APPENDICES

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

DUREL

[doo-REL]

ACADIA

Charles Lacroix dit Durel, born in c1705, son of Pierre Lacroix and Jeanne Deville of St.-Denis-Le-Gast, Coutances, France, came to Acadia by September 1730, when he married Judith, daughter of Gabriel Chiasson of Chignecto, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island.  Judith gave him a son and five daughters, all born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord:  twins Marie-Élisabeth and Marguerite, born in September 1731, Anne-Marie in January 1734, Judith in August 1736, Charles, fils in February 1739, and Charlotte-Anne in November1741.  

Anne-Marie married Charles Pinet dit Pinel, son of Noël Pinet, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in April 1753.  Marguerite, married Joseph, son of Joseph Préjean, probably at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in c1758.   Daughter Judith married Jean Daigle probably at St.-Pierre-du-Nord.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Le Grand Dérangement of the 1750s scattered this family to the winds.  Living in territory controlled by France, the Lacroix dit Durels and other Acadians on Île St.-Jean remained unmolested by the British roundup of their fellow Acadians in Nova Scotia in the fall of 1755.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  In late 1758, after the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg, the victorious British swooped down on the island, rounded up with most of the Acadians and deported them to France.  Marguerite and Joseph managed to elude the British dragnet, left the island, and escaped north either to Miramichi or Restigouche, at the head of the Baie des Chaleurs.  Anne-Marie and Charles as well as Judith and Jean ended up on a crowded ship that took them to Cherbourg, France. 

In the late 1750s or early 1760, Le Grand Dérangement finally caught up to Marguerite Durel and her husband, Joseph Préjean.  They ended up as prisoners at Fort Edward, formerly Pigiguit, Nova Scotia, with dozens of other Acadians whom the British had captured in the region.  Daughter Victoire was born in Nova Scotia in c1761.  When the French and Indian War finally ended in early 1763, Marguerite and Joseph chose to accompany the majority of their fellow prisoners to the Mississippi Valley, where they could start a new life away from the hated British.  

Meanwhile, in France, Marguerite's younger sister Anne-Marie and her husband, Charles Pinet dit Pinel, had at least five children:  Louis, born at Cherbourg in c1763, Marie-Modeste in c1765, Marie-Madeleine in c1771, Martin-Charles at La Chapelle-Roux in January 1775, and another daughter whose name has been lost to history.  Judith and her husband Jean Daigle, who worked as a fisherman, had at least three children in Cherbourg:  Jean-Baptiste was born in December 1759, Charles-Lazare in August 1761, and Firmin in April 1763.  

La Chapelle-Roux is in the Poitou region of France, so Anne-Marie and Charles probably participated in the Leigne-les-bois venture, an attempt to settle Acadians on a nobleman's land in the Poitou region that ended in failure.  By the early 1780s, they were living in the seaport city of Nantes, subsisting on government handouts and surviving as best they could.  Marie-Modeste married Jean-Baptiste-Charles, son of fellow Acadian Charles Haché, at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, near Nantes, in November 1784.  

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Charles and Anne-Marie agreed to take it.  Jean and Judith did not go, but one of their sons, Jean-Baptiste Daigle, probably made the trip in 1785.

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marguerite Durel, her husband, Joseph Préjean, and two of their children--Victoire, age 4, and Jean-Baptiste, fils, in utero--were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  They came to the colony with a contingent of former prisoners from Nova Scotia via St.-Domingue, now Haiti, and reached New Orleans in 1765.  They settled at the Acadian community of Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  In the early 1770s, Joseph died, and Marguerite remarried to fellow Acadian Joseph Bourg.  They remained at St.-Jacques.

LOUISIANA: LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Twenty years after Marguerite came to Louisiana, younger sister Anne-Marie Durel, her husband, Charles Pinet dit Pinel, and three of their children--Louis, age 22, Marie-Madeleine, age 14, and Marie-Modeste, age 20, who came with her husband and his family--sailed to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships of 1785, which reached New Orleans in November.  After a brief respite in the city, they followed the majority of the passengers from their ship to upper Bayou Lafourche, not far from St.-Jacques.  

After 27 years of separation, the Lacroix dit Durel sisters of Île St.-Jean were finally reunited.  

