APPENDICES

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

LAVERGNE

[luh-VERN]

ACADIA

Nicolas Lavergne, a French soldier, was counted at Port-Royal in 1710, but nothing is known of his wife and children or if he had any.  

Pierre Lavergne, birth year and birthplace unrecorded, but he was probably born in France, was the servant of the Père du Breslay of Port-Royal in the early 1690s.  Pierre married Anne Bernon at Port-Royal in c1693.  They had five children, including a son, Jacques, born at Port-Royal in April 1706, who married Francoise, daughter of Claude Pitre, at Port-Royal in November 1727.  Two of Pierre's daughters, twins Cécile and Geneviève, born at Port-Royal in March 1708, married brothers:  Cécile married Pierre, son of Michel Haché dit Gallant and Anne Cormier of Chignecto, probably at Port-Royal, in c1726, and Geneviève married Pierre's brother Charles at Port-Royal in February 1727.  Pierre's wife Anne died at Port-Royal in August 1728; she was 60.  The date and place of Pierre's death has been lost to history.  

In the 1730s, members of Pierre Lavergne's family left Port-Royal and moved to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, probably to escape British rule.  Cécile and Geneviève and their families were counted at Port-Lajoie on the island in 1734.  Cécile died at Port-Lajoie in December 1743; she was only 35 years old.  Members of the family were still on the island in 1752, on the eve of Le Grand Dérangement.  

Meanwhile, Pierre's son Jacques and his wife, Francoise Pitre, had at least 10 children, including three sons:  Joseph, born in c1728, Pierre in c1730, and Jean-Baptiste in c1736.  They, too, probably moved to Île St.-Jean in the 1730s.  Of Jacques's three sons, only the second one, Pierre, seems to have created a family of his own.  Pierre's first wife was Anne, daughter of Pierre Lord, whom he married at Port-Royal in October 1753, but, after a brief stay in the Chignecto area, they probably settled on Île St.-Jean.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Living on an island controlled by France when the British rounded up the Acadians in Nova Scotia during the autumn of 1755, Jacques Lavergne and his family remained unmolested.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  After the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg in July 1758, the victorious British rounded up most of the Acadians on Île St.-Jean and deported them to France later in the year.  

Jacques survived the terrible crossing to France that took the lives of hundreds of his fellow Acadians.  He ended up in the city of Le Havre, or Havre de Grace, in Normandy, probably with other members of his family.  There he died in December 1759 and was buried at Notre-Dame-du-Havre at age 53.  Son Pierre's wife Anne also must have died soon after they reached France because Pierre remarried to his second wife, Marguerite Daigle, in the early or mid-1760s probably at Le Havre.  Pierre earned his living as a carpenter.  In 1773, he, Marguerite, and five of their children--sons Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre and Pierre-Benjamin, and daughters Marguerite, Victoire-Bellarmine, and Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, probably Pierre-Benjamin's twin--joined the hundreds of Acadians who settled in the Poitou region of France at a place the Acadians called La Leigne-les-bois.  After two miserable years of failure, Pierre and his family, with most of the other Acadians, abandoned the Poitou settlement and retreated to the port city of Nantes.  Pierre chose to settle at Paimboeuf, downriver from Nantes.  Marguerite died at Paimboeuf in September 1782; she was 50 years old.  A few years later, Pierre took as his third wife a French widow, Gillette Caudan of the parish of Lanvaudan, diocese of Vannes, whom he married at Paimboeuf in January 1785.  She gave him no more children.  

By the time of his third marriage, Pierre, along with hundreds of his fellow Acadians, had had enough of life in the mother country, where they had known only poverty and frustration.  When the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana, Pierre and his family grabbed it.  But he did not take his third wife with him.  Only a few weeks after they were married, Gillette died at Paimboeuf in late March 1785, leaving Pierre a widower once again.  

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

A few weeks after his third wife's death, Pierre Lavergne and three of his surviving children--son Pierre-Benjamin, now 12, and daughters Victoire, 22, and Madeleine, also 12--boarded Le Beaumont, the third of the Seven Ships of 1785, and sailed to Louisiana.  Aboard ship, Victoire married a Swiss, Michel Betancourt, whom she probably had known in France.  Pierre's oldest daughter Marguerite, born in c1753 back in Acadia, wife of Joseph Trahan, whom she had married in France, also sailed aboard Le Beaumont with her husband and children.  Pierre Lavergne and his family reached New Orleans in August 1785 and settled in the Baton Rouge district with the majority of the passengers from Le Beaumont.  Oldest daughter Marguerite and her family did not join them at Baton Rouge, however, but moved to the Atakapas District, west of the Atchafalaya Basin, to join her husband's people.  Daughter Victoire and her new husband Michel joined Pierre and his younger children at Baton Rouge.  Youngest daughter Madeleine married a French Creole, Jean Prosper, at Baton Rouge in July 1787; she was only 14!  

Pierre's son Pierre-Benjamin waited until he was 29 before he married.  He chose Geneviève, daughter of fellow Acadian Jean-Baptiste Hébert dit Petit Jean of St.-Jacques, and married her at Ascension, now Donaldsonville, in October 1802.  Although Pierre-Benjamin and Geneviève married at Ascension, a good ways downriver from Baton Rouge but close to her family in St.-Jacques, the couple settled either at the southern edge of the Baton Rouge district, just north of Bayou Manchac, or in the St.-Gabriel area, just south of the bayou.  Daughter Marguerite was baptized at St. Gabriel in May 1804.  Son Pierre-Lamaire was baptized at St. Gabriel in August 1806 and buried at Baton Rouge in July 1809.  Daughter Marie-Adélaïde, called Adélaïde, was baptized at Baton Rouge in May 1808.  Son Jean-Baptiste was baptized at St. Gabriel in November 1810.  Son Pierre Élie was baptized at St. Gabriel in July 1812.  Pierre-Benjamin was buried at St.-Gabriel in February 1819; he was only 46.  Daughter Marie-Farnelie married George Anselme, probably a French Creole, at St. Gabriel in September 1825, and remarried to Joseph O. B. Tuttle, an American from New York State, at St. Gabriel in September 1840.  Daughter Adélaïde married Richard Terrell, probably an American, at St. Gabriel in January 1826 and was buried at St. Gabriel in January 1827, probably a victim of childbirth.  

Since Pierre-Benjamin was the only surviving son of Pierre Lavergne and his three wives, all of the Acadian Lavergnes of South Louisiana would have descended from him.  But there is no evidence that any of his sons survived childhood, married, and created families of their own.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

The Lavergnes of South Louisiana, then, were French Canadians or French Creoles, not Acadians.  But many of them eventually took Acadian wives.  The name is a common one in France and French Canada, so it is no wonder that so many branches of the family settled in French Louisiana.

One branch of the family, that of Pierre, son of Jean La Vergne and Marguerite Villaron of Brive-la-Gaillard, Limousin, even traces its ancestry to the French nobility and claims to have French royal blood.  Pierre, born in France c1651, came to New Orleans c1766 as a young French officer and later earned the coveted Order of St.-Louis.  In 1789, at age 38, he married Élisabeth DuVerger, who gave him a single son, Hugues, who, when he came of age, styled himself a de La Vergne.  In 1813, Hugues married Marie-Adéle of the wealthy, prominent de la Villeré family and acquired a large plantation next to his in-laws on the river below New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish.  One of his grandsons, Hugues-Jacques de La Vergne, born in 1867 and died in 1923, was a prominent lawyer and civic leader in New Orleans, a role still played by members of the family.  Needless to say, this branch of the Lavergne family were not the ones who married Acadians.  

Another de La Vergne, whose given name is lost to history, came to Louisiana decades before the aristocratic Pierre.  They probably were not related.  The earlier de La Vergne was a French officer which records show was serving at Pensacola as early as 1719.  In 1758, he was awarded the coveted Cross of St.-Louis.  Nothing is known of his descendants.

Charles La Vergne of Paris, an officer in the New Orleans garrison, came to Louisiana in the mid-1730s.  In 1739, he married Marie-Josèphe Carriers from Mobile and may have owned a plantation at English Turn, below New Orleans, in the 1760s.  

Other lines of the family have more humble roots.  The first Lavergnes in Louisiana seem to have been French Canadians who descended the Mississippi and settled along the river above New Orleans or on the Red River in the late 1720s and early 1730s.  Louis Lavergne, fils, son of Louis Lavergne, père and Marie Simon of Québec, and his wife Élisabeth Thomelain, whom he married at New Orleans in July 1725, were counted later that year at Pascagoula in present-day Mississippi.  But they returned to New Orleans by 1729, when their daughter Francoise was baptized in the church there.   In 1731, the couple was at Cannes Brulées, near present-day Kenner, in Jefferson Parish.  In 1726, Jean Lavergne, probably another Canadian, and his wife Franchette Tournedou, were counted at Natchitoches Post on the Red River, where their daughter Marie was baptized in 1729.  In 1731, Canadian Jean Lavergne and his wife, Francoise Tournelle, were counted at Anse-aux-Outards near present-day Ama in St. Charles Parish.  Other Lavergnes could be found in New Orleans, on the lower Mississippi, and elsewhere in Louisiana. 

For instance, Charles Lavergne, a carpenter, and his sons Nicolas, Jean, and Jacques, also carpenters, were counted at New Orleans in 1770.  Nothing is known of their descendants.

Jean Lavergne, son of Jean Lavergne and Marie Lucel of New Orleans, married Louise Requien at Chartres, Illinois, in 1758 and returned to the lower Mississippi valley, settling in St. Charles Parish.  Their son Louis married first to Luce-Henriette, called Henriette, daughter of Pierre Breaux and Brigitte Foret, Acadians from St. James Parish, in the early 1800s.  Louis and Henriette settled in the predominantly Acadian community of St. Gabriel, in Iberville Parish, upriver from St. James.  In October 1815, Louis remarried to another Acadian, Marie-Anne, a young widow and daughter of Firmin Babin and Bibianne Breaux from nearby Ascension, where Louis and Marie-Anne settled.  Louis's son Drosin, from his first wife, married an Acadian girl, Cleonise, daughter of Pierre Landry and Renée Godin, at Ascension in March 1824.  Another of Louis's sons, Olivier-Valsin, called Valsin, also from his first wife, married Marine-Cleonise, daughter of Edouard Godin and Madeleine Landry, Acadians, at St. Gabriel in June 1833; he remarried to Delphine, widow of Valery Godin and daughter of Jean Landry and Marie-Joséphe Blanchard, also Acadians, at Ascension in December 1836.  Son Joseph Delmaire or Dolomer, also from Louise's first wife, married Eleonore, daughter of Olivier Breaux and Louise Breaux, Acadians, at Ascension in February 1831.  Valsin's son Alexandre, called Alexandre of Iberville Parish, took yet another Acadian wife, Eugenie, daughter of Trasimond Babin and Clarisse Melançon, at Ascension in March 1856. 

Jean Lavergne and his wife Marie-Jeanne LaClef and their four sons lived in St. John the Baptist Parish in the late 1700s.  Son Nicolas moved upriver to Pointe-Coupée, where he married French Creole Pérrine Dugue in March 1785.  Son Pierre married Angélique Barthelemi-Quebec, an Indian and native of the Arkansas country, in April 1793.  Nicolas's son Blaise married Louise Marie Ortis, probably an Islenos whose parents had immigrated from the Canary Islands, at Pointe Coupee in December 1808.  Nicolas's son Nicolas, fils married Rosalie, his brother Blaise's sister, at Pointe Coupee in February 1810.  Some members of the family crossed the river to West Feliciana Parish, where they settled at Cat Island, south of Angola.  Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana Lavergne males also married into the Webre, Legros, Lacour, and Lemay families.  In the twentieth century, these Lavergnes moved downriver to the city of Baton Rouge, where many can be found today.  

But the great majority of the Lavergnes of South Louisiana descend from the Canadian Louis, fils and his wife Élisabeth Thomelain.  Louis died c1750, probably at New Orleans.  Two years later, Élisabeth remarried to Jean Barré of Lyon, France.  Louis, fils, left Élisabeth with two minor sons, Louis III and Jean-Baptiste.  Louis III married Marie-Anne LaCasse, an Alibamont from Mobile, c1770, and they moved upriver to present-day St. John the Baptist Parish, where he purchased a 3 x 40 arpent tract of land from Jean-Pierre Cuvillier in 1783.  In the late 1780s, Louis III and his family left the crowded Mississippi valley and moved west of the Atchafalaya Basin to the Opelousas District, where they settled in the Bellevue area, south of Opelousas Post.  Most of the settlers in the Opelousas country were Alibamont like Louis's wife Marie-Anne, or Canadian French like Louis, or French Creoles from New Orleans or the river settlements.  However, by the mid-1790s, a substantial number of Acadians also lived in the area, having come to Opelousas as early as 1765.  Daughter Marie-Eugenie, born along the Mississippi in October 1778, was the first member of the family to marry an Acadian; in May 1796 she wed Philippe, son of Pierre Richard and his first wife, Marguerite Dugas, at Opelousas.  Louis III and Marie-Anne had seven sons, the first three born on the river, the other four at Opelousas:  

Célestin, the oldest son, married Louise Henry, a French woman born in Paris, not an Acadian, probably at Opelousas in c1800 but settled at Carencro, south of the post.  In the early 1800s, he claimed 2,700 acres of land on both sides of Bayou Nezpique at the western edge of old St. Landry Parish.  Interestingly, one of Célestin's sons, Charles Célestin, was baptized at Baton Rouge in April 1811.  

