APPENDICES

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

GROSSIN

[grow-SANH]

ACADIA

Brothers Michel, born in c1705, and Pierre, born in c1708, sons of Jean Grossin and Pérrine Pétain of Carolles, Avranches, France, came to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, and settled at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in the late 1720s.  Michel married Marie, daughter of Jean Caissie, probably at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in c1730.  Pierre married Cécile, daughter of another Jean Caissie, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in July 1733.

Michel and Marie raised a large family, including five sons, all born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord:  Jean in September1732, Jacques-Christophe in February 1738, Baptiste-Louis, called Louis, in August 1740, Michel, fils in c1746, and Robert was baptized, age unrecorded, in November 1755 but died in July 1756.  A daughter married into the Quimine family. 

Pierre and Cécile also raised a large family, including four sons, all born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord:  Michel le jeune in October 1734, Jacques in August 1744, Pierre in c1751, and Louis in August 1756.  Michel le jeune married Marie-Josèphe, daughter of François Chiasson, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in January 1758.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Living on an island still controlled by France, the Grossins escaped the British roundup of the Acadians in Nova Scotia in the fall of 1755, but they did not escape the terrors of Le Grand Dérangement.  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 transported them to France. 

The Grossins were among the families who were packed aboard one of the five British transports that left the Gut of Canso in late November 1758 and reached St.-Malo in late January 1759.  Most of the Grossins survived the terrible crossing, but Michel, père did not; he died at sea.  Two of his children who survived the crossing, Jacques-Christophe, age 20, and Françoise, age 9, died in the hospital at Paramé, near St.-Malo, in April 1759, a few months after they reached the port city.  Michel, père's daughter Marie-Louise, called Louise, age 25, wife of Pierre Quimine, crossed on one of the five ships with two of their children, Marie, age 3, and Geneviève, age 2; Louise and Pierre survived the terrible crossing, but both of their daughters died at sea.  Pierre Grossin, père and his family also crossed in one of the five ships and lost two of their children:  Pierre, fils, age 7, died at sea, and Rose, age 11, died in the same hospital as her cousins in April 1759.  Pierre, père, his wife, and their seven other children survived the terrible crossing, but Pierre, père died at St.-Malo soon after they got there.  Pierre, père's son Michel le jeune, and his wife Marie-Josèphe Chiasson crossed on one of the five ships also; she was pregnant when they left Nova Scotia in late November; a son, whom they named Michel, was born to them on 2 February 1759, soon after they reached St.-Malo, but died 18 days later, no doubt from the rigors of the voyage; Marie-Josèphe died in the hospital at Paramé in early June 1759, leaving Michel le jeune a widower.

Pierre Grossin, père's widow Cécile Caissie settled at Paramé, where she remarried to Nicolas, fils, son of Nicolas Bouchard of St.-Thomas, Canada, and widower of Acadian Marie Chiasson, in June 1760; Nicolas was living at Rivière-du-Nord-Est on Île St.-Jean in 1752, so one wonders if he had known the Grossins of St.-Pierre-du-Nord back in Acadia.  Cécile gave him no more children.  In April 1764, Cécile and Nicolas, fils left France for the French colony Cayenne in South America aboard the ship Le Fort.  Cécile remarried--again--to Alexis, son of Frenchman Jean Hilaire of Lansac, Sante, at St.-Sauveur, Cayenne, in July 1765 and died at St.-Sauveur in August 1768, surrounded by her loved ones.  Her son Michel le jeune also had settled at Paramé and remarried to Françoise, daughter of Frenchman Augustin Renault, at St.-Malo in February 1760, less than a year after his wife died.  Françoise gave him at least two children at Paramé:  Pierre-Michel, born in April 1761 and Jeanne-Françoise-Nicolle in January 1763.  In April 1764, Michel le jeune, his wife, and children followed his mother and stepfather to Cayenne aboard the ship Le Fort.  His unmarried brothers Jacques and Louis and unmarried sisters Cécile, Madeleine, and Marguerite also went to Cayenne, along with married sister Anne and her husband, François-Jean Bard of St.-François, Québec, whom she had married at St.-Servan in April 1764 on the eve of their departure.  The decision to go to the jungles of South America proved to be a fatal one for Jacques; he died at Sinnamary, Cayenne, in March 1765; he was only 22 years old.  In that same month, French officials took a census of the settlers at Cayenne.  Among them were Marie Grossin, veuve Belier, age 40, of St.-Servan, and her children Pierre, age 16, Julien, age 14, and Jacqueline, age 12, all named Cousin and all born at Louisbourg.  One wonders how they were kin to Michel le jeune and his family.  Michel le jeune and Françoise had at least one more child in the tropical colony:  Joseph, born at St.-Sauveur, Cayenne, in November 1766.  Louis survived the rigors of life in the tropics and married Madeleine Lope, widow of Jean dit Maroc Guilbert, at St.-Joseph de Sinnamary in May 1781.  One wonders what was the fate of Michel le jeune and his sisters in that distant colony.  Anne probably died at Cayenne; husband François-Jean Bard returned to St.-Malo via Brest in July 1769 and remarried to a widow at St.-Servan in January 1770. 

