APPENDICES

Acadians Who Found Refuge in Louisiana, February 1764-early 1800s

BILLERAY

[BILL-uh-ray]

ACADIA

Claude-Joseph, called Joseph, Billeray, born at Vermier-Fontaine, Diocese of Besancon, in November 1727, son of Jean-Claude Billeray and Anne-Monique Godard, married Brigitte, daughter of Michel de Forest, fils at Port-Lajoie, Île St.-Jean, in June 1752.   Joseph and Brigitte had at least two children at Port-Lajoie:  daughter Jeanne, born in c1753, and son Charles in c1755. 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

When the British rounded up the Acadians in Nova Scotia in the fall of 1755, the Acadians on Île St.-Jean were safe for now because they lived in territory controlled by France.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  After the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg in July 1758, the victorious British gathered up most of the Acadians on Île St.-Jean and deported them to France later in the year. 

Joseph Billeray, his wife Brigitte, and their two children, crossed aboard one of the so-called Five Ships that left the Gut of Canso in late November 1758 and reached St.-Malo in late January 1759.  All of them survived the terrible crossing that took the lives of scores of their fellow Acadians, but daughter Jeanne must have been weakened by the ordeal; she died in May 1759 probably in a St.-Malo hospital.  

Joseph and Brigitte joined other Acadians in the St.-Malo suburb of Pleurtuit, where more children were born to them:  daughter Marie-Jeanne in July 1759, son Joseph-Jean or Jean-Joseph in November 1761, and daughter Anne-Brigitte in June 1764.  

In 1765, Joseph took his family to Belle-Île-en-Mer, a large island off the southwestern coast of Brittany, where they joined over 300 other Acadians in a venture they hoped would give provide them independence from the government handouts on which they subsisted at St.-Malo.  They lived in the village of Kervarigeon, in the parish of Bangor, where, in February 1767, Joseph and Brigitte recounted their respective family genealogies for French authorities.   

They also lost two children at Kervarigeon.  Anne-Brigitte died at age 18 months in November 1765, soon after they reached the island.  Joseph-Jean died at age 4 in c1769.  Two years later, in c1771, Brigitte died, leaving Joseph with two children, son Charles, then 16, and daughter Marie-Jeanne, age 12.  Joseph remarried, but the name of his second wife was unrecorded, and had more children.  His daughter Marie-Jeanne by his first wife married Frenchman Francois Le Sommer probably on Belle-Île-en-Mer.  The record is not clear on how long Marie-Jeanne Billeray remained on Belle-Île-en-Mer.  What is known is that her husband died before August 1785.  

Meanwhile, in the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Marie-Jeanne Billeray, probably after her husband had died, agreed to take it.  

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Joseph Billeray's daughter, Marie-Jeanne, came to Louisiana as a 26-year-old widow in 1785.  She sailed aboard the sixth of the Seven Ships, La Ville de Archangel, with the family of 75-year-old Jacques Forest, probably a kinsman.  Her shipped reached New Orleans in December, and she followed the Forests and the majority of the passengers from La Ville d'Archangel to the new Acadian community of Bayou des Écores, above Baton Rouge.

CONCLUSION

Since Marie-Jeanne was the only member of her family to emigrate to Louisiana, the Billerays were among the 50 or more Acadian families who came to Louisiana but did not take root in the Bayou State.  

The family's name also is spelled Billera, Billeret, Billeza.  

Sources:  Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 554-55; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 18; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 58-59.

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day parishes that existed during the War Between the States in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

NOTES

01.  Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 58-59, Family No. 73, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marie-Jeanne BILLERAY, gives her parents' names, calls her father Claude-Joseph BILLERAY, says he was born 12 Nov 1727 "at Vermier-Fontaine, diocese of Besancon," son of Jean-Claude BILLERAY & Anne-Monique GODARD, calls her mother Brigitte FOREST, says she was born 29 Apr 1729 "at Pisiguit, Acadie," daughter of Michel FOREST & Marie BELLEMER, does not give her godparents' names, includes the birth & death records of siblings Jeanne BILLERAY, born in c1753 but gives no birthplace, died 16 May 1759 but gives no place of death, Charles BILLERAY, born in c1755 but gives no birthplace, Joseph-Jean BILLERAY, born 3 Nov 1761, Pleurtuit, & Anne-Brigitte BILLERAY, born 10 Jun 1764, Plertuit, says "Claude-Joseph BILLERAY, Brigitte FOREST, his wife and Jeanne BILLERAY, their daughter, disembarked at St.-Malo on January 23, 1759 from one of the 'Five ships,'" says that her family resided at Pleurtuit from 1759-65, & "in 1765, the entire family went to reside on Belle-Isle-en-Mer.  On February 20, 1767, the family was living in the Village of Kervarigeon, parish of Bangor on Belle-Isle-en-Mer.  The Declaration of Claude-Joseph BILLERAY of that date provides documentation where records are missing or lacking"; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 554-55, Acadian Families at Belle-Île-En-Mer: 1765, calls her Marie-Jeanne BILLERAY, says she was 7 yrs. old, born in 1759, gives her parents' names, calls her father Joseph BILLERAY, says he was 38 years old in 1765, born 12 Nov 1727, Franche-Comte, married at Île St.-Jean but gives no date of marriage, & died in c1779, Belle-Île, calls her mother Brigitte FOREST, his wife, says she was 37 years old in 1765, born 29 Apr 1729, Pigiguit, & died 1771 at Belle-Île, & details the birth & death of siblings Jean-Joseph BILLERAY, 4 yrs. old in 1765, born in 1761 but no birthplace given, died 1769, Belle-Île, & Anne-Brigitte BILLERAY, 2 yrs. old in 1765, died age 18 mths. 27 Nov 1765 but gives no place of death, & adds:  "One other child was born at Belle-Île; the husband becoming a widower--remarried and has three children; members of this family are still in Belle-Île in 1792, but others have left for Louisiana in 1785 on the Ville d'Archange; family no. 76 at Kervarigeon, Bangor"; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 90-91, calls her Marie-Jeanne BILLERA, veuve de Francois LE SOMMER, age 27, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Marie-Jeanne BILLEZA,widow of Francois LE SOMMER, age 27, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 13th Family aboard La Ville d'Archangel with Jacques FOREST, his wife Angélique RICHET, & Jacques's nephew Étienne FOREST.

How was she kin to Jacques FOREST?  Maybe he was an uncle or great-uncle. See Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 324-25, Family No. 394. 

She evidently was a childless widow when she crossed to LA in 1785.  What happened to her in LA?

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