Louis IV was the first of Louis III's sons to take an Acadian wife when he married Susanne, daughter of Joseph Bourg and Susanne Thibodeaux, at Opelousas in January 1802.  

All the other sons who created families of their own married Acadians:

Joseph married Augustine, or Gustine, daughter of Fabien Richard, at Opelousas in September 1812.  

Eugene, the first son born at Opelousas, in October 1790, may not have married.  

Pierre, born in November 1794, married Marie Zelima, daughter of Pierre Thibodeaux and Marguerite Richard, at Opelousas in February 1816. 

Ursin, born in November 1795, married Marie-Zelime, daughter Dominque Préjean and Marie Savoie, at Opelousas in August 1816.  

Youngest son, Urbain, born in 1797, married Eloise, daughter of Pierre Thibodeaux, at Opelousas in July 1821.  

Meanwhile, Louis III died "from a very long infirmity or weakness" at his home in Bellevue in February 1814; he was 71 years old.  His sons and grandsons stayed in St. Landry Parish, at Bellevue and Grand Coteau, or moved a little farther west, to Church Point, now in Evangeline Parish.  Not until after the War Between the States did descendants of Louis the Canadian leave the family's center around Opelousas and drift farther and farther west across the wide open prairies, where many Lavergnes can be found today.  

CONCLUSION

Lavergne is a large family in South Louisiana.  It was a large family in Acadia as well, but only five Acadian Lavergnes immigrated to Louisiana, and not until 1785.  Of those five, only two were males, a father and a son.  The father, Pierre, married three times in Acadia and France and was in his 50s and a widow again when he reached Louisiana.  He fathered no more children.  His only surviving son, Pierre-Benjamin, born in France, did not marry until his late 20s.  Although Pierre-Benjamin had sons of his own, none of them seem to have survived to marry and create families.  So the Acadian line of the Lavergne family died with him; only its blood survived in the children of his sisters and daughters.  All of the many Lavergnes of South Louisiana, therefore, are descendants of French Canadians and French Creoles, not Acadians.  

The family's name also is spelled Labern.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 643-44, 2535-36; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, source of quote, 2-B; West, Atlas of LA Surnames, 95-96, 175-76; White, DGFA-1, 978-79.  

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. 8L), calls her Margueritte LAVERGNE, & lists her with her husband & 2 children; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 110, Family No. 203, profile for her father's family, calls her Marguerite LAVERGNE, says she was she was born c1753 "in the Parish of Sainte-Anne in Acadie," details her marriage, says that she was "resident of Saint-Nicolas since several years 'au bas de la Fosse'," which was in the city of Nantes, at the time of her marriage, & that, before she was married, she accompanied her father & stepmother to the Leigne-les-bois settlement in Poitou in the early 1770s; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 166-67, Family No. 300, calls her Marguerite LAVERGNE, says she was born c1753 "in the Parish of Sainte-Anne in Acadie," gives her parents'  names, says she was "resident since several years in the Parish of Saint-Nicolas below La Fosse," details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, provides the birth/baptismal records of son Joseph-René TRAHAN, baptized 11 Nov 1780, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, & daughter Antoinette TRAHAN, baptized 17 Nov 1782, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, & details the family's voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 34-35, calls her Margueritte LAVERGNE, sa [Joseph TRAHAN's] femme, age 30, on the embarkation list, Margarita LAVERGNE, su [Josef TRAHAM's] muger, on the debarkation list, & Marguerite LAVERGNE, his [Joseph TRAHAN's] wife, age 30, on the complete listing, says she was in the 18th Family aboard Le Beaumont with her husband & 2 children, details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, but gives no place of marriage, & says daughter Antoinette [TRAHAN] was baptized in 1782 but gives no place of baptism.

I am assuming that the "Parish of Sainte-Anne in Acadie" where Robichaux, p. 110, says she was born, was the one at Tintamarre in the Chignecto area, not Ste.-Anne at Cheboque, near Cap-Sable.  

Her second marriage is from Lonnie Raffray, descendant of Jean RAFFRAY, who goes on to say that they settled in West Feliciana Parish.  

02.  Wall of Names, 32 (pl. 8L), calls her Marie-Magdelaine [LAVERGNE], & lists her with her widowed father & 2 siblings; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 110, Family No. 203, calls her Marie-Madeleine [LAVERGNE]; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 30-31, calls her Marie-Magdelaine, sa [Pierre LAVERGNE's] fille, age 12, on the embarkation list, Maria Magdalena, su [Pedro LA VERGNE's] hijo, on the debarkation list, & Marie-Magdelaine LAVERGNE, daughter [of Pierre LAVERGNE], age 12, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 5th Family aboard Le Beaumont with her widowed father & 2 siblings; BRDR, 2:456-57, 609 (SGA-14, 9), her marriage record, calls her Magdalena LAVERGNE, gives her parents' names, says they were from Havre de Grace, Normandie, France, gives her husband's parents' names, says they were from St.-Michael in Carcason, France, & gives no witnesses to the marriage.  

Judging from their estimated birth years, she probably was a twin of brother Pierre-Benjamin.

Although her marriage was recorded at the St.-Gabriel church, she was married probably in the Baton Rouge district, where her family settled.  Baton Rouge had no church until 1793, so before then priests from St.-Gabriel or Pointe-Coupée would officiate at baptisms, weddings, & funerals in the Baton Rouge district until it got its own church.

Why did her father let her marry so young?  

03.  Wall of Names, 32 (pl. 8L), calls him Pierre LAVERGNE, & lists him with no wife & 3 children; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 109-10, Family No. 203, calls him Pierre LAVERGNE, says he was born in 1730 but gives no birthplace, gives his parents' names, says he was a carpenter, details his three marriages, including the his first & third wives' parents'  names, says his first wife was born in 1730 but gives no birthplace, death date, or place of death for her, says his second wife was born c1732, died at age 50 & was buried 18 Sep 1782 at Paimboeuf, & that they married c1759 but gives no place of marriage, that his third wife was born c1749 in the Parish of Lanvaudan, diocese of Vannes & was a resident of Paimboeuf at the time of their marriage, names her first husband, says she died at age 36 & was buried 24 Mar 1785 at Paimboeuf, includes the birth/baptismal & marriage record of daughter Marguerite, details his family's participation in the Leigne-les-bois venture in Poitou, mentioning a son named Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre, & details the family's voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 30-31, calls him Pierre LAVERGNE, charpentier, 54, on the embarkation list, Pedro LA VERGNE, on the debarkation list, & Pierre LAVERGNE, carpenter, age 54, on the complete listing, & says he was in the 5th Family aboard Le Beaumont with no wife & 3 children.

When was he deported from Acadia to France?  Daughter Marguerite's marriage record in Robichaux, p. 110, says that she was born in the "Parish of Sainte-Anne in Acadie," which I suppose is the Ste.-Anne at Tintamarre in the Chignecto area.  When did he & his family move to Chignecto?  How did a family in Chignecto end up in France by the early 1760s?  The Acadian families who were deported to France in 1758-59 came from the island settlements of Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, & Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island.  Did Pierre & his family escape from Chignecto to nearby Île St.-Jean & from there went to France?  If so, why are they not on the passenger lists of the English transports that took Acadians to France in 1758-59?  See <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/index_arrivee.htm>. 

It is unlikely that he married his second wife c1759, as Robichaux, p. 109, attests.  The marriage record of daughter Victoire in NOAR, 4:185 (SLC, M5, 40), dated 4 Sep 1785, says that she was the daughter of Ana DE LORD, who was Pierre's first wife, & that Victoire was a native of Normandy, France.  Hebert, D., 30-31, says that Victoire was 22 in 1785, giving her an estimated birth year of c1763.  If the age on the passenger list of Le Beaumont as recorded by Father Hébert is correct, then Pierre was still married to his first wife 4 years after Robichaux's estimated date for Pierre's second marriage.  So I must conclude that Pierre's second marriage occurred in the early or mid-1760s & in France, not c1759.

Where in Normandy did the family live in c1763?  My guess is Havre de Grace.  Daughter Marie-Madeleine's marriage record, dated 17 Jul 1787, shows that her parents lived in Havre de Grace, Normandy, while they were in France.  See BRDR, 2:609 (SGA-14, 9).  So that is probably where his first wife died & where he married his second wife.  

Sadly, his third wife died less than 3 months after their marriage & 3 months before the family left for LA.

04.  Wall of Names, 32 (pl. 8L), calls him Pierre [LAVERGNE], & lists him with his widowed father & 2 sisters; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 110, Family No. 203, calls him Pierre-Benjamin [LAVERGNE] & Pierre [LAVERGNE]; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 30-31, calls him Pierre, son [Pierre LAVERGNE's] fils, age 12, on the embarkation list, Pedro, su [Pedro LA VERGNE's] hijo, on the debarkation list, & Pierre LAVERGNE, his [Pierre LAVERGNE's] son, age 12, on the complete listing, & says he was in the 5th Family aboard Le Beaumont with his widowed father & 2 sisters; BRDR, 2:360, 457 (ASC-2, 101), his marriage record, calls him Paul[sic] LAVERGNE, gives his parents' names, calling his father Paul, too, says they were from Havre de Grace, France, gives his wife's parents' names, says her father was deceased at the time of the marriage & that they were from St.-Gabriel, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Juan Bautiste DUPUIS & Francisco Théodore SULIEN; BRDR, 3:525 (SGA-8, 87), his death/burial record, calls him Pierre LAVERGNE, age 50 yrs., but does not give his parents' names or the name of his wife. 

Judging from their estimated birth years, he probably was a twin of sister Marie-Madeleine.

05.  Wall of Names, 32 (pl. 8L), calls her Victoire [LAVERGNE], & lists her with her widowed father & 2 siblings; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 110, Family No. 203, calls her Victoir-Bellarmine [LAVERGNE] & Victoire [LAVERGNE]; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 30-31, calls her Victoire, sa [Pierre LAVERGNE's] fille, age 22, on the embarkation list, does not include her with her family on the debarkation list, & calls her Victoire LAVERGNE, his [Pierre LAVERGNE's] daughter, age 22, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 5th Family aboard Le Beaumont with her widowed father & 2 siblings; Hébert, D., pp. 40-41, does not list him on the embarkation list so he may have been a stowaway or a member of the crew, calls him Franco Miguel BETANCOURT, on the debarkation list, calls her Victoria LA VERGNE, su [Franco Miguel BETANCOURT's] muger, on the debarkation list, calls him Francois-Michel BETANCOURT, no age given, on the complete listing, calls her Victoire LAVERGNE, his [Francois-Michel BETANCOURT's] wife, no age given, on the complete listing, & says they were the 50th Family aboard Le Beaumont, so they evidently married aboard ship; NOAR, 4:29, 185 (SLC, M5, 40), her marriage record, calls her Victoria LAVERGNE, native of Normandy in France, gives her parents' names, says her mother was Ana DE LORD, calls her husband Miguel BETANCOUR, native of Gracieuse, gives his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Josef MARTINEZ & Vicente LLORCA.  

I say that she was born in Havre de Grace, or Le Havre, because the marriage record of sister Marie-Madeleine, dated 17 Jul 1787, shows that her parents lived in Havre de Grace, Normandy, while they were in France.  See BRDR, 2:609 (SGA-14, 9).  

Le Beaumont reached New Orleans on 19 Aug, & their marriage at St. Louis Catholic Church was recorded 4 Sep, so, like a good Roman Catholic couple, they did not wait long to sanctify their shipboard union.  The story may be that they fell in love in France, & he stowed away on the ship that her family took to LA to be with his beloved Acadienne, or he may have been a member of the ship's crew & they fell in love aboard ship.

I am assuming that Francois-Michel's birthplace as given in his marriage record, "Gracieuse," is the one in Switzerland.  Only the passenger list of Le Beaumont calls him Francois-Michel.  The church records in which I have found him call him simply Michel.  See his marriage record cited above, & the birth/baptismal records of 6 of his children in BRDR, 2:88, recorded either at the Pointe-Coupée church before 1793 or the Baton Rouge church after that date.  

The family did not live in Pointe-Coupée then move to the Baton Rouge district, as the church records may imply.  They settled in the Baton Rouge district in late 1785, where there was no church until 1793.  Before then, priests from either St.-Gabriel downriver or Pointe-Coupée upriver officiated at baptisms, weddings, & funerals in the Baton Rouge district until it got its own church.

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Copyright (c) 2007-08  Steven A. Cormier