APPENDICES

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

COUSIN

[koo-ZANH, KOO-zan]

ACADIA

François Cousin married Isabelle Lafont of St.-André, Bordeaux, France, probably at Plaisance, Newfoundland, in c1690.  They had only two children, a daughter and another child whose gender was unrecorded.  Francois died probably at Plaisance by September 1710, when Isabelle remarried.

Jean Cousin, son of Guy Cousin of Dol, Brittany, France, probably no kin to François, was born in Brittany in c1716.  He reached Acadia by November 1737, when he married Judith, 16-year-old daughter of Paul Guidry and Anne Mius d'Azit, at Grand-Pré.  Jean and Judith settled near her family at Ministigueshe, near Cap-Sable, where their daughter Marie-Blanche was born in c1748.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

During Le Grand Dérangement, the British deported Jean Cousin and his family to France.  In c1768, Marie-Blanche married fellow Acadian Michel Doucet probably at Le Havre.  In the early 1770s, the couple and three of their children were part of an attempt by French officials to settle Acadians from the coastal cities on a French nobleman's land near Châtellerault in the Poitou region.  When the venture failed after two years of effort, the Doucets retreated to the port city of Nantes with dozens of other Poitou Acadians.  

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Michel and Marie-Blanche jumped at the chance, but they almost did not make it.  They booked passage aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships that left France in 1785, but for some reason they did not cross on that vessel.  

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Blanche Cousin, age 37, husband Michel Doucet, age 45, and three of their children, ages 17, 12, and 9, crossed to Louisiana aboard La Caroline, the last of the Seven Ships of 1785, which did not reach New Orleans until December.  They chose to settle with a few other passengers from their ship at Nueva Gálvez or San Bernardo in what is now St. Bernard Parish, below New Orleans.  San Bernardo had been settled by Isleños from the Canary Islands six years before, and the population of the settlement remained largely Isleños even after a dozen Acadian families settled there.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Non-Acadian Cousins lived in Louisiana decades before an Acadian member of the family reached New Orleans and were still living in the city during the late colonial period: 

Pierre Cousin married Françoise Renard.  Their son Jean-François, called François, was born at New Orleans in September 1745.  François married Catherine Peche.  Their son François, fils was baptized at New Orleans, age unrecorded, in January 1786.  François, père remarried to Cesarea, daughter of Nicolas Ducre, at New Orleans in October 1800. 

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During the antebellum period, a Cousin from Paris married an Acadian and settled on the old Acadian Coast:

Decendants of Noël COUSIN (c1761-1839)

Noël Cousin of Paris married Acadian Pélagie Bourg.  They settled in Ascension Parish.  Their daughter married into the Rivet family.  Noël died in Ascension Parish in June 1839; he was 78 years old. 

Adolphe married Élizabeth, daughter of French Creole Louis Moreau, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in February 1840; Élizabeth's mother was a Babin.  Their son Louis Elphége was born in Ascension Parish in December 1840. 

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Cousins and Coussans, called Foreign French in South Louisiana, came to the Bayou State from France during the antebellum period.  Two of them settled on the western prairies:

Jean Coussan, a 26-year-old confectioner from France, reached New Orleans aboard the ship Crescent out of Le Havre, France, in May 1831. 

Césair Cousin, a 24-year-old merchant from France, reached New Orleans aboard the ship Salem out of Le Havre in November 1838. 

Christopher Cousin's succession record was filed at the Franklin courthouse, St. Mary Parish, in June 1849. 

Jacques Coussan "of France" married Hermose, daughter of French Creole François Terrence Begnaud, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in May 1859.  Their son, name unrecorded, died at birth in Lafayette Parish in May 1860, Jean Jacques was born in March 1861, and Ambroise in October 1862.  They were living near Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, in late 1864. 

CONCLUSION

Marie-Blanche Cousin was the only member of the Acadian branch of her family to settle in Louisiana.  The Cousins of South Louisiana, then, are not Acadians but French Creoles or Foreign French.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 1593; Brasseaux, Foreign French, 1:134; BRDR, vols. 1a(rev.), 5(rev.), 6, 7; NOAR, vols. 1, 4, 7; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 5, 6, 7; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 36-37; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 58; Voorhies, J. Some Late Eighteenth Century Louisianians, 505; White, DGFA-1, 427-28; White, DGFA-1 English, 95.

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, 46 (pl. 12R), calls her Marie-Blanche COUSIN, & lists her with her husband & 3 children; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 70-71, calls her Marie-Blanche COUSIN, sa [Michel DOUCET's] femme, age 37, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Marie-Blanche COUSIN, his [Michel DOUCET's] wife, age 37, on the complete listing, says she was in the 25th Family aboard L'Amitié with her husband & 3 children, details her marriage, including her but not her husband's parents' names, & says she & her husband were married in 1768 but gives no place of marriage.  

As the debarkation list of L'Amitié & the embarkation/debarkation lists of La Caroline reveal, she & her family sailed to LA on the later ship, not the earlier one.  Her going to San Bernardo is only a guess based on the fact that she is not in the census records at Ascension & the Lafourche valley in the 1780s & 1790s with other passengers from her ship, & that some passengers from her ship went to San Bernardo.  See <thecajuns.com/1785acad.pdf>.  Her husband was a sailor, so, if he continued in that profession, it would make sense that he would want to settle near the colony's only port.  Moreover, her husband died at Charity Hospital, New Orleans, in Sep 1792. 

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