APPENDICES

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

DE LA FORESTRIE

[dee-lah-FAR-es-tree]

ACADIA

Joseph LaForest, born at Angers, France, in c1690, reached St.-Pierre-du-Nord on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in c1722.  He was one of the earliest European settlers on the island.  In c1726, he married Marie, daughter of Guyon Chiasson dit La Vallée of Chignecto and widow of Jean Pothier.  They had three sons, all born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, but only one of them seems to have fathered sons of his own:  

Oldest son Étienne, born in c1727, probably died young.

Joseph, fils, born in June 1728, married Susanne, daughter of Pierre Robichaud of Cobeguit, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in July 1753.  Susanne gave him a daughter, Anne, born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in August 1754, before she died.  In  November 1756, Joseph, fils remarried to Marie-Anne, daughter of Jean-Baptiste-Abel Duvivier, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord.  She gave him another daughter, Marie-Madeleine, born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in December 1757.  

Youngest son Jean, born in c1732, married Marie-Madeleine, daughter of Pierre Bonniere, in November 1752.  Jean and Marie-Madeleine had five daughters but no sons. 

A French census taker counted the LaForests at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in 1752.  Joseph, père had died by then.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

When Le Grand Dérangement erupted in the fall of 1755, the Acadians on Île St.-Jean, living in French territory, escaped the British roundup in Nova Scotia.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  After the fall of the French stronghold at Louisbourg in July 1758, the victorious British rounded up most of the Acadians on Île St.-Jean and deported them to France.  Joseph, fils, his second wife, and his two daughters, Anne and Marie-Madeleine, reached St.-Malo, France, from "other ports" in 1760.  They settled at Plouër, near St.-Malo, where Marie-Anne died by 1761, when Joseph remarried again at nearby LaGouesniere in August 1761.  His third wife was Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of Pierre Duboscq of Rouen.  The Duboscqs also had lived on Île St.-Jean and endured the deportation to France.  Madeleine gave Joseph at least four more children, most of them born at Plouër:  son Jean-Charles-Joseph, born in January 1763, twins Jean-Joseph and Jeanne-Charlotte, born in April 1766, and son Joseph, born in June 1777 at Rochefort.  Jean-Joseph died in August 1766, only three months old.  

Meanwhile, Joseph's younger brother Jean, age 28, whose surname was spelled La Foresterie on the passenger list, his wife Marie-Madeleine, age 25, and their daughters Jeanne, age 5, Marie-Rosalie, age 4, and Marguerite, age 6 months, also endured the crossing to France, aboard one of the five English transports that left the Gut of Canso in late November and reached St.-Malo in late January 1759.  Jean, Marie-Madeleine, and two of their three daughters survived the terrible crossing, but infant daughter Marguerite died at sea.  In France, two more daughters, twins Angélique-Madeleine-Marie and Renée-Laurence, were born to them in January 1760 at Plouër, where they settled near Jean's older brother Joseph and his family.  Angélique survived childhood, but her twin, Renée-Laurence, died at only 10 days old.  Jean's oldest daughter Jeanne married Joseph, son of Charles Hébert, at Plouër in July 1772.  Jean's wife Marie-Madeleine died by 1773, when he remarried to Michelle, daughter of Frenchman Julien Herve, at Plouër in February of that year.  Michelle gave him two more daughters and three sons, most of whom died young:  Paul-Michel, baptized at St.-Similien, Nantes, in January 1776, died at age 4 1/2 and was buried at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, near Nantes, in June 1780, Marie-Madeleine, baptized at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in May 1778, died at age 14 months and was buried at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in July 1779, Jean-Michel was baptized at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in June 1780, Jean-Marie-Michel, born in c1783 probably in Chantenay, died at age 6 1/2 and was buried at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in June 1780, and Marie-Adélaïde was baptized at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in September 1785.  

In 1773, soon after his second marriage, Jean, his new wife, his two unmarried daughters by his first wife, Marie-Rosalie and Angélique, and daughter Jeanne and her family, joined dozens of fellow Acadians at La Leigne-les-bois in Poitou.  Joseph and his family did not join them in Poitou.  The La Leigne-les-bois venture, in which French authorities attempted to settle Acadians from the coastal cities on marginal land owned by an influential nobleman, failed after two miserable years of effort.  Most of the Poitou Acadians, including Jean and his family, retreated with other Acadian families to the port city of Nantes, where they survived as best they could on government handouts.  Marie-Rosalie married Michel, son of Pierre Aucoin of Rivière-aux-Canards, at Nantes in July 1779.  Angélique married Moïse, son of Jean-Baptiste LeBlanc, at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay in November 1780.  By then the family name had evolved from LaForest  and LaForestrie to De La Forestrie. 

