APPENDICES

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

DEROCHE

[day-RAWSH]

ACADIA

Two brothers, Louis and Julien DesRoches of Avranches, Normandy, arrived in Acadia in c1731 and settled at Malpèque on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island.  In the year of his arrival, Louis married Marguerite, daughter of Pierre Arseneau, probably at Malpèque.  They had at least eight children, including three sons, all born probably on Île St.-Jean:  Eustache in c1736, Alexandre in c1740; and Joseph in c1743.  

Brother Julien married another Arseneau, Marie, daughter of Jacques, probably at Malpèque in c1743.  They had at least six children, sons born probably at Malpèque:  Julien, fils in c1745, Félix in c1747, Joseph in c1750, Jean in c1754, Basile in c1755, and Mathurin in c1756.  

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A second Desroches family, probably no kin to Louis and Julien, lived on Île St.-Pierre, an island off the southern coast of Newfoundland.  Antoine Desroches, born in c1722, married Marguerite Desaleur.  Their son Antoine was born on Île St.-Pierre in c1774.  No member of this family emigrated to Louisiana. 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Le Grand Dérangement of the 1750s scattered the brothers DesRoches and their families to the winds:

Living in territory controlled by France, the DesRochess of Île St.-Jean escaped the British roundup of the Acadians in the fall of 1755.  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.  But not the DesRochess.  They evidently were among the relatively few Acadians who escaped from the island and avoided capture. 

Basile, young son of Julien DesRoches of Île St.-Jean, probably became separated from his parents during or after the escape from Île St.-Jean and found refuge on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore in present-day eastern New Brunswick.  By the early 1760s, he probably was being held as a prisoner of war in Nova Scotia, watched over, perhaps, by Charles Savoie and his second wife Judith Arseneau, a cousin--the couple who took him to Louisiana.  ...

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Basile DesRoches of Île St.-Jean came to Louisiana from Halifax via St.-Dominigue, today's Haiti, in 1765 and followed the family of Charles Savoie to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  Basile was counted with the Savoies on the left bank of the river at Cabanocé in 1766, age 12.  In 1777, still living on the left bank, he was an engagé with the family of German Creole André Oubre.  The following year, at age 24, Basile married a young widow from another German Creole family.  They remained at St.-Jacques.  In 1801, in his late 40s, still at St.-Jacques, Basile remarried to another widow from the German Coast, but they did not remain on the river.

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

In the early 1800s, Basile DesRoches and his family moved from St.-Jacques to Bayou Lafourche, where his only son came of age and married.  The Acadian Deroches of South Louisiana are descended from Basile, his son Pierre, and Pierre's many sons:  

Descendants of Basile DEROCHE (c1754-?)

Basile, son of Julien DesRoches and Marie Arseneau, born probably at Malpèque, Île St.-Jean, in c1755, became separated from his parents as a child, perhaps orphaned by Le Grand Dérangement, and ended up in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nova Scotia in the early 1760s.  He came to Louisiana with relatives in 1765 and followed them to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river, where he married German Creole Marie Edelmayre, widow of Louis ____lante, in September 1778.  Their daughters married into the Barbier and Boudreaux families.  Basile remarried to Marguerite, daughter of Mathurin Legant or Legau of St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands on the upper German Coast, at St.-Jacques in November 1801.  During the early antebellum period, he settled in Lafourche Interior Parish. 

Pierre, by his first wife, born probably at St.-Jacques in the 1790s, married Pélagie, daughter of French Creole Joseph Baye, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in September 1821; Pélagie's mother was a Vincent.  Their son Pierre Antoine, called Antoine, was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in January 1823, François in July 1830, Eusilien Omere in September 1835, Émile Théodule in August 1840, and Léonard Banon or Banon Léonard in October 1845.  They also had a son named Joseph and may have had a son named Florian.  Their daughter married into the Aucoin family.  Pierre's sons settled in Terrebonne Parish.  

Antoine married French Creole Marie Eve Trosclair in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in September 1848.  Their daughters married into the Bourg and Dantin families.  

Joseph married Marie Adeline, called Adeline, daughter of fellow Acadian Stanislas Boudreaux, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in August 1854.  Their son Joseph Onésime was born in Terrebonne Parish in February 1858, Pierre Théodule in February 1860, and Jean Joseph Prosper near Montegut in January 1870. 

Florian married Spanish Creole Joséphine Rivas.  Their son Amédée Antoine, called Antoine, was born near Raceland, Lafourche Parish, in March 1855 but died at age 1 1/2 in September 1856.  

François married fellow Acadian Rosalie Boudreaux in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in June 1862.  Their son Jean Baptiste Osémé had been born in Terrebonne Parish in November 1861, Jean Olesipe was born in February 1864, and Victorin Pierre Joseph near Montegut in March 1869.  

Eusilien Omere married Scholastique Victoire Victorine, daughter of French Creole Jérôme Dupré of Terrebonne Parish, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in June 1862; Scholastique's mother was an Aucoin. 

Banon Léonard married Armelise, daughter of fellow Acadian Leufroi Thibodeaux, at the Montegut church, Terrebonne Parish, in February 1866. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Frenchmen and perhaps a Spaniard with similar-sounding surnames lived in South Louisiana during the colonial and antebellum periods: 

Pierre-François De Roche or Deroche married Catherine-Josèphe Guichard.  Their son Thomas was baptized at New Orleans, age 4 months, in November 1733, and André was born at Pointe-Coupée in June 1737.  They also had a son named Simon, born at New Orleans.  Simon married Marguerite, daughter of Barthélemy Robert; she also was a native of New Orleans.  Their daughter Marguerite was born in the city in July 1795.  

Marianne, a former resident of Natchez, daughter of Evra Deroche and Marie Johanne of Alson, Diocese of Strasbourg, France, and widow of Jean Louis, married Mathurin Bouton at New Orleans in April 1741.  

Alexandre De Rochie drowned in Grand Prairie Coulee in the Opelousas District in January 1793.  

Marie Anne, daughter of André Deroche, Duroche, or Durocher, also called Castillian or Castillon, and Julie Faivre of New Orleans, married Florentin Janvier, son of Acadian Paul Dominique Boudreaux, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in June 1815.  Four years later, in February 1819, Marie Anne's sister Geneviève married François, fils, son of French Creole François Dubois, at Plattenville. 

Joseph Biu dit Desrocher married Anne Perron and was mentioned in her succession record, filed at the St. Martinville courthouse, St. Martin Parish, in November 1817. 

Toussaint, son of François Derocher and Marguerite St. Jean, married Ophelia Bergeron, probably a French Creole, not an Acadian, at the Plaquemine church, Iberville Parish, in December 1850.  Their son François had been born near Plaquemine in September 1850, and Oliver was born in March 1855.  Their daughters married into the Dwyer and Gilligmann families.  Toussaint remarried to Justine, daughter of Anglo-American John Corbet or Corbey, at the Plaquemine church in January 1857.  Their son Thomas was born near Plaquemine in May 1860. 

Bartholomé Castillon Deroche or Derochet, perhaps a Spanish Creole, died near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in May 1860.  He was 59 years old.  The priest who recorded his burial did not give Bartholomé's parents' names or mention a wife.  Joseph Deroche or Derochet, perhaps Bartholomé's son, married French Creole Célestine Matherne.  Their daughter Mary was born near Franklin, St. Mary Parish, in October 1856, and son Bartholomé le jeune near New Iberia in July 1861.  

CONCLUSION

Acadian Basile DesRoches of Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, came to Louisiana from Halifax via St.-Domingue in 1765 as an 10-year-old orphan.  He followed relatives to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans, where he married twice, both times to German Creole widows.  During the early antebellum period, he took his family to Bayou Lafourche, where his only son Pierre created a family of his own.  Pierre's six married sons moved down bayou to Terrebonne Parish, some of them settling in the Montegut area at the edge of the salt marshes, where they probably worked as trappers and fishermen.  All of the Acadian Deroches of South Louisiana, many of them still living in Terrebonne Parish, are descended from Basile, Pierre, and Pierre's many sons. 

Meanwhile, during the colonial period, French Creoles with similar-sounding surnames lived at New Orleans, Pointe Coupée, and on the Opelousas prairie.  During the late antebellum period, non-Acadian Deroches or Derochets lived on lower Bayou Teche, and a Derocher family, perhaps Foreign French, lived in Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes.  The numbers of these non-Acadian families, however, did not approach that of the Acadian Deroches down in Terrebonne despite the relatively small size of that family compared to many other Acadian families.  

No Deroche or Derocher appears as an owner on the slave schedules compiled by the federal census bureau in 1850 and 1860.  So these families participated only peripherally in the South's antebellum plantation economy. 

No descendant of Basile DesRoches appears in Louisiana or Confederate service records during the War Between the States.  However, four Desroches, either French Creoles or Foreign French, three of them probably brothers, do appear on Louisiana unit rosters.  ...

In Louisiana, the Acadian family's name evolved from DesRoches to Deroche.  The family's name also is spelled De Roche, Des Roches, Duracheor, Duroche, Durocher, Durochet.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 1688, 2086, 2188, 2298, 2471; BRDR, vols. 1b, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 2-A, 6, 7; NOAR, vols. 1, 5, 7.

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, 25, calls him Basil DESROCHES orphelin, & lists him with the family of Charles SAVOIE; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2471, calls him Basile DESROCHES, gives his birth year, & says his parents probablement were Louis & Marguerite ARCENEAUX of Île St.-Jean; BRDR, 2:237, 274 (SJA-1, 49), the record of his first marriage record, calls him [Basil] DEROCHE, calls his parents Jullien [DE ROCHE] & Marguerite-Marie "illegible of Acadia," does not give his wife's parents' names, calls her first husband "Louis ... PLANTE," & says the witnesses to his marriage were Antoine ST. JACQUES & André HOUWER; BRDR, 2:237, 490 (SJA-2, 56), the record of his second marriage, calls him Basilio DE ROCHE, "widower of Marie EDLEMERE," calls his parents Julien [DE ROCHE] & Marie ARCENAUX of Acadia, gives his wife's parents' names & former husband's name, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Joseph Lucas de las LLANAS, Joseph BABIN, & Miguel Estevan JUTEAU.

Charles SAVOIE's wife was Judith ARCENEAUX, probably a cousin of Basile on his mother's side.  I am following Basile's marriage records, not Arsenault, for the identification of his parents. 

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Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier