morning, jambalaya, white beans, and cracklins prepared by chefs Barry, E.J., and Jay Guidry, short talks by Art Guidry and myself, awards, displays, and book signings. Many Guidrys and Héberts generously furnished a wide assortment of desserts.  So many special moments thanks to herculean efforts of Marty, Allie Guidry, Rachel and Jeff Killingsworth, and the chefs.  My brother John and wife Michelle were also able to drive over from Montgomery, Texas, for the reunion, dinner in Breaux Bridge, and activities the next morning. So, a great day for all!

One last day of celebration took place in Lafayette on Sunday, October 9.  A French mass was celebrated at St. John’s Cathedral at 9 am.  Then many gathered for a tintamarre through the city streets (and escorted by the local police) to the Warehouse 535 on Garfield Street, where music, another version of the Abbevile play, and final remarks were offered to guide the GRA through its final hours. Afternoon coffee with Donald Arceneaux, historian and ardent researcher, capped another wonderful day.  We are ever so thankful to have spent several hours during the week especially with such fine friends and associates as Donald and Marty.  It was also a pleasure renewing acquaintances with talented Cajun activists Earlene Broussard and Jolene Adam and archivists Ann Boltin and Amy Simon in Baton Rouge after so many years. 

A big shoutout to Randy Menard, Ray Trahan, Michael Vincent, and others from Louisiane-Acadie; Elaine Clement and board members of the Acadian Memorial who invited me to St. Martinville for perhaps the fourth time; Warren and Mary Perrin; Marty Guidry; and local officials who made this year’s GRA a success!

For those visiting the area in the future, note that there are many restaurants serving delicious fare in all the communities.  Other than those mentioned above, our current favorites include Duke’s, just south of the interstate in Denham Springs; Frank’s, on Airline Highway in Prairieville (excellent breakfasts); and Sydnie Mae’s, in Breaux Bridge.  Crawfish pie and étouffée, shrimp, catfish, boudin, jambalaya, and various gumbos are sure winners most anywhere.  A stop at the Coffee Call in Baton Rouge for beignets and café au lait will be just as satisfying as going to the French Market in New Orleans; full breakfasts can be found at the old, reliable Dwyer’s Café in downtown Lafayette; and lunch with abundant po’boys is recommended from the Olde Tyme Grocery, just a few blocks north of the U-L campus in Lafayette.

I cannot count the times that the Lafayette area has beckoned us since the mid-1970s. Tastes and musical groups have changed over those years; some friends have retired, with newer folks standing tall in their stead.

September 18, 2022

I was in correspondence with Terry McCormack several weeks before his presentation (see above) and was able to add a little more to his Renaudet research.  I had not considered that Elizabeth Seton might have had students of French background, although a reading of her pre-Emmitsburg correspondence would have made that so obvious.  Mea culpa for the misidentification of Louise Elizabeth Aglaë DuBourg in Becoming 2:354. 

After Terry’s talk, I found a great book on the Bringier line in Louisiana, examined further Elizabeth’s letters, and explored the genealogy of the DuBourg family.  

Aglaë (or Aglaé) DuBourg was the daughter of Pierre François DuBourg de Sainte-Colombe (born in Saint-Domingue on 30 December 1767) and Élisabeth Stéphanie Étiennette Bonne Charest de Lauzon (b. 1782, Saint-Domingue-d. 12 May 1811, New Orleans).   Aglaë’s paternal grandparents, Pierre DuBourg (1715-Sep 1793, d. Mont-de-Marsan, France) and Marguerite Armand de Voglusan (1742-1786, d. Artibonite, Saint-Domingue), had at least seven children – Patrice dit La Loubère (1761-1792), Françoise Victoire (1763-1825), Marie (1763-), Louis-Guillaume-Valentin (1766-1833), Pierre François (1767-1830), Louis Joseph dit Le Beau (b. 1768; Chevalier de Saint-Christaud), and Paul Lacour (b. abt. 1783).  Pierre also had two children in the 1750s with his first wife, Jeanne-Eulalie Rateau.  

[Sources: posts by Pierre de Laubier, https://gw.geneanet.org and on the Harrison Vignes Family Tree, Ancestry.com] 

We know that three of Pierre and Marguerite’s children – Françoise Victoire, Louis-Guillaume-Valentin, and Pierre François – were living in Maryland at various times.  Louis-Guillaume-Valentin is whom we know as the Rev. William DuBourg, well known Sulpician involved with Georgetown College, St. Mary’s College, the Sisters of Charity, and administration of the Church in New Orleans, St. Louis, and France. More will follow on Françoise Victoire later in this section. 