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Joseph De La Forestrie and his third wife, as well as brother Jean and his second wife, chose to remain in France.  Not so Jean's married daughters.  

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

The De La Forestrie sisters followed their husbands to Louisiana aboard two of the Seven Ships of 1785--Angélique and her family on the third ship, Le Beaumont, which reached New Orleans in August, and Jeanne and Marie-Rosalie and their families on the fourth ship, Le St.-Rémi, which arrived in September.  All three families chose to go to upper Bayou Lafourche. 

Angélique may not even have survived the crossing to Louisiana. 

Jeanne's husband, Joseph Hébert, died by January 1788, when she was listed in the Valenzuéla census as a widow.  She remarried to Sébastien, son of Augustin Benoit, at Lafourche in August 1789.  She died by December 1795, when her husband was counted at Valenzuéla without a wife.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

A French Creole family with a similar name lived in New Orleans and on Bayou Lafourche:

Jacques-Pierre-Auguste-Aubin De La Forest married Félicité Mazange.  Their son Antoine-Aubin, born in New Orleans, married Louise, daughter fellow French Creole Pierre Lazeaux of New Orleans, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in April 1836. 

CONCLUSION

No male De La Forestrie ventured to Louisiana, so the Acadian branch of the family did not take root in the Bayou State.  Its blood did survive, however, in several lines of the Aucoin, Hébert, and LeBlanc families.

The family's name also is spelled De La Foresterie, De La Foreterie, La Folesterie, La Foretrie, La Foretterie, and should not be confused with the prominent Acadian family, the Forests or Forets.  

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2120-21; BRDR, vol. 2; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vol. 1; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 86; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 57-58; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 51-52; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 259-62, 899, 901.

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, 33 (pl. 8R), calls her Angélique DE LA FORESTERIE, & lists her with her husband, 2 children, & a cousin of her husband; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2121, profile for her father in the Île St.-Jean section, does not list her with sisters Jeanne, Marie-Rosalie, & Marguerite; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 260, Family No. 320, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Angélique-Madeleine-Marie DE LA FORESTRIE (twin), gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, that her godparents were Charles (illegible) & Angélique FURET [FORET?], & that her twin was sister Reyne-Laurence, who died 10 days after her birth; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 52, Family No. 98, calls her Angélique DE LA FORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, details her birth, her family's participation in the Leigne-les-bois settlement in Poitou in the early 1770s, & her marriage; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 117, Family No. 216, calls her Angélique DE LA FORESTRIE, details her birth, gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, his birth date, & birthplace, says she was "resident since 18 months in the Parish of Saint-Martin of Chantenay" at the time of her marriage, says her husband was a resident of Chantenay at the time of the marriage, includes the birth/baptismal records of daughter Marie-Josèphe LEBLANC, baptized 15 Jan 1782, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, & son Jean-Martin LEBLANC, baptized 11 Nov 1783, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, & details the family's voyage to LA in 1785;  Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 36-37, calls her Angélique DE LA FORESTERIE, sa [Moïse LEBLANC's] femme, age 24, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Angélique DE LA FORESTERIE, his [Moïse LEBLANC's] wife, age 24, on the complete listing, says she was in the 24th Family on the embarkation list of Le Beaumont with her husband, 2 children, & a female cousin of her husband, & details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, but does not give the place of marriage.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 503.

Why are she & her family not on the debarkation list of Le Beaumont?  Her husband & 2 children, with his new wife, appear in the Ascension census of 1788.  See Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 46.  Did Angélique survive the crossing to LA?  If I find evidence that she did not, despite her inclusion in Wall of Names I will remove her from this list.  

02.  Wall of Names, 36 (pl. 9L), calls her Jeanne DE LA FORESTRIE, & lists her with her husband & 5 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2121, profile for her father in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Jeanne LAFORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, says she was born in 1753 but gives no birthplace, & lists only 2 other siblings, sisters Marie-Rosalie, born in 155, & Marguerite, born in 1758, but gives no places of birth; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 86, shows that in the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, her parents & sister Marie-Rose survived the crossing, but sister Marguerite, age 6 months, died at sea; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 260-61, Family No. 260, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Jeanne DE LA FORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, & details her arrival in France in Jan 1759 as well as her marriage; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 468-69, Family No. 522, calls her Jeanne DE LAFORESTRIE, details her birth, gives her parents' names, details her first marriage, & includes the birth/baptismal record of son Joseph-Marie HÉBERT, born & baptized 21 Jul 1773, Plouër, godson of Jean DE LAFORESTRIE [her father] & Osite HÉBERT [her husband's sister]; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 57-58, Family No. 113, called her Jeanne DE LA FORESTRIE, details her birth, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, includes the birth/baptismal record of son Charles HÉBERT, baptized 27 May 1775, St.-Jacques, Châtellerault, godson of Charles HÉBERT, paternal uncle, & Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, maternal aunt, & details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 92-93, Family No. 172, calls her Jeanne DE LA FORESTRIE, says she was born in 1753 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, including her husband's parent's names, but does not give a place of marriage, includes the birth/baptismal records of daughter Marie-Rose HÉBERT, baptized 20 Feb 1777, St.-Similien, Nantes, son Louis-Jean HÉBERT, baptized 9 Jun 1779, St.-Similien, Nantes, & daughter Anne-Marguerite HÉBERT, baptized 3 Mar 1785, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, & details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s as well as their voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadians Families in Exile 1785, 48-49, calls her Jeanne DE LA FORESTRIE, sa [Joseph HÉBERT's] feme, age 30, on the embarkation list, & Jeanne DE LA FORESTERIE, his [Joseph HÉBERT's] wife, age 30, on the complete listing, says she was in the 28th Family aboard Le St.-Rémi with her husband & 5 children, details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, but does not give a place of marriage, & says son Charles [HÉBERT] was born in 1775 but gives no birthplace; BRDR, 2:72, 293 (ASC-2, 21), the record of her second marriage, calls her Juana DE LA FORET, calls her husband Sébastian BENOIST, gives her & his parents' names, does not mention her first husband, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Pierre LANDRY, Françoise LANDRY, & Théodore BOURQUE.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 499; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 30, 161.  

The family just above hers on the passenger list of Le St.-Rémi is that of her younger sister Marie-Rosalie.  

The Spanish census taker at Ascension in 1791 called her Jeanne HÉBERT probably because of who her first husband had been.  

03.  Wall of Names, 36 (pl. 9L), calls her Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, & lists her with her husband & 2 daughters; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2121, profile for her father in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Marie-Rosalie LA FORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, says she was born in 1755 but gives no birthplace, & lists only 2 other siblings, sisters Jeanne, born in 1753, & Marguerite, born in 1758, but gives no places of birth; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No.86, shows the fate of her family in the crossing to St. Malo in 1758-59, detailed in the footnote for her sisters Jeanne's profile, above; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 260-61, Family No. 260, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, &, calls her Marie-Rose [DE LA FORESTRIE], details her arrival in France in Jan 1759; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 51-52, Family No. 98, calls her Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, gives her parents' names, details her birth, her family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s, & her marriage; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 7, Family No. 13, calls her Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, details her birth, gives her parents' names, says her mother was her father's first wife, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, says she was a former resident of the Parish of Saint-Similien & was resident of the Parish of Sainte-Croix at the time of her marriage, includes the birth/baptismal & death/burial records of daughter Marie-Françoise AUCOIN, baptized 1 Apr 1780, Ste.-Croix, Nantes, daughter Louise-Adélaïde AUCOIN, baptized 27 Sep 1781, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, died age 1 & buried 21 Sep 1782, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, & daughter Rosalie AUCOIN, baptized 10 Apr 1784, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, & details his family's voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 48-49, calls her Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, age 29, on the embarkation list, Marie-Rosalie DE LA FORESTRIE, age 29, on the complete listing, says she was in the 27th Family aboard Le St.-Rémi with her husband & 2 daughters, details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, but does not include the place of marriage, & says child Rosalie [AUCOIN] was baptized in 1784 but gives no place of baptism. 

The family just below hers on the passenger list of Le St.-Rémi is that of her older sister Jeanne.

[top of page DE LA FORESTRIE]

Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier