APPENDICES

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

BRASSEAUX/BRASSET

[Brah-SOH, BRASS-oh]

ACADIA

Pierre Brassaud or Brassaux, born in France in c1663, reached Port-Royal by 1691, the year he married Gabrielle, daughter of Michel Forest, and moved on to Pigiguit in the Minas Basin.  Pierre and Gabrielle had nine children, only two of them sons.  Only one of the sons, the younger one, survived childhood.  Five of Pierre and Gabrielle's seven daughters married into the Boudrot, Guédry dit Grivois, and Robichaud dit Cadet families.  The surviving son, Pierre, fils, born after the Port-Royal census of 1707, married a woman whose name has been lost to history probably at Port-Royal in c1735.  Pierre, fils survived Le Grand Dérangement and was a widower in Pennsylvania in 1763.  

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Mathieu dit La Citardy, born in c1650, probably no kin to Pierre, spelled his surname Brasseur and sometimes Brasseux and LeBrasseur.  He married Jeanne, teenage daughter of André Célestin dit Bellemère, at Port-Royal in c1702; he was 39 years older than his wife.  They settled at Grand-Pré in the Minas Basin.  Mathieu dit La Citardy died at Minas in May 1733 in his early 80s, and his wife remarried to Claude Landry, widower of Marie-Catherine Thibodeaux and Marie Babin.  Mathieu dit La Citardy and Jeanne had 11 children.  Their six daughters married into the Doucet, Bernard, Henry dit Robert, Poyer dit Lapintade, Doiron, Benoit, Aucoin, and Poirier families.  All five of their sons created families of their own:  

Oldest son Mathieu dit LeBrasseur, born probably at Minas c1705, married Anne-Marie, daughter of Jean Pitre, in c1727.  They moved to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, by the early 1750s and settled at Port-Lajoie on the south side of the island.  

Cosme dit Brasseux, born at Grand-Pré in December 1712, married Élisabeth, daughter of Pierre Thibodeau le jeune of Chignecto, at Grand-Pré in January 1738 and remained at Minas.  

Jean, born at Grand-Pré in December 1719, married Madeleine, daughter of Philippe Roy, in c1750.  

Claude dit Paul dit Mathieu, born probably at Minas in c1722, married Marguerite, daughter of Jean Bertrand l'aîné of Chepoudy, at Beaubassin in August 1746 and settled at Chignecto.  

Youngest son Joseph, born at Grand-Pré in March 1726, married Marie-Rose, daughter of Jean Daigle of Pigiguit, at Grand-Pré in October1748.  Like brothers Cosme and Jean, he remained at Minas. 

By the 1750s, descendants of Mathieu Brasseur dit La Citardy could be found in several major Acadian settlements--at Chignecto, Chepoudy, and on Île St.-Jean, but especially in the Minas Basin where Mathieu dit La Citardy spent most of his life.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Le Grand Dérangement of the 1750s scattered this family even farther:

The Acadians of Chignecto were the first to be rounded up by the British in the autumn of 1755.  Unlike many of their neighbors who found themselves on ships destined for the southern colonies of Georgia and South Carolina, the Brasseurs at Chignecto and Chepoudy eluded the British and fled north to the eastern New Brunswick shore.  Some of them continued on to the St. Lawrence valley, where the Canadiens treated them with little respect.  The French and Indian War caught up with them a few years later when the British captured Québec and Montréal in 1759 and 1760.  

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Their Brasseur siblings and cousins in the Minas Basin were not so lucky.  British forces transported Cosme dit Brasseux, his wife Élisabeth Thibodeau, Cosme's younger brother Jean, his wife Madeleine Roy, and their children to Maryland in the fall of 1755.  Sister Marie-Geneviève, a middle-aged spinster, also ended up in Maryland.  

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Brother Joseph Brasseur and his family, also rounded up at Minas, suffered an even worse fate than his kinsmen who were deported to Maryland.  Joseph, his wife Marie-Rose Daigle, and their 5-year-old daughter Marie were among the Minas Acadians deported to Virginia on five British transports.  The Virginia governor, Robert Dinwiddie, refused to allow the 1,500 Acadians sent to him to remain in the colony.  Hundreds of the exiles died on the filthy, crowded ships anchored in Hampton Roads while the Virginia authorities pondered their fate.  The Virginians allowed a few Acadians to come ashore at various James River settlements, but they were watched closely.  When some of the Acadians began to fraternize with African slaves, the Virginians returned them to the transports, where they languished with the others.  A hand full of sturdy young Acadians managed to slip off the vessels and trek overland through fields and forests and across the mountains, back to French Canada.  But most of them remained on the terrible ships, and more of them died.  Finally, in the spring of 1756, Governor Dinwiddie and Virginia's House of Burgesses made their decision ... the Acadians must go!  In May, the first shipment of Acadians left for England, and in two weeks all of them had gone--299 to Bristol, 250 to Falmouth, 340 to Southampton, 336 to Liverpool--1,225 of the original 1,500.  Joseph Brasseur, his wife, and their 6-year-old daughter were among the Acadians who ended up at Southampton.  Their ordeal only worsened in the English ports, where they were grossly neglected and treated like common criminals.  By 1763, more than half of them were dead.  Joseph and his family were among the lucky survivors; in fact, two more daughters had been added to the family during their ordeal at Southampton--Osite in October 1759, and Rosalie in January 1763.  In May 1763, after prolonged negotiations between the French and British governments, the Acadians in England were repatriated to France.  Joseph and his family sailed from England aboard the ship L'Ambition and settled at St.-Servan, near St.-Malo.  