Aglaë’s parents were married in Jamaica on 23 or 28 February 1797.  The firstborn, she arrived in this world on 4 January 1798, in Kingston, Jamaica, and would have been ten years old when she started school with Elizabeth Seton in Baltimore.  Aglaë was followed by Mary Louisa Frances (b. 1 Jul 1799), Aloysius Joseph (b. 21 Jul 1800), Jeanne Charlotte Victoire (b. about 1801 according to one source or in 1809 on her father’s findagrave.com post, ID 15083508), Antoinette Charlotte Noémie (b. 23 Sep 1804), Louise Eliza Marie (b. 6 Jul 1806), Jeanne (b. 1809), and Adèle (b. 1810). The baptisms of Mary Louisa Frances (12 Dec 1799) and Aloysius Joseph (21 Jul 1800) were actually recorded at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Baltimore. Mary Louisa was six months old when baptized, and Aloysius received those rites the same day as his birth and then died the next day. Pierre was not living in Baltimore while Aglaë was a student.  

The portraits of many distinguished American residents in that era were done by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and father Pierre was not denied his moment in 1800 [National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Object No: S/NPG.74.391.34]. 

Pierre François and his family wound up as residents of New Orleans before 1804. In 1810, DuBourg and Noel Auguste Baron Jr., spouse of Laure Bringier, formed a partnership, DuBourg & Baron, which represented planters’ interests.  Like many notable Maryland Catholic refugees described in my recent work, Pierre was a Freemason, serving from 1812 to 1814 as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, even as his brother William began serving as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. This is a very similar situation to the Carroll family in Maryland, with Daniel and John divided on the issue of Catholic participation in Freemasonry. 

Aglaë was in Baltimore in 1808 under the general supervision of her Aunt Françoise Victoire (DuBourg) Fournier. Known by her middle name, she was apparently the widow of Antoine Fournier dit L’Hermitage, whom she had married at Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue, on 24 April 1786. Antoine was commandant of Le Bataillon de Milices du Quartier de Jacmel in the 1780s. Victoire made quite an impression on Elizabeth Seton as the latter began her educational ministry in Baltimore.  In an older edition of Elizabeth Bayley Seton: Collected Writings, Volume II (2002) edited by Regina Bechtle, SC, Judith Metz, SC, and Ellin M. Kelly, we find these references: 

(p. 9) 5.2, Letter to Catherine Dupleix, 20 Jun 1808, APSL 1-3-3-7:63: 

“. . . all those little dear attentions oh human life which I was intirely [sic] weaned from are now my daily portion from the family of Mr. Dubourg, whose Sister and Mother [latter misidentified by Elizabeth; actually deceased] are unwearied in their care of us, the little nicities [sic] which I cannot afford are daily sent to us as a part of their family . . .” 

(pp. 11-12) 5.2, same letter on p. 9: 

“Madame Fournier . . . assists me in all the little cares for my children, if there is a finger ach [sic] she watches over us . . .” 

(p. 14) 5.3, Letter to Julia Scott, 4 Jul 1808, APSL 1-3-3-6:73: 

“Mr. Dubourg’s sister who conducts the regulations of the establishment [Seminary or College reference] is a most amiable affectionate character and tho’ beyond forty a very elegant woman.  She arranges my affairs for me such as cloathing [sic] my dear boys, placing and providing necessary furniture, provisions etc etc with an ease and gaiety of manner as if the favour was all on my side.” 

(p. 19) 5.4, Copy to Antonio Filicchi, 8 Jul 1808, AMSJ A 111 049: 

“. . . immense happiness of living in such a Society as here surrounds us. . . [with] the sweet company and friendship of one of the most amiable Women in the World, the sister of the Rev. Mr. Dubourg, who suffers me also to call her Sister. . .” 

(p. 22) 5.5 Letter to Cecilia Seton, 8 Jul 1808, APSL 1-3-3-8:151: 

Reference to “our Gentlemen [Sulpicians] and My Sister [Victoire]” leaving soon for a six-week vacation.  

(p. 30) 5.8, Letter to Cecilia Seton, 26 Aug 1808, APSL 1-3-3-8:152: 

While Rev. DuBourg is away, Elizabeth writes that “here I am Alone with God. . . [and] only my Sister Madame Fournier remains of my most intimate. . .” 

(p. 163) 6.63 Letter to Françoise Victoire DuBourg Fournier, n. d. (probably in 1810), APSL 1-3-3-3:23: 

« My dear Friend, 

     How happy I should be to answer your amiable letter in your own sweet language, but since I left you the imperfect Knowledge I had of it has not been improved and you must now, Ma chère Soeur, take your lesson of English.” 

(p. 719) A-6.3a, APSL 7-2-1. Sister Rose White’s Journal.  [Journey to Emmitsburg, Summer 1809]: 

“We began to make our arrangements and by the morning of the 30^th [Jul 1809] we were ready to start at half past two o’clock [for Emmitsburg].  We drove through College yard and Madame Fournier, Rev. Dubourg’s sister, opening the casement of her window, waved her hand to bid us adieu.” (Aglaë’s presence was no longer noted and she did not continue her studies in Emmitsburg.) 

