APPENDICES

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

LIVOIS

[liv-WAH]

ACADIA

René, son or daughter of Jean Livois and René Duponte, married Hursule, son or daughter of Hetiense Potevin and Anne Daigle, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in October 1740. 

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Another member of the family lived on Île St.-Jean before Le Grand Dérangement but probably was no kin to René.  Pierre Livois, born at Drago or Drayé, Normandy, France, in c1722, came to Acadia by May 1751, when he married Anne, daughter of Denis Boudrot, at Port-Lajoie on the island.  They had a single child, daughter Marie-Anne, born at Port-Lajoie in March 1752.  Pierre remarried to Marie-Madeleine, daughter of Michel Poirier, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, Île St.-Jean, in January 1753.  Marie-Madeleine gave him three more children, all born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord:  Marie-Madeleine, born in November 1753, Pierre, fils in June 1755, and Judith in July 1757.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Since they lived in territory controlled by France, the Livoiss of Île St.-Jean escaped the British roundup 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 stronghold at Louisbourg in July, the victorious British rounded up most of the Acadians on Île St.-Jean and deported them to France.  

For Pierre Livois and his family, the crossing to France was a disaster.  Pierre, in his 40s, and wife Marie-Madeleine, in her 30s, lost four of their five children on one of the five British transports that left the Gut of Canso in late November 1758 and reached St.-Malo in late January 1759.  Marie-Anne, age 6, Pierre, fils, age 3, and Judith, age 14 months, all died at sea.  Marie-Madeleine was pregnant when she endured the terrible crossing.  On 5 February 1759, soon after they reached St.-Malo, son Ambroise-Pierre was born to them, but he died four months later, in June, another victim of the deportation.  Only daughter Marie-Madeleine, age 5, survived the ordeal.  

Pierre and Marie-Madeleine settled at Paramé, near St.-Malo, and then moved to nearby St.-Ideuc in 1771.  They had five more children in France:  Pierre-Joseph-Jean, born at Paramé in March 1760, Pérrine-Françoise at La Barbinais in January 1762, twins Françoise-Nicole and Marie-Rose at Paramé in March 1764, and Jeanne-Céleste at La Barbinais in May 1766.  Pierre died at St.-Ideuc in October 1772; the priest who recorded his burial noted that Pierre was 55 or 56 years old when he died.  

Soon after Pierre died, Marie-Madeleine Poirier took her family to Poitou as part of the settlement scheme for the Acadians languishing in the port cities.  A French nobleman offered to settle them on some marginal land he owned near the city of Châtellerault.  The Acadians tried mightily to bring life to the rocky soil in that corner of Poitou.  Marie-Madeleine's daughter, Marie-Madeleine Livois, married fellow Acadian Jean-Grégoire Blanchard in Poitou in c1774.  Their daughter Marie-Anne was baptized at St.-Jacques church, Châtellerault, in February 1775, but died a year later and was buried at St.-Jean-Baptiste church, Châtellerault.

After two years of failure, the Acadians gave up on the Poitou venture and demanded to be returned to the port cities.  Jean-Grégoire Blanchard and Marie-Madeleine Livois took the last convoy to Nantes in March 1776 a month after burying their daughter, Marie-Anne.  They settled in the parish of St.-Similien, Nantes, and had two more children there:  Marie-Madeleine, born in July 1776, and Jean-Baptiste in March 1778.  Happily, both children survived childhood.  In early 1785, another son, Pierre-Charles, was born to them at Nantes.  

Meanwhile, in the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a better life in faraway Louisiana.  Jean-Grégoire Blanchard, his wife Marie-Madeleine Livois, and her sister Marie-Rose agreed to take it. 

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Madeleine Livois, her husband Jean-Grégoire Blanchard, their three small children, and Marie-Madeleine's sister Marie-Rose, now 21, sailed to Louisiana aboard Le St.-Rémi, the fourth of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in September 1785.  After a brief respite in the city, the sisters settled in the Acadian community of Ascension, on the river above New Orleans.  Five months after she and her sister had reached the colony, Marie-Rose married Charles-Casimir, son of fellow Acadian André Templet, at Ascension in February 1786.  Charles-Casimir had come to Louisiana aboard Le Bon Papa, the first of the Seven Ships.  

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

During the late 1780s and early 1790s, Spanish officials were counting sisters Marie-Madeleine and Marie-Rose Livois and their families on upper Bayou Lafourche:  

Marie-Rose remarried to Pierre-Olivier, son of fellow Acadian Pierre Bourg, at Assumption in October 1794.  Pierre-Olivier also had come to Louisiana aboard Le St.-Rémi.  Marie-Rose, twice a widow, died in Assumption Parish in October 1827; she was 63 years old.  

Marie-Madeleine Livois, widow of Jean Grégoire Blanchard, died in Assumption Parish in December 1815; she was 62 years old. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Two Livoires, probably brothers, settled near Montegut, Terrebonne Parish, in the 1870s, but they were Italian, not French:

Joseph Livoire married Acadian Marcelline Bourg in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in May 1870.

Two days later, John, son of Antoine Livoire and Colombia Grifond "of Italy," probably Joseph's brother, married Eufrasie, daughter of François Rodrique, at the Montegut church, Terrebonne Parish; Eufrasie's mother was a Roger.  The priest who recorded the marriage called the groom a Livard. 

CONCLUSION

No male Livois came to Louisiana, only two sisters, who married fellow Acadians.  So only the blood of this family, not its name, survived in the Bayou State. 

The family's name also is spelled Libois, Livoir, Livoye.

Sources:  Arceneaux, Généalogie, 2127; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 306-07; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vol. 4; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 142; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 12; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 15-16; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 597-99.

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, 36 (pl. 9L), calls her Marie-Magdeleine LIVOIR, & lists her with her husband & 3 children; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 306, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marie-Madeleine LIVOIS, gives her parents' names, & says her godparents were Jean-Marc PERRONNET & Marie HÉBERT; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 142, shows that in the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, her father, age 41, & mother, age 34, survived the crossing, but she was the only 1 of their 5 children who survived, that sisters Anne, age 6, & Judith, age 14 mos., & brother Pierre, age 3, died at sea, & brother Ambroise-Pierre, born 9 Feb 1759, soon after the remnants of the family reached France, died 21 Jun 1759; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 597-99, Family No. 683; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 12, Family No. 24, calls her Marie-Madeleine LIVOIS, says she was born c1753 but gives no birthplace, does not give her parents' names, details her marriage but does not give a place of marriage nor her husband's parents' names, includes the birth/baptismal & death/burial record of daughter Marie-Anne BLANCHARD, baptized 8 Feb 1775, St.-Jacques, Châtellerault, goddaughter of Pierre LIVOIS, uncle, & Anne BOURG, grandmother, died age 1 & buried 6 Feb 1776, St.-Jean-Baptiste, Châtellerault, & details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement in the early 1770s; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 15-16, Family No. 28, calls her Marie-Madeleine LIVOIS, says she was born c1754 but gives no birthplace, does not give her parents' names, details her marriage but does not give a place of marriage nor her husband's parents' names, includes the birth/baptismal records of daughter Marie BLANCHARD, baptized 14 Jul 1776, St.-Similien, Nantes, & son Jean BLANCHARD, baptized 26 Mar 1778, St.-Similien, Nantes, &, calling her Marie, details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement in the early 1770s as well as its voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 50-51, calls her Marie-Magdeleine LIVOIR, age 31, on the embarkation list, & Marie-Magdelaine LIVOIS, age 31, on the complete listing, says she was in the 32nd Family aboard Le St.-Rémi with her husband & 3 children, details her marriage but does not give a place of marriage or her or her husband's parents' names, & says daughter Marie-Madeleine BLANCHARD was born in 1775 but gives no birthplace; BRDR, 3:581 (ASM-3, 112), her death/burial record, calls her Maria Magdalena LIBOIS, "wid. Gregorio BLANCHARD," but does not give her parents' names or her age at the time of her death.  

02.  Wall of Names, 32 (pl. 8L), calls her Marie-Rose LIVOIRE, & lists her singly; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 597-99, Family No. 683; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 26-27, calls her Marie-Roze LIVOIRE, fille, age 18, on the embarkation list, "apparently not listed," on the debarkation list, calls her Marie-Rose LIVOIS, single girl, age 18, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 72nd "Family" aboard La Bergère with no one else; Winzerling, Acadian Odyssey, 193, note 117, citing a Spanish report, calls her Maria Rosa LIVOIR, & details the granting of her head-of-family status; BRDR, 2:685 (ASC-1, 169), the record of her first marriage, calls her Maria-Rosa LIVOIS, "an Acadian," calls her husband Carlos TEMPLET, gives no parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Abraham LANDRY & Jean LEJEUNE; BRDR, 2:128, 503 (ASM-2, 10), the record of her second marriage, calls her Maria Rosa LIBOIS, widow of Carlos TEMPLET, gives her & her husband's parents' names, says her parents were from "Beaubassin in Acadia," his "of Acadia," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Josef BRAUX & Juan-Bautiste CAZEBON; BRDR, 4:377 (ASM-3, 202), her death/burial record, calls her Rose LIVOIS, "age 63 yrs. of Parome, diocese of St. Malo, France, wid. of Pierre BOURQUE," but does not give her parents' names.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 526.

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