In the early 1770s, Joseph, Marie-Rose, and daughters Marie and Osite (Rosalie probably died at St.-Servan), were part of the Leigne-les-bois settlement in the Poitou region that frustrated dozens of Acadian families.  When the venture failed after two years of fruitless effort, the Brasseurs retreated with other Poitou Acadians to the port city of Nantes, where they subsisted as best they could on government handouts or on what little work they could find.  Marie-Rose died at Nantes in June 1781 in her early 50s.  Joseph may have died about that time, too.  In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France a chance for a better life in faraway Louisiana.  Marie and Osite Brasseur, now young women and still unmarried, agreed to take it.  

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Back in North America, the Brasseurs who had moved to Île St.-Jean in the early 1750s escaped the fate of their kinsmen in Nova Scotia 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 swooped down on Île St.-Jean and deported most of the Acadians there to France.  Mathieu Brasseur dit LaBrasseur and his family were among the lucky ones who got away.  They made their way from the island to Restigouche at the head of the Baie des Chaleurs in present-day northeastern New Brunswick.  They were safe there for a year or so, until the British attacked Restigouche, the last French stronghold in North America, in late summer of 1760.  Restigouche fell after a prolonged siege, and the British sent most of the captured Acadians to prison compounds in Nova Scotia.  The Brasseurs were not among them.  Again, they escaped the victorious British and moved north to the lower St. Lawrence valley.  

Not all of Mathieu's family got away.  Daughter Brigitte ended up on the island of Martinique, where she remarried in September 1769.  She died on the island two years later, only 40 years old.  

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After the French and Indian War, the Brasseurs who had escaped the British at Chignecto and Chepoudy could be found on the upper St. Lawrence at Montréal and Ste.-Thérèse de Blainville and at Chambly on the lower Richelieu east of Montréal.  Their cousins who had escaped from Île St.-Jean to Restigouche could be found at Carlton, Bonaventure, and Paspébiac along the southern shore of the Gaspé Peninsula facing the Baie des Chaleurs.  Typical of most, if not all, Acadian families, the Acadiennes of Canada lost touch with their Cadien cousins hundreds of miles away, and until the Acadian reunions of the twentieth century, they may even have forgotten the others existed. 

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Meanwhile, the Brasseurs in Maryland endured life among English colonists who, despite their Catholic roots, did not care much for the French "papists" who had been thrust upon them.  After the French and Indian War finally ended in early 1763, British officials counted the Acadians still living in the colony.  By then, Cosme had died, leaving Élisabeth Thibodeau a widow.  She did what she could to keep her family together.  A Maryland census of the so-called French Neutrals in the colony conducted in July 1763 shows her and six of her children at Georgetown.  Two Brasseur orphans--Paul and Marguerite--were counted with the Joseph Castille family at Upper Marlborough, where Cosme's sister Marie-Geneviève, still unmarried, also lived, alone.  

When word reached the Acadians in Maryland that they would be welcome in Louisiana, where many of their relatives had gone, they pooled their meager resources to charter ships that would take them to New Orleans.  The Brasseurs had no close relatives in Louisiana, but that was of little consequence.  Certainly life had to be better there than in a British colony where they were treated like pariahs.  The first continent of Maryland exiles left the colony for New Orleans in late June 1766 and got there the following September.  The Brasseaus were not a part of it.  Élisabeth Thibodeau, six of her children, son Pierre, his wife, and their infant daughter, left with the second contingent of Louisiana-bound exiles that departed Baltimore in April 1767 and reached New Orleans in July.  Marie-Geneviève, now married to a widower five years her junior, was in the fourth and final contingent of Louisiana-bound refugees from Maryland--30 Acadians in 7 families, along with 8 families of German Catholics--who left Port Tobacco on the lower Potomac the first week of January 1769 aboard the ill-fated English schooner Britannia.  

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

The first descendants of Mathieu Brasseur dit La Citardy to reach Louisiana came from Maryland in July 1767.  Élisabeth Thibodeau, age 50, widow of Cosme Brasseur dit Brasseux, came with six of her children--Marie-Marguerite, age 22, Marie-Madeleine, age 20, Marie, age 18, Blaise, age 15, Anne, age 14, and Marie-Rose, age 12.  Also with them was Élisabeth's son Pierre Brasseur, age 25, his wife Élisabeth Richard, age 24, and their infant daughter Marguerite.  Spanish Governor Ulloa sent them to the new Acadian community of St.-Gabriel d'Iberville on the river above New Orleans. 

Marie was the first to wed in Louisiana.  She married Hubert, son Hubert Janis of Langres, France, at Ascension, downriver from St.-Gabriel, in October 1772.  

Meanwhile, mother Élisabeth Thibodeaux died at St.-Gabriel in the early 1770s, in her early 50s.  Probably soon after her death, most of her children left the river and moved to the Opelousas District on the western prairies.  Daughter Marie-Marguerite probably remained on the river.  Son Pierre and his wife also remained on the river, where they had more children.  

Descendants of Pierre BRASSET (c1742-1794)

Pierre, older son of Cosme Brasseur dit Brasseux and Élisabeth Thibodeau, born probably at Grand-Pré in c1742, followed his family to Maryland in 1755.  He married fellow Acadian Élisabeth, or Isabelle, Richard in Maryland in c1765.  Along with his widowed mother and six siblings, he took his family, which now included an infant daughter, to Louisiana in 1767.  They settled with other 1767 arrivals at St.-Gabriel d'Iberville on the river above New Orleans, where he and Élisabeth had more children.  Their daughters married into the Babin, Capdeville, and LeBlanc families.  Pierre died at Ascension, just downriver from St.-Gabriel, in September 1794; he was 52 years old.  Three of his grandsons by his first son moved to the western prairies in the early 1800s, but his second son and his sons remained on the river. 

1

Oldest son Joseph, born at St.-Gabriel in c1771, married Théodose, daughter of fellow Acadian Amand-Paul Gautreaux, at Ascension in July 1794.  Their son Joseph, fils was born at St.-Gabriel in September 1798, Augustin in August 1800, and Edouard in March 1803.  Their daughters married into the Dugas and Richard families.  Joseph died at St.-Gabriel in January 1803; he was only 32 years old.  His three sons and one of his daughters moved to the western prairies not long after his death.  His other daughter remained at St. Gabriel.  

2

Olivier, born at St.-Gabriel in c1773, married Marine, daughter of fellow Acadian Firmin Landry, at St. Gabriel in May 1796.  Their son Pierre le jeune was born at St.-Gabriel in October 1798, Alexis in March 1809, Olivier Martin in August 1811 but died at age 1 in September 1812, and Louis Augustin died a day after his birth in September 1813.  They also had a son named Leufroi, though he may have been the same child as Pierre le jeune.  Their daughters married into the Boush, Hébert, LeBlanc, and Marrionneaux families.  His descendants remained on the river.  

2a

Leufroi married Marie Adveline, called Adveline, daughter of Anglo-American Bartholomew Hamilton of St. Gabriel, at the Donaldson church, Ascension Parish, in March 1821; Adveline's mother was a Dupuis.  A child, perhaps a son, name unrecorded, died in Ascension Parish a month after its birth in June 1822, Leufroi, fils, also called Émile, was born in November 1823 but died at age 10 in April 1833, Octavius Constantin, called Octave, was born in February 1826, Ferdinand Numa, called Numa, in January 1828, and Joseph Edward, called J. Edward, in August 1830.  Leufroi remarried to Marie Élisabeth, called Élisabeth, daughter of fellow Acadian Jean Henry, at the Donaldsonville church in August 1836.  Their son Henri Cleopha was born in Ascension Parish in September 1839, and Jean Olivier, called Olivier, in April 1844.  

Octave, by his first wife, married Calliste, called Lisa, daughter of fellow Acadian Drosin Gravois, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in November 1848.  Their son Gratien Constantin was born near Convent in December 1849, Jacques Drosin in Ascension Parish in April 1851 but died at age 15 months in September 1852, Leufroi Hygin was born January 1854, Joachim Armand in March 1865, and Joseph Comes in September 1867.  

Numa, by his first wife, married Lutesia, daughter of fellow Acadian Destival LeBlanc, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in November 1851.  Their son Fostin Schuyler was born in Ascension Parish in February 1865.  

J. Edward, by his first wife, married Marie Emalise, daughter of fellow Acadian Tecomine Lanoux, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in November 1853. 

Olivier, by his second wife, married Estelle, daughter of fellow Acadian Lessin LeBlanc, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in January 1866.  Their son Jean Henry died 4 days after his birth in June 1867.  

2b

Alexis married Marie Azelie, called Azelie, daughter of fellow Acadian Paul Babin, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in November 1831. 

3

Youngest son Jean-Baptiste, baptized at St.-Gabriel, age unrecorded, in September 1779, died at age 6 in October 1785.

Other BRASSETs on the River

Area church and civil records make it difficult to link some Brassets on the river with known Acadian lines of the family:

In July 1860, the federal census taker in West Feliciana Parish counted 10 slaves--4 males and 6 females, age 60 to 18, living in 4 houses--on A. Braseux's farm in the parish's Sixth Ward, and 2 more slaves--a 46-year-old black female, and a 45-year-old mulatto female--on A. Braseux's farm nearby. 

Ursule Brasset gave birth to son Paul Émile in Ascension Parish in July 1865.  The priest who recorded the boy's baptism did not give the father's name.  

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

During the late 1760s or early 1770s, probably soon after their widowed mother, Élisabeth Thibodeaux, died at St.-Gabriel on the river, several Brasseur children, including Marie-Madeleine, Marie and her husband Hubert Janise, Blaise, Anne, and Marie-Rose, left St.-Gabriel, crossed the Atchafalaya Basin and settled in the Opelousas District.  Blaise married, had sons of his own, and created a western branch of the family.  

Marie-Madeleine married Victor, son of fellow Acadian Alexandre Richard, at Opelousas in the mid-1770s.  She died in St. Landry Parish in November 1809, in her early 60s.

Anne married Pierre, son of fellow Acadian Honoré Trahan, at Opelousas.  She died by 1788, when her husband was listed in an Opelousas census without a wife.

Marie-Rose married Charles, son of fellow Acadian Charles Jeansonne, at Opelousas in the late 1770s or early 1780s.  She may have died in St. Martin Parish in May 1861, over 100 years old.  

Descendants of Blaise BRASSEAUX (c1752-1820s)

Blaise, younger son of Cosme Brasseur dit Brasseux and Élisabeth Thibodeau, born probably at Grand-Pré in c1742, followed his family to Maryland in 1755.  He came to Louisiana in 1767 with his widowed mother and siblings and followed them to St.-Gabriel d'Iberville on the river above New Orleans.  Probably after his mother died, he and four of his sisters moved to the Opelousas District, where he married Marie-Anne, called Anne, daughter of fellow Acadian Amand Préjean, in the mid-1770s.  They settled in the Bellevue area of what became St. Landry Parish, south of today's city of Opelousas.  Their daughters married into the Landry, Prather, Richard, Smith, and Wood families.  Blaise's succession record was filed at the Opelousas courthouse in January 1822; he would have been 70 years old that year.  

1

Alexandre Blaise, born at Opelousas in February 1788, married Geneviève, daughter of French Creole Narcisse Carmouche, in a civil ceremony recorded in Pointe Coupee Parish in March 1816, so they must have lived along the upper Atchafalaya near the boundary between St. Landry and Pointe Coupee parishes.  Their son Narcisse was born in St. Landry Parish in April 1819, Martin in October 1827, Valmont in August 1829 but died at age 9 months in June 1830, Alexandre, fils in April 1831, and Alcée was born in January 1836.  Their daughters married into the Carmouche, Leonard, and Prewett or Prowet families.  Alexandre, père died by July 1838, when his succession record was filed at the Opelousas courthouse, St. Landry Parish; he would have been 50 years that year.  

1a

Narcisse married Oside Zulma, called Zulma, daughter of French Creole Jean Baptiste Leonard, at the Pointe Coupee church, Pointe Coupee Parish, in June 1844.  Their son Narcisse, fils was born in Pointe Coupee Parish in January 1840.  Narcisse, père died in Pointe Coupee Parish in June 1854; he was only 35 years old.  

1b

Alexandre, fils married French Creole Augustine Lavergne probably in Pointe Coupee Parish.  Their son Alexandre Lucien was born in Pointe Coupee Parish in January 1859 but died at age 1 1/2 in November 1860.  

 

2

Blaise, fils, baptized at Opelousas, age unrecorded, in May 1793, may have died young, unless he was Julien.  

3

Julien, born in c1794, married Julie, daughter of French Creole Baptiste Porché, in a civil ceremony recorded in Pointe Coupee Parish in 1816.  Their son Julien, fils was born in St. Landry Parish in December 1817, and Sosthène in July 1824.  Their daughter married into the Lavergne family.  They, too, must have lived near the boundary between St. Landry and Pointe Coupee parishes.  Julien died in St. Landry Parish in May 1860; he was 66 years old; his succession record was filed at the Opelousas courthouse later in the month.  

3a

Julien, fils married fellow Acadian Louise, called Lise, Landry in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in September 1841. Their son Reus Landry was born in St. Landry Parish in October 1843, Théoville in March 1845, Joseph in March 1850, Philemon near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in February 1852, Aristide in September 1853, Evariste Ducoudray near Opelousas in February 1856, and Raymond in September 1857.  

During the War Between the States, Reus, called Reul in Confederate records, served in Company K of the 29th (Thomas's) Regiment Louisiana Infantry, a front-line unit raised in St. Landry Parish, that fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  He was captured and paroled at Vicksburg in July 1863.  

3b

Sosthène married Suzette, daughter of French Creole Joseph Reaux, at the Grand Coteau church, St. Landry Parish, in February 1850; Suzette's mother was a Thibodeaux.  Their son Sosthène, fils was born in St. Landry Parish in August 1855, Onile in August 1859, and Ernest in August 1861. 

4

Caliste, perhaps a twin, baptized at Opelousas, age unrecorded, in July 1795, also may have died young, unless he was Julien.  

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In the early 1800s, three Brasseaux brothers from the river joined their cousins on the western prairies and settled in Lafayette Parish.  They substantially increased the size of the western branch of the family:

Descendants of Joseph BRASSEAUX, fils (1798-1840s)

Joseph, fils, eldest son of Joseph Brasseaux and Théodose Gautreaux, born at St.-Gabriel on the river in September 1798, crossed the Atchafalaya Basin after her came of age and married Valiene, 15-year-old daughter of fellow Acadian Jean Dugas, at the Grand Coteau church, St. Landry Parish, in January 1822.  They may have settled at Carencro.  Their daughters married into the Arceneaux family.  Joseph may have died in Lafayette Parish in August 1842; he would have been only 41 years old that year.  His succession record was not filed at the Vermilionville courthouse until December 1849.  

1

Oldest son Joseph, fils, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 4 months, in June 1827, may have died young.  

2

Aurelien, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 7 months, in December 1829, married Amelia or Aurelia, daughter of fellow Acadian Pierre Cormier, fils of Carencro, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in August 1848.  They probably settled at Carencro.  Their son Joseph was born near Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, in June 1849, Moïse in February 1853, and Pierre Neuville in January 1855.  Aurelien died in January 1863; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Aurelien was 23 years old when he died, but he was 34; his succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse the following March.  One wonders if, like his younger brother Octave, Aurelien died in Confederate service.  

3

Alcide, born in Lafayette Parish in April 1833, married Marie Félicee, called Félicie, 16-year-old daughter of fellow Acadian Leufroi Boudreaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in September 1850.  Their son Justinien was born in Lafayette Parish in October 1861, and Jean Euclide was born posthumously in February 1864.  Alcide died in January 1864; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Alcide was 26 years old when he died, but he was 30.  One wonders if, like his younger brother Octave, Alcide died in Confederate service.  

4

Euclide, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 5 months, in July 1835, died at age 8 in September 1843.  

5

Octave was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 2 months, in July 1839.  During the War Between the States, Octave served in Company F of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, a front-line unit raised in Lafayette Parish that fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  Octave enlisted in October 1861 but did not survive the war.  He was severely wounded in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, fell into Federal hands, and died in U.S. General Hospital Number 4 at Louisville, Kentucky, the following June.  He was only 23 years old.  His succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse, Lafayette Parish, in September 1863.  

6

Olivier, born in Lafayette Parish in November 1841, died at age 2 months the following January.  

Descendants of Auguste or Augustin BRASSEAUX (1800-1862)

Auguste or Augustin, second son of Joseph Brasseaux and Théodose Gautreaux, born at St.-Gabriel on the river in August 1800, followed his older brother and a sister to the western prairies and married Susanne, daughter of French Canadian François Primeaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in October 1825.  They moved south to the Abbeville area of Vermilion Parish by the 1840s.  Their daughter married into the Desormeaux family.  In October 1850, the federal census taker in Vermilion Parish counted 6 slaves--2 males and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 30 to 5--on Auguste Brasseux's farm in Ward Two of the parish's western district.  Auguste died near Abbeville in November 1862; he was 62 years old.  

1

Oldest son Aladin, born in Lafayette Parish in May 1828, married Belzire, daughter of fellow Acadian Don Louis Broussard of Lafayette Parish, at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, in March 1856. 

2

Joachim, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 8 months, in June 1830, married fellow Acadian Aurelia Broussard.  Their son Gustave le jeune was born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in March 1856. 

3

Adrien, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 7 months, in December 1839, married fellow Acadian Azéma Trahan at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, in February 1858.  Their son Cleopha was born near Abbeville in February 1859, and Osea in April 1861.  

4

Joseph le jeune, born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in September 1845, married French Creole Marie Sylvanie Langlinais at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, between April and September 1864. 

5

Youngest son Gustave was born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in January 1851.  

Descendants of Édouard BRASSEAUX (1803-1855)

Édouard, third and youngest son of Joseph Brasseaux and Théodose Gautreaux, born at St.-Gabriel on the river in March 1803, followed his older brothera and a sister to the western prairies and married Arsene, also called Jacinte, another daughter of Jean Dugas, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in July 1826.  In November 1850, the federal census taker in St. Martin Parish counted a single slave--a 30-year-old black male--on Edouard Brusseus's farm; this may have been Édouard Brasseaux.   Edouard died in Lafayette Parish in April 1855; the priest who recorded his burial said that Edouard was 50 years old when he died, but he was 52; his succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse the following June.  

1

Older son Adam, baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 15 days, in February 1836, married Alida, daughter of French Creole Narcisse Begnaud, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in June 1856.  Adam died by March 1863, when his succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse; he would have been only 27 years old  that year.  One wonders if he died in Confederate service.  

2

Younger son Pierre was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 2 months, in May 1839.  During the War Between the States, Pierre served as a sergeant, private, and corporal in Company F of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, a front-line unit raised in Lafayette Parish that fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and in Company I of the Consolidated 18th Regiment and Yellow Jackets Battalion Louisiana Infantry, which fought in Louisiana.  Pierre enlisted in October 1861 and was appointed fourth sergeant of his company.  After the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, he reported sick "to the interior" and served as a nurse at Jackson, Mississippi, for the next several months.  He was reduced to the ranks in August 1862 and captured at the Battle of Labadieville, in Assumption Parish, the following October.  He was back with his company in January 1863 but was absent sick again two months later, this time in a hospital at New Iberia.  He was promoted to second corporal in the summer of 1863 and to first corporal a few months later.  He was still with his unit in early 1864 and probably fought in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864. 

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Other BRASSEAUXs on the Western Prairies

Area church and civil records make it difficult to link some Brasseauxs in the western parishes with known Acadian lines of the family there:

Laurement Brasseaux married Joasin Prevaux, probably Joachim Prevost, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in April 1835.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Laurement probably was a dite. 

B. Thomas Brasseaux married Catherine Eveline Lebleu.  Their son Neuville Thomas was born in St. Landry Parish in January 1856.  

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

In 1785, two unmarried Brasseur sisters, one of them already in her middle age, came to Louisiana from France on La Bergère, the second of the Seven Ships.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche:

Marie Brasseur, age 37 when she crossed, married Olivier, son of fellow Acadian Jean Trahan and widower of Élisabeth Lejeune, at Lafourche in January 1788.  Olivier also had crossed on La Bergère.  They remained on the upper bayou.  Marie did not give him any more children.  

Osite, Marie's younger sister, age 24 when she crossed, lived with her older sister and her brother-in-law and did not marry.  Osite died at Assumption in February 1799, in her late 30s. 

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Several Brasset/Brasseaux families appeared in the Bayou Lafourche valley by the 1830s.  Church and civil records make it difficult to link them to known Acadian lines of the family.  After the 1840s, they disappear from the valley:

Joseph Brasseaux married Eulalie LeBlanc and settled in Lafourche Interior Parish by the early 1830s. 

Jean Brasseaux married Delphine Forgeron and also settled in Lafourche Interior Parish by the early 1830s.  How was Jean kin to Joseph, and how were they kin to the other Brasset/Brasseauxs of South Louisiana?

Marie Ludivine Brasset married Reuben Bush at the Thibodaux church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in June 1844.  The priest who recorded the marriage did not give Marie's parents' names.  The June 1844 ceremony must have been a blessing of a union that already existed, because Marie Ludivine died in Lafourche Interior Parish the day before her "marriage"!  

CONCLUSION

Mathieu Brasseur dit La Citardy created a large family in Acadia, but only a few of his descendants emigrated to Louisiana, from Maryland in 1767 and 1769, and from France in 1785.  The Acadian Brasset/Brasseauxs of South Louisiana are descended from the two sons of Cosme Brasseur dit Brasseux and Éisabeth Thibodeau, Pierre and Blaise, who came with their widowed mother from Maryland in 1767.  Older brother Pierre settled on the river at St.-Gabriel, and younger brother Blaise moved to the Opelousas District and started a western branch of the family.  During the early antebellum period, the western branch was supplemented by three Brasset brothers, grandsons of Pierre, who left the river and settled in Lafayette Parish.  One Brasseaux family from St. Landry Parish either moved into the French-Creole enclave of Pointe Coupee Parish or lived on the upper Atchafalaya River near the boundary of St. Landry and Pointe Coupee parishes.  Others moved west to the Church Point area of present-day Acadia Parish, or south to the area around Abbeville, Vermilion Parish.  While their western cousins spread out on the prairies, members of the eastern branch of the family moved downriver from St. Gabriel into Ascension and St. James parishes, though one of them may have moved upriver to West Feliciana Parish.  In 1785, two Brasseur sisters came to Louisiana from France and settled on upper Bayou Lafourche; one married, the other did not.  In the 1830s and 1840s, a few Brasseaux families appeared on Bayou Lafourche, but they did not remain there; area church and civil records do not reveal their relationship with known Acadian lines of the family in other parts of the region.  By the end of the antebellum period, members of the western branch of the family significantly outnumbered their cousins on the river.  

Area church and civil records reveal no Brasseurs in colonial Louisiana other than Acadian immigrants.  The Brassets and Brasseauxs of South Louisiana, then, except perhaps for the hand full in the Bayou Lafourche valley, were descendants of Mathieu Brasseur dit La Citardy of Minas. 

Judging by the number of slaves they owned during the late antebellum period, the Brasset/Brasseauxs on the river and on the western prairies participated only peripherally in the South's antebellum plantation economy.  Auguste Brasseaux of Vermilion Parish owned half a dozen slaves in 1850.  A decade later, no one in the family, either on the prairies or along the river, appeared on the 1860 federal slave schedules.  

Over a dozen Brasset/Brasseauxs served Louisiana in uniform during the War Between the States.  At least one of them died in Confederate service.  Octave, son of Joseph Brasseaux of Lafayette Parish, enlisted in Company F of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry in October 1861.  He was severely wounded in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, fell into enemy hands, and died in a Federal general hospital at Louisville, Kentucky, the following June.  He was only 23 years old.  Although Confederate service records cannot confirm it, the deaths of Octave's older brothers Aurelien and Alcide in January 1863 and January 1864, respectively, makes one wonder if they, too, were not fatalities of the conflict. ...

Dr. Carl Brasseaux, retired director of the Louisiana Studies Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the leading authority on Le Grand Dérangement and the Acadians in Louisiana, is a descendant of Cosme Brasseur dit Brasseux and his remarkable wife, Élisabeth Thibodeau. ...

The western members of the family spell their surname Brasseux or Brasseaux, while their relatives on the river favor Brasset.  The family's name in Louisiana also is spelled Baceaux, Bracet, Barfeux, Brakens, Braseau, Brasein, Braser, Braseau, Braseuse, Braseux, Brasoeur, Brasin, Brasio, Brasse, Brasseau, Brasseu, Brasseus, Brassieus, Brinsech, Bruset.  

Sources:  1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, St. Martin & Vermilion parishes; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, West Feliciana Parish; Arsenault, Généalogie, 1121-22, 1347, 1656, 2437-38; BRDR, vol. 1a(rev.), 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 52; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vols. 1, 2; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B, 2-C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>, Family Nos. 16, 27; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 34; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 161; White, DGFA-1, 267-70; White, DGFA-1 English, 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.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Anne BRASSEUR.

02.  Wall of Names, 12, calls him Blaise BRASSEUR; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2438.  See also De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 24.  

Arsenault, cited above, says he was born c1756, but the Opelousas census of 1777 says otherwise.  Arsenault also says that Blaise did not marry Anne until c1778, but the Opelousas census of 1777 lists them as married.

03.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Marguerite BRASSEUR; BRDR, 2:2a, 4a, 54, 141 (SGA-5, 28), her marriage record, calls her Marguerite BRASSEUR, "native of Maryland," calls her husband Paul BABIN, gives her & his parents' names, says his parents were "of St.-Famille Parish in Acadia," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Ignace BABIN [his brother], Joseph RICHARD, Pierre BRASSEUR [her father], & Louis LECOMTE; BRDR, 3:154 (SGA-8, 46), her death/burial record, calls her Marguerite BRASSET, age 50 yrs. wid. Paul BABIN, but does not give her parents' names.

Ste.-Famille Parish in Acadia was Pigiguit. 

04.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Marie BRASSEUR; BRDR, 2:141, 390 (ASC-1, 121), her marriage record, calls her Marie BRASSEUR, calls her husband Hubert JANNI, gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Hubert JANNI, Jean-Francois BERTEN, & Honoré TRAHAN; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:111, 431 (BRDA: Ascension Ch.: v.1, p.102), also her marriage record, calls her Marie BRASSEUX, calls her husband Hubert JANNI, gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Hubert JANNI & Jean-François BERTIN.  

Her husband's name was JANIS, more commonly spelled JANISE today.  

05.  Wall of Names, 31 (pl. 7R), calls her Marie BRASSEUR, & lists her with her sister; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 22-23, calls her Marie BRASSEUR, fille, age 35, on the embarkation list, Marie BRASSEUR, on the debarkation list, & Marie BRASSEUR, single woman, age 35, on the complete listing, says she was in the 51st Family aboard La Bergère with her sister, & lists the implements the Spanish gave to her & her sister after they reached LA; BRDR, 141, 707 (ASC-2, 12), her marriage record, calls her Maria BRASEUX, does not give her or her husband's parents' names but says all parents were Acadians, & that the to her marriage were Louis DESHORMAUX & Joseph THERIOT.  See also Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 41, 173.  

Her estimated birth year is based on the ages given in the LA censuses in which she is found, not in the age on the passenger list of La Bergère. 

Why did she wait so long to marry?  Most unusual for an Acadian woman.  Note that on the voyage to LA in 1785 she & her younger sister traveled on the same ship as Olivier TRAHAN, that their families in fact are on the passenger list one after the other.

06.  Wall of Names, 11, calls her Marie BRASSEUR; White, DGFA-1, 269, calls her Marie-Geneviève BRASSEUR, provides her birth/baptismal date, says her godparents were Mathieu BRASSEUR & Marie LEBLANC, details her marriages, places her at Upper Marlboro, MD, in Jul 1763, seul, or alone, & gives her second husband's succession record; <thecajuns.com/britania.htm>, "Passengers on the Ship 'Britania'", calls her Marie BRUSET; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:22, 111 (Opel. Ch.: v.1-A, p.22; LSAR: Opel.: 1788), the records of her second marriage, call her Marie BRASSEUX, wid. of OLIVIER, & wid. of Olivier BENOIT, gives her parents' names in the civil record, & says in the church record that the witnesses to her marriage were Blaise BRASSEUR [her nephew], Baptiste FIGURON, Joseph JEANSONNE, & Jean JEANSONNE; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:50, 110, 111 (LSAR: Opel.: 1787; LSU Archives: Opel. #3)), her husbands' succession records, call her Marie BRASSEUX; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-A:27 (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.128), her death/burial record, calls her Widow AUCOIN, says she was "age about 85 yrs." when she died, but does not give her parents' names.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 156; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5.  

Arsenault, Généalogie, 2416-17, says that Olivier BENOIT's children were from his first marriage to Suzanne BOUDREAUX, not from Marie-Geneviève BRASSEAUX, which makes sense in light of the Jul 1763 record in MD.  The marriage record of Magdeleine BENOIT, daughter of Pierre-Olivier BENOIT "of Canada" & Susanne BUDRO "of Canada," dated 16 Sep 1787, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:49 (SM Ch.: v.4, #9), confirms this. 

07.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Marie-Madeleine BRASSEUR; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2576, says that Victor RICHARD married Marie-Madeleine BRASSEAUX in c1772; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:103 (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.104), her death/burial record, calls her (presumably Marie) BRASSEUX, wid. of Victor RICHARD, "age about 60 yrs.," but does not give her parents' names.  See also De Ville, Mississippi Valley Mélange, 1: 40.  

Arsenault also says that Marie-Madeleine BRASSEAUX was sans doute daughter of Mathieu BRASSEAUX & Anne-Marie PITRE.  However, there is very much doubt that this Marie BRASSEAUX was Mathieu's and not Cosme's daughter.  In the baptismal record of son Alexandre RICHARD, the mother is called Marie-Magdelaine BRASSEUR, but unfortunately the record lists no grandparents.  The same holds true for the baptismal record of son Jean-Baptiste RICHARD.  But this record gives us a clue when it says that the baby's sponsors were Blaise BRASSEAUX & Marie TIBODO.  Blaise was the son of Cosme BRASSEUR dit BRASSEUX & Élisabeth THIBODEAUX.  Blaise had an older  sister named ... Marie-Madeleine.  In the birth records of son Joseph & daughter Julie RICHARD, the mother is called simply Marie BRASEUSE.  No more clues are found in the baptismal & marriage records of their other children.  However, based on the connection with Blaise BRASSEAUX & the THIBODEAUXs, I conclude that Victor RICHARD's Marie was the daughter of Cosme & Élisabeth, not his brother Mathieu & Anne-Marie, whose daughter does not seem to have come to LA anyway.  See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A: 657, 660-63.

Another clue to her correct identity is her burial record, which says she died "age about 60 yrs."  Marie-Madeleine, daughter of Cosme BRASSEUR dit BRASSEUX, was born at Grand-Pré in Oct 1746, so she would have been 63 years old in Nov 1809.  This is our girl.  

08.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Marie-Marguerite BRASSEUR.

What happened to her in LA?  Did she follow her siblings to the Opelousas District after her mother's death?  Did she ever marry?

09.  Wall of Names, 12, calls her Marie-Rose BRASSEUR; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2517, says that Charles JEANSONNE married Marie-Rose BRASSEAUX in c1775; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 7:56 (SM Ch.: v.5, p.273), perhaps her death/burial record, calls her Rose BRASSEUX, does not give her parents' names or mention a husband, & says she was 100 years old when she died.  See also De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 24.  

The Opelousas census of 1777 says that Charles JEANSONNE was still a bachelor, so he did not marry Marie-Rose in c1775

If she did die in May 1861, she would have been closer to 106 when she died!

10.  Wall of Names, 31 (pl. 7R), calls her Ozite BRASSEUR sa [Marie BRASSEUR's] soeur, & lists her with her sister; Hébert, D., Acadian Familes in Exile 1785, 22-23, calls her Ozite, sa [Marie BRASSEUR's] soeur, age 24, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Ozite BRASSEUR, her [Marie BRASSEUR's] sister, age 24, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 51st Family aboard La Bergère with her sister; BRDR, 2:142 (ASM-3, 19), her death/burial record, calls her Osa BRASOEUR, age 35 years, gives her parents' names, says they both were deceased & natives of Acadia, but mentions no husband.

One wonders why she never married.  

11.  Wall of Names, 12, calls him Pierre BRASSEUR; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2437, says he was born in c1753; BRDR, 2:141 (ASC-4, 17), his death/burial record, calls him Pedro BRASEAU, husband of Isabel RICHARD of Iberville, but does not give his parents' names or his age when he died.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 429, 432; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5.  

A Joseph BRASSEUR, son of Cosme BRASSEUR & Élizabet THIBAUDAU, was born & baptized at Grand-Pré on 3 Sep 1742.  See BRDR, 1a(rev.):40 (SGA-3, 16s).  Was this Pierre?  Was his name actually Joseph-Pierre or Pierre-Joseph?  The ages for him in the Spanish report of 1767 and the St.-Gabriel census of 1777, a decade apart, are consistent in giving him an estimated birth year of c1742.  

Judging from the Spanish report of 1767 & the age of his daughter in 1777, Arsenault's date for his marriage, c1773, is dead wrong. 

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