First perceived (wrongly) by Elizabeth Seton as being a cousin of classmate Celanire Delarue in Baltimore, Aglaë did have something in common with the South Carolina-born classmate: Celanire had a younger sister also named Louise Elizabeth Aglae, who was born in New Orleans on 19 August 1807! While Celanire later married Francis Bernoudy, her Delarue sibling wed a physician, John Moore White Picton, in 1829. 

Elizabeth Seton spoke lovingly of little Aglaë during her brief year in Baltimore. She referred to her as “Sweet Agli” in a letter to her sister-in-law Cecilia (5.9 – APSL 1-3-3-8:157, 5 Sep 1808), in which she wrote about her daughter Anna and Aglaë devoutly wearing Agnus Dei necklaces. In another letter to Cecilia on 6 October, she described the eldest DuBourg child in this way: “Agli is the fairest most perfect child you can imagine, diligent and faithful in every duty, always remembering our dear Lord’s eye is upon her.” (5.10 – APSL 1-3-3-8:153).  In correspondence with her friend Julia Scott in Philadelphia on 6 December (5.13 – APSL 1-3-3-6:75), Elizabeth continued to praise how well Anna and Aglaë were getting along with one another: “. . . they are two lovely beings and very much united.” Several months later, in another letter to Julia, date 2 March 1809, student Becky Nicholson of Baltimore was mentioned as well as part of Anna’s (or Annina’s) “invaluable society,” which would not hold together much longer because plans for the move to Emmitsburg were rapidly developing (5.20 – APSL 1-3-3-6:76). 

Aglaë managed to marry well: at age fourteen, she wed Michael Doradou Bringier at St. Peter’s, Baltimore, on 17 June 1812, further uniting two business families just one day before Madison declared war on Great Britain.  

By midsummer 1813, Pierre (or Peter F., as he was also known) was expressing his appreciation for having been named collector of customs for the District of Mississippi by President James Madison. [“To James Madison from Peter F. DuBourg, 30 August 1813 (Abstract),” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-06-02-0558].  He resigned that position a year later.  On 29 Jan 1830, he passed away in a rented house on St. Louis Street (between Chartres and Royal Sts.) in New Orleans, even though he then owned a house on Dumaine Street (between Royal and Bourbon Streets). A son-in-law (husband of Elsa), Seaman Field, was designated executor of his estate [Louisiana Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984, 1 Feb 1830; Will Book, Orleans, LA, Vol. 4, 1824-1833]. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery, No. 2, there. 

Not to spoil Aglaë’s story in Louisiana, I highly recommend reading Craig A. Bauer’s Creole Genesis: The Bringier Family and Antebellum Plantation Life in Louisiana (Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2011). She lived a long life, passing away on 11 June 1878, in her 81^st year. 

September 7, 2022

On Saturday, June 18, my wife and I attended a wonderful celebration at St. Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historical Site, 600 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, in honor of Elizabeth Seton’s 214^th anniversary of taking her religious vows. There, in 1808, that ceremony took place in the chapelle basse of the Sulpician seminary designed by Maximilien Godefroy. 

This year’s event began with a Corpus Christi feast day mass in that very basement chapel and was followed by a power point presentation given in Maréchal Hall by Terry McCormack, an associate at the center.  Terry spoke extensively about the nine students studying in a house on the grounds where Elizabeth started her first school.  Among the children were three from Francophone families – Louise Elizabeth Aglaë DuBourg, Celanire Victoire Delarue, and Marie Caroline Victoire Renaudet – and three Seton daughters – Anna Maria, Catherine, and Rebecca.  

The Seton House now has a renovated balcony.  It is well worth touring the entire structure to examine the space and furnishings.  Before planning an excursion there, consult the Center’s website for days and hours open to the public. 

This little Baltimore school was only in session for one academic year (1808-09) before Elizabeth was afforded the opportunity to create something greater and more adventurous in Emmitsburg, in Frederick County. It may take some by surprise that the widow Seton had her own children to care for on her religious journey. One of the earliest to join the sisterhood was Rose Landry White, a young Baltimore widow with a son Charles, who would be eventually placed under the care of Rev. John Dubois at Mount St. Mary’s, across town from that new northern Maryland mission. 

By the way, the Paca Street site, now under the direction of Deacon Vito Piazza, has an attractive visitors’ center, with several displays and plenty of signage documenting the early Sulpicians, Elizabeth Seton, and Mother Mary Lange, cofounder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.  Engage Deacon Vito or one of the docents in a conversation about the delights available at Trinacria, the nearby Italian deli at 406 N. Paca. 

For anyone in the Baltimore-Washington area interested in Terry’s talk, please contact me and I will pass on that request to him. There are also many fantastic videos on the St. Mary’s website (http://stmaryspacast.org), which can easily be found right here on my website (Resources˃Specialized Libraries˃St. Mary’s˃Our History˃More Videos).