CONCLUSION

Since only female members of the Acadian branch of this family came to Louisiana, and since they used their father's dit, not his surname, the Durel families in the Bayou State are not Acadians but French Creoles or Foreign French.  The blood of Charles Lacroix dit Durel has survived, however, in the Prejean, Pinet, and Daigle families. 

The family's name also is spelled Dourel, Durell.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2119-20; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 131-32, 93-94; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 82.

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, 24 (pl. 5R), calls her Marguerite DUREL, & lists her with her first husband & 2 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2120, her father's profile in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Marguerite [LACROIX dit DUREL], says she was born in 1730 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, & lists her siblings, including sister Anne-Marie, born in 1734; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 132, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marguerite DUREL, gives her parents' names, says her godparents were Michel DU JAUT & Marguerite CHIESSON, & shows that she was twin of sister Marie-Élisabeth.  See also Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 164, 174; Marchand, Old Settlers of Ascension, 17; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 1; De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 19; De Ville, Acadian Coast, 1779, 25.

Who knows why the census takers at St.-Jacques & Ascension mixed up her name & her ages so thoroughly.  

For evidence of her marriage to Joseph BOURG, see Marchand, cited above, which gives the date but no parents' names; the baptismal record of daughter Céleste BOURG, dated 28 Dec 1782, in BRDR, 2:120-21 (SJA-1, 64); & the baptismal & marriage records of daughter Pélagie BOURG, dated 16 Jan 1774 & 17 Nov 1801, in BRDR, 2:128 (SJA-1, 21a; SJA-2, 56), which call the mother Marguerite DUREL & Margarita DURELL.  Note that Pélagie's godmother was Victoire PREGAN [PRÉJEAN], Marguerite's daughter by her first husband.  For speculation on which Joseph BOURG of St.-Jacques was Marguerite DUREL's second husband, follow this link. 

02.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Anne DUREL, & lists her with her husband & 2 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2120, her father's profile in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Anne-Marie [LACROIX dit DUREL], says she was born in c1734 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, & lists her siblings, including sister Marguerite; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 313, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Anne-Marie DUREL, gives her parents' names, & says she was the goddaughter of Miquel DE LOYAL & Anne POITIER, epouse de CHAINAY [CHENET?]; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 82, Family No. 161, calls her Anne DUVAL, says she was born in c1735 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, calls her father Charles DUVAL & says he was deceased at the time of her marriage, details her marriage, calls her husband Charles PINET, says he was born in c1732 but gives no birthplace, gives his parents' names, & includes the baptismal record of son Marti-Charles PINET, baptized 1 Feb 1775, La Chapelle-Roux; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 70-71, calls her Anne DUREL, sa [Charles PINEL's] femme, age 50, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Anne DUREL, his [Charles PINET's] wife, age 50, on the complete listing, says she was in the 21st Family aboard L'Amitié with her husband & 2 children, &, calling her Anne DUVAL, details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, & says they were married in 1753 but gives no place of marriage.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 509; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 31, 55, 84, 161.

Her estimated birth year based on the passenger list of L'Amitié is close to the age of the Anne-Marie LACROIX dit DUREL, born to Charles LACROIX dit DUREL & Judith CHIASSON in Jan 1734, found in Arsenault, 2120, & Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, cited above, which would make her Marguerite's older sister.  Her first name comes not only from Arsenault but also from her daughter Marie-Madeleine PINEL's marriage record, dated 6 Jan 1789, in BRDR, 2:591 (ASC-2, 15), which calls her Marion DURELL, & the Ascension census of 1791, which calls her Marie PINET.  So why does Robichaux, in his study of the Acadians in Poitou, a generally sterling source, call her Anne DUVAL, daughter of Charles DUVAL & Judith CHIASSON?  Was her father a DUREL or a DUVAL?  I am reluctant to place information from Arsenault over that from Robichaux, but she is called DUREL, not DUVAL, in the marriage record previously cited, on the embarkation list of L'Amitié, & in several LA censuses, so DUREL it is.  

The ages given for her in the LA censuses in which she is found seem to be those of another person, but this was no doubt the widow of Charles PINET dit PINEL.   

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Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier