Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 andContinue reading “The Chameau Family of Maryland”

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 loyalContinue reading “The Politics of War”

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 wasContinue reading “Dr. Giraud”

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, aContinue reading “Baltimore’s Historic Attraction to French Doctors”

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 approximatelyContinue reading “The Castilles”

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 AbingdonContinue reading “Grand Réveil Acadien”

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 soContinue reading “The DuBourg Family”

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 214th anniversary of taking her religious vows. There, in 1808, that ceremony took place in the chapelle basse of the Sulpician seminaryContinue reading “Seton School”