Meanwhile, Michel Grossin, père's daughter Marie, born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in c1737, married Jean-Baptiste, son of fellow Acadian Charles Dugas, at St.-Servan, near St.-Malo, in February 1768.  She, her husband, and two of their children were part of the Acadian settlement in the Poitou region in the early 1770s and were among the Acadians who retreated to the port city of Nantes in November 1775 after the venture failed.  They survived in Nantes on government handouts and whatever work Jean-Baptiste could find as a day laborer.  Marie's brother Michel, fils married Cécile-Julienne, daughter of Frenchman Pierre Troude, at St.-Malo in December 1768.  Their son Michel-Pierre was born at St.-Malo in December 1769.  They were still in that city in 1772. 

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Marie Grossin and husband Jean-Baptiste Dugas agreed to take it.  Other members of her family--the ones who took French spouses or had not gone to Cayenne--chose to remain in France. 

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marie Grossin, age 49, husband Jean-Baptiste Dugas, also age 49, and their single surviving child, 11-year-old daughter Marie-Josèphe Dugas, came to Louisiana aboard Le Bon Papa, the first of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in July 1785.  They followed the majority of the passengers from their ship to Manchac, south of Baton Rouge.  A Spanish official counted them at Baton Rouge in 1788.  Marie and Jean-Baptiste had no more children in Louisiana.  Daughter Marie-Josèphe married into the Lebert family.  Marie died at Baton Rouge in July 1809, in her early 70s.

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

A non-Acadian Grossin came to Louisiana decades before her Acadian namesake arrived:

Pérrine, daughter of François Grossin and Marie Bouquet of St.-Sernan, near St.-Malo, France, married Jean, fils, surnamed Dubuisson, son of Jean Sergent of Boulogne, France, and widower of Marie Dubois, at New Orleans in February 1731.  Pérrine died at New Orleans, a widow, in June 1733.  The priest who recorded her burial did not say how old she was at the time of her death. 

~

Another non-Acadian Grossin lived, and died, in the old Atakapas District during the late antebellum period:

Eugènie Grossin, wife of Victor Maraist, died in St. Martin Parish in April 1865.  The priest who recorded her burial said that she was 64 years old when she died but did not give her parents' names. 

CONCLUSION

Marie Grossin was the only member of her family to emigrate to Louisiana, so the Acadian branch of the family did not take root in the Bayou State.  Daughter Marie-Josèphe Dugas and her husband, Pierre-Joseph Lebert, had no sons, but their only daughter, Lise Lebert, Marie Grossin's granddaughter, married Zéphirin, son of fellow Acadian Jacques Blanchard, in March 1813.  Zéphirin and Lise had many children, including at least six sons.  Zéphirin became a great planter, holding 66 slaves on his West Baton Rouge plantation in 1850.  So at least the blood of the hard-suffering Grossin family survived in the Bayou State.  The Grossins of South Louisiana today are descendants of French Creoles or Foreign French, not Acadians. 

The family's name also is spelled Grosaint, Grossein.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2096; BRDR, vol. 3; NOAR, vol. 1; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 37-38, 169-70, 586, 592-94; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vol. 7; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family Nos. 90, 95, 157, 182; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 83, 370-76, 512, 1045; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 61.  

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, 27 (pl. 6R), calls her Marie GROSSIN, & lists her with her husband, 1 daughter, & 1 minor; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 90, calls her Marie GROSSIN, & shows that she, her mother, & most of her 6 siblings survived the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, but her father, no age given, & 2 siblings did not survive--brother Jacques, age 20, died in the hospital at Paramé, near St.-Malo, 4 Apr 1759, & sister Francoise, age 9, died in the same hospital 3 days later; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 1045, her marriage record, calls her Marie GROSSIN, gives her parents' names, calls her husband Jean DUGAS, gives his parents' names, says that both fathers were deceased at the time of the marriage, & says the witnesses to their marriage were Pierre DUGAS (brother of the groom), Antoine DUGAS (brother of the groom), Pierre QUIMINE (brother-in-law of the bride), & Paul PATRIS, none of whom signed; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 61, Family No. 113, calls her Marie GROSSIN, says she was born c1736, gives her parents' names, her marriage information, including her husband's parents' names, information about their participation in the failed Grand Ligne venture in Poitou, & the birth/baptismal/burial records of 2 of her sons--Étienne DUGAS, baptized at St.-Similien, Nantes, 27 Dec 1775, & buried at St.-Similien 22 Mar 1778, & Jean-Baptiste DUGAS, died at age 9, buried 26 Apr 1781, St.-Martin, Chantenay, but says nothing of her going to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 6-7, calls her Marie CLAUSINET, sa [Jean-Bte DUGAT's] femme, age 43, on the embarkation list, Maria CLOSINET, su [Juan Baptista DUGATS's] muger, on the debarkation list, & Marie CLOSSINET, his [Jean-Baptiste DUGAT's] wife, age 43, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 15th Family aboard Le Bon Papa with her husband, 1 daughter, & 1 minor; <acadian-cajun.com/ship1.htm>, calls her Marie CLOSSINET, wife [of Jean-Baptiste DUGAS], age 43; BRDR, 3:284 (SJO-4, 47), her death/burial record, calls her Marie GROS SAINST, "spouse of Juan Bautista DUGAS, age 70 yrs., nat. St. John Island," but does not give her parents' names.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 497, 527.

I maintain that the younger Jean-Baptiste DUGAS on Le Bon Papa (he was age 49 & a journalier, or workman; an older Jean-Baptiste DUGAS was age 66 & a carpenter), son of Charles DUGAS & Marie BENOIT, married Marie GROSSIN, not Marie CLOSSINET.  Consult the information in the Robichaux volumes on the Acadians in France, the 1784 listing at Nantes in Voorhies, J., the listing in Wall of Names, & Marie DUGAS's marriage record in BRDR, 2:258 (SJO-3, 4), which calls her mother Maria GROSAINT.  I have found no Jean-Baptiste DUGAS in France married to a Marie CLOSSINET.  Why the French & Spanish record keepers for the Seven Ships passengers in 1785 called her Marie CLAUSINET/CLOSINET & not Marie GROSSIN I cannot say.  A Marie CLOSSINET did sail from France to LA aboard one of the Seven Ships of 1785, Le Beaumont, but she was married to Charles COMEAUX, not Jean-Baptiste DUGAS.  See Hébert, D., pp. 32-33.

If so many GROSSINs survived the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, why did only 1 of them end up in LA?  See <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 95, for the family of Pierre GROSSIN, which lost only 2 of 9 children in the crossing.

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Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier