APPENDICES

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

SEMERE

[seh-MAY, sih-MARE]

ACADIA

Jean, fils, "natif de Quernesit," or Guernsey, son of Jean Semer and Maguerite Héron, married Marguerite, daughter of Michel Vincent, at Grand-Pré in November 1717; the priest who recorded the marriage called Jean, fils a Lemer.   He and Marguerite had at least three sons, all born at Minas:

Germain, born in c1720, married Marie Trahan.  Their son Jean-Baptiste le jeune was born at Grand-Pré in c1748. 

Jean-Baptiste married Élisabeth, daughter of Marcel Saulnier, in c1750.  Jean-Baptiste died by 1772, when his wife was recorded as a widow at Le Havre, France. 

Joseph born in c1726, married Anne Landry probably at Grand-Pré in c1754.  Their son Michel was born at Grand-Pré in c1755.  

In 1755, the Semers were still at Grand-Pré.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

Le Grand Dérangement of the 1750s scattered this small family to the winds:

In September 1755, the British lured Joseph Semer and other Minas settlers to the Grand-Pré church, where they were locked inside and held under armed guard until ships arrived to take them into exile.  Joseph, his wife, their son Michel, Germain and his wife, and Jean-Baptiste and his wife were exiled to Virginia that autumn and then deported to England in the spring of 1756 after Virginia authorities refused to let the Acadian exiles remain there.  In England, they were held as prisoners of war and treated like common criminals.  Joseph's daughter Marine was born in England in c1758.  After the French and Indian War finally ended, the Semers were among the Acadians in England whom the British repatriated to France in the spring of 1763.  Joseph and his family, and perhaps Germain and Jean-Baptiste and their families also, sailed to France aboard the transport L'Ambition, which reached St.-Malo in late May 1863.  Joseph and his family settled at St.-Servan, near St.-Malo, where two more daughters were born to them--Anne-Françoise in August 1763, and Marie-Marguerite in April 1766.  Joseph's wife Anne Landry died at St.-Servan in June 1766; she was only 38 years old.  Germain and Jean-Baptiste and their families ended up at Le Havre, where more children were born to German and his wife--Marie-Françoise in c1763, and Grégoire-Dominique in c1768.  By the mid-1770s, Germain had moved his family to Nantes.  Jean-Baptiste died by 1772, when his wife was counted at Le Havre as a widow. 

The Semers languished in France, enduring life there as best they could.  Jean-Baptiste died at Le Havre by 1772.  Germain died at Hôpital du Sanitat in Nantes, France, on 25 Oct 1776, in his mid-50s, a decade after receiving a letter from his son Jean-Baptiste le jeune, who had become separated from the family, remained in Acadia, and emigrated to Louisiana.  Germain's wife Marie Trahan also died in France. 

When in the early 1780s the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France a chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana, Joseph Semer, three of his daughters, one of them married, and two of his brother Germain's children, one of them soon to be a married, agreed to take it.  They had known for nearly 20 years that their kinsman Jean-Baptiste Semer le jeune had been living in Louisiana in a place called Atakapas.  They were determined to leave a mother country that had neglected its Acadian children and reunite with their kinsmen in La Nouvelle-Acadie along the banks of Bayou Teche. 

.

One of the many mysteries of the Acadians' Grand Dérangement is how Germain Semer's son, Jean-Baptiste le jeune, only seven years old in 1755, became separated from his parents and ended up on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore, watched over perhaps by relatives.  He came of age during the Acadian resistance against the British in present-day southeastern New Brunswick and, in the early 1760s, became a prisoner of war at Halifax with hundreds of other Acadians, including the Beausoleil Broussards of Petitcoudiac.  

When the French and Indian War finally ended, young Jean-Baptiste Semer le jeune had a serious dilemma on his hands.  The Treaty of Paris of February 1763 stipulated in its Article 14 that persons dispersed by the war had 18 months to return to their respective territories.  In the case of the Acadians, however, this meant that they could return only to French soil.  The Minas Basin had not been part of French territory for half a century.  British authorities refused to allow any of the Acadian prisoners in the region to return to their former lands as proprietors.  If Acadians chose to remain in Nova Scotia, they could live only in the interior of the peninsula in small family groups and work for low wages on former Acadian lands now owned by New Englander "planters."  If they stayed, they must also take the hated oath of allegiance to the new British king, George III, without reservation.  They would also have to take the hated oath if they joined their cousins in the St. Lawrence valley.  After all that they had suffered on the question of the oath, no self-respecting Acadian would consent to take it if it could be avoided.   Some chose to relocate to Miquelon, a French island off the southern coast of Newfoundland.  Others considered going to French St.-Domingue, today's Haiti, where Acadian exiles in the British colonies already had gone, or to the Illinois country, the west bank of which still belonged to France, or to French Louisiana, which, thanks to British control of Canada, was the only route possible to the Illinois country for Acadian exiles.  Whatever their choice, they would not remain in old Acadia.  So Jean-Baptiste le jeune and his fellow exiles saved up what little money they had and prepared to leave their homeland.  

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

In late 1764 and early 1765, Jean-Baptiste Semer le jeune, now a sturdy teenager, made his way to Louisiana via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, today's Haiti, with the Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil party.  He followed the Broussards to the Attakapas District, west of the Atchafalaya Basin, and helped establish La Nouvelle-Acadie along the banks of Bayou Teche.  Jean-Baptiste survived the epidemic that killed dozens of his fellow Acadians in the summer and fall of 1765.  Aching to hear of the fate of his family, he learned through the Acadian grapevine that his parents had been repatriated to France a few years before and were living at Le Havre.  He and his father exchanged letters, and in April 1766, temporarily residing in New Orleans, Jean-Baptiste le jeune wrote his father a glowing description of Louisiana, praising the Spanish authorities who encouraged Acadians to settle there.  The letter, long thought to have survived only in abstract, was copied word-for-word by a French official and deposited in the French naval archives, where it was recently discovered and translated by French-Canadian scholars.  No other document that has come to light offers a clearer insight into the struggles of the Acadians who came to Louisiana, and few other documents offer so poignant a picture of a son's devotion to parents he had not seen since childhood:  "I shall forget myself sooner than [I shall] forget you both," he wrote to them, "the kindnesses that you have rendered me are always in my thoughts, and I never miss offering them to God in my prayers for your dear preservation and ask of you also to do the same in return and to continue your friendship to both of us and to please me by giving me your precious news as often as possible....  I can only assure you of the profound and obedient respect with which I am, my very dear father and mother, your very humble" son.  Germain presented his son's letter to French officials and joined other Acadians in beseeching the French government to finance their emigration to Louisiana.  Unwilling to aid a rival nation even though it recently had been an ally, French authorities refused their request, and the Acadians remained in France.  Germain never saw his son again; he died at the hospital in Nantes, France, in October 1776, ten years after he received his son's letter from Louisiana.  His wife Marie Trahan also did not survive the Acadians' ordeal in the mother country.

Meanwhile, Germain's brother Joseph waited patiently for the French authorities to change their minds about Acadian emigration to Louisiana.  A chance to leave France finally came in the early 1780s.  Described as a 60-year-old plowman in the ship's record, Joseph, a widower and still unmarried, left France with two of his grown daughters--Marine, age 25, and Anne-Françoise, age 21--in late summer of 1785 aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships sponsored by the Spanish government to resettle Acadians in Louisiana.  Another unmarried daughter, Marie-Marguerite, age 19, also sailed aboard L'Amitié but traveled with relatives.  Marie-Marguerite married Antoine, son of Jean Rimbeau of Marseille, France, at New Orleans in January 1786.  She did not follow her father and sisters to the Attakapas District but probably remained at New Orleans.  Anne-Françoise married Joseph, son of Gaspard Sabot or Savot of Bonier, France, at Opelousas in December 1798.  

Thanks to the generosity of King Charles III of Spain, Joseph Semer and his nephew Jean-Baptiste le jeune were reunited at Attakapas after 30 years of separation.  Also aboard L'Amitié were two of Jean-Baptiste le jeune's siblings, whom he had never met--sister Marie-Françoise, called Françoise, now in her mid-20s, and brother Grégoire-Dominique, still a teenager--both of whom had been born in France during Le Grand Dérangement.  Françoise had married Joseph Boudrot at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, near Nantes, only a few months before her departure, but he did not accompany her and Grégoire on L'Amitié (the date of Joseph's arrival in the colony is unknown).  Françoise was six months pregnant with their first child when she reached New Orleans in November 1785.  She and Grégoire joined older brother Jean-Baptiste le jeune at Attakapas, where Françoise's son Antoine Boudrot was born in February 1786.  She had two more sons by Joseph Boudreaux--Louis, born at Attakapas in May 1789, and Joseph, fils in August 1791--before Joseph, père died probably at Attakapas in the mid-1790s.  Françoise remarried to Anglo-American William Norris of Pennsylvania, living near Carencro, at the northern edge of the Attakapas District, in August 1796.  She had more children by William.  She died at her home at Grand Bois, St. Martin Parish, in October 1813; she was only 51 years old.  Grégoire never married.  He died probably at Grand Pointe, St. Martin Parish, in June 1837; he was 70 years old.  

The Acadian Semeres of South Louisiana, then, are descended from Jean-Baptiste le jeune the letter writer and his son Urbain:  

Descendants of Jean-Baptiste SEMER le jeune (c1748-1790s)

After he wrote the letter to his father in April 1766, Jean-Baptiste le jeune returned to the Atakapas District and married Marie, daughter of probably Charles Thibodeaux and widow of Pierre Surette, in the late 1760s.  Marie and her first husband had come to Louisiana in February 1765 with the Broussard dit Beausoleil party, so they probably had known one another since their time together in the Halifax prison.  She was a widow by the spring of 1766; her husband may have been a victim of the epidemic of 1765.  Jean-Baptiste and Marie settled at Grand Pointe on upper Bayou Teche, near present-day Breaux Bridge.  All of their children were born at Grand Pointe.  Their daughters married into the Calais and Guidry and families and also settled at Grand Pointe.  Jean-Baptiste died probably at Grand Pointe by January 1799, when the Atakapas priest who recorded Jean-Baptiste's daughter Marie-Madeleine's marriage listed him as deceased; he would have been 50 years old if he had lived to see her married.  Jean-Baptiste's three sons also settled at Grand Pointe, but only one of them, the middle one, had sons of his own who carried on this line of the family.

1

Oldest son, Louis, born in Attakapas in c1769, the year after Jean-Baptiste le jeune's brother Grégoire was born in France, died at Grand Pointe in November 1837.  The priest who recorded his burial said that Louis was 75 years old when he died, but he was "only" in his late 60s.  Louis's last will, dated 3 September 1836 and filed at the St. Martinville courthouse, mentioned no wife or children, only a surviving sister, Martha, who also never married.  Louis outlived his younger married brothers by a decade.  

2

Urbain, born at Attakapas in July 1771, married Éloise, daughter of fellow Acadian Jean-Baptiste Guidry of Grand Pointe, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in May 1813; Éloise's brother Jean-Baptiste, fils had married Urbain's sister Marguerite back in June 1806.  All of the Acadian Semeres of South Louisiana are descended from Urbain and Eloise.  Their son Jean Baptiste le jeune was born at Grand Pointe in January 1816, Placide in June 1818, Julien in November 1820, Onésime in June 1823, and Joachim in March 1826.  Their daughters married into the Carlin and Dupuis families.  Urbain died at his home at Grande Pointe in February 1826; the priest who recorded his burial said that Urbain died at "age about 50 years," but he was 54.  

2a

Placide married Marie Zéolide, called Zéolide, daughter of fellow Acadian Marcellin Melançon, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in December 1839.  Their son Sosthène was born at Grand Pointe in October 1840, Urbain le jeune, also called Urbain Adelina or Valérien, in December 1846, Euphémon in September 1849, Treville in January 1858, Jean Baptiste le jeune in late 1858 but died at age 2 in September 1860, and Ferjus was born in July 1860.  Their daughters married into the Gaussiran and Melançon families.  Placide may have remarried in the 1860s to a much younger woman.  His new wife, described only as "Mrs. Placide Semere," died at Grand Pointe in October 1867; the Breaux Bridge priest who recorded her burial noted that she was only 16 years old when she died.  This would have made her younger than some of Placide's children!  

Valérien, by his first wife, married Catherine Delhomme, also called Alexander, probably was at Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in the late 1860s.  Their son Stanislas was born near Breaux Bridge in March 1871, and Victor was baptized at the Breaux Bridge church at age 6 weeks in March 1879.  

Euphémon, by his first wife, married Marie Ophelia Melançon, probably at Breaux Bridge in the early 1870s.  

2b

Jean Baptiste le jeune married Eremise, sometimes called Louisa, daughter of Henri Lagrange, at the Grand Coteau church, St. Landry Parish, in February 1849.  Their son Alexandre was born probably at Grand Pointe in July 1851 but died at age 11 months in August 1852.  

2c

In early November 1850, Julien, age 28, was an overseer on his paternal aunt Marthe's farm at Grand Pointe.  Living with him and Marthe were Rose Semere, a 60-year-old black woman, and Louis Semere, a 10-year-old mulatto boy.  Julien's succession record was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse in December 1855; he would have been 35 years old that year.  He does not seem to have married.  

2d

Onésime married Susanne Claude probably at Carencro, Lafayette Parish, in the 1870s; he would have been in his 50s at the time of the wedding.  

2e

Joachim married Hyacinthe Wiltz in a civil ceremony in St. Martin Parish in April 1879.  If he was the Joachim, son of Urbain, who had fought in the War Between the States, he would have been 53 years old at the time of his marriage. 

3

Youngest son Jean-Baptiste, fils, called Baptiste, born at Attakapas in September 1776, married Marie, daughter of fellow Acadian Charles Melançon of Grand Pointe, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in November 1817.  Marie was a native of St. James Parish on the Mississippi River.  Jean-Baptiste, fils and Marie settled at Grand Pointe.  Their son Eugène was born at Grand Pointe in January 1820 but died at age 8 in October 1828.  Their daughters married into the Durio and Leger families, so at least the blood of this line survived.  Jean-Baptiste, fils died at his home at Grand Pointe in April 1823; he was only 46 years old.  

Other SEMEREs on the Western Prairies

Area church and civil records make it difficult to link some Semeres in the western parishes with known Acadian lines of the family there:

Volisi Semere married Resida Landry.  Their daughter Olympe was born near Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in April 1869.  Volisi may have belonged to the Semere family of Grand Pointe.  

Celizie Semere gave birth to daughter Virginie near Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in January 1870; the priest who recorded the girl's baptism did not list the father's name.  Celizie may have belonged to the Semere family of Grand Pointe.  

Valéry or Vainie Semere married Charlotte Henry probably in the early 1870s.  Their son Joseph was born near Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, in March 1872, and Athamas near Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in January 1873.  Valery may have belonged to the Semere family of Grand Pointe.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Non-Acadian Semers and Semeres appear in the church records of South Louisiana during the late colonial, antebellum, and postwar periods, but they seem to have been Afro Creoles, or hommes et femmes des couleur libres--free men and women of color--not Frenchmen:  

Éstienne Seme, a mulatre libre from New Orleans, married Jeannete, a negresse libre and native of Atakapas, at Atakapas in July 1782.  

The succession record of Alexandre Semer, a free man of color, perhaps a descendant of Éstienne Seme, was filed at the courthouse in St. Martinville, St. Martin Parish, in May 1845.  The parish clerk noted that Alexandre's wife was Lucille Ben.  Their son Joseph, birth place and date unrecorded, but it probably was in the early 1840s, married Augustine Henry, daughter of Juliette, no surname given, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in October 1868; the St. Martinville priest called them affranchi, which means freed or emancipated.  Their son Joseph Alcide was born in St. Martin Parish in August 1868.  Alexandre and Lucille's daughter Victorine married Ursin, son of Charles Charles and widower of Sylvanie Charles, at the St. Martinville church in August 1870.  

William Semer, also a free man of color, or homme de couleur libre, as the Francophone priest described him, son of Fanny Baker, married Rose Walton, femme de couleur libre, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in June 1847.  William Semere died in St. Martin Parish in June 1861; he was only 48 years old.  This was probably the same William who had married Rose Walton.  

The succession record of Narcisse Semere, a free man of color, was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse, St. Martin Parish, in June 1859.  The parish clerk recorded no wife.  

Another succession record for a Narcisse Semere was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse, St. Martin Parish, in November 1860.  Again, the clerk listed no wife.  

Paul Semere, born in c1863, died near Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, in September 1877.  He probably was Afro Creole.  

Narcisse, or Norris, son of Joseph Beluard Semere, probably an Afro Creole, married Célestine, daughter of Robert Johnson, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1869; her mother was a Broussard; the recording priest noted that the couple already had nine children.  Their son Richard Grantt was born in Lafayette Parish in March 1875.  Older son Narcisse, fils married Céleste, daughter of Célestin Louis, at the Vermilionville church in September 1877.  

Julie Semere, parents unrecorded, a freedwoman, had a daughter named Augustine Senegal, birth place and date unrecorded, who married Gabriel Robert, a freedman, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in December 1869.  

Were these African-Creole Semeres--Alexandre, Joseph, William, Narcisse, Julie, Paul--related to the Acadian Semeres of Grand Pointe, or were they descendants of Éstienne Seme of New Orleans whose surname was similar to Semer/Semere?  As mentioned above, neither of the federal slave schedules of 1850 and 1860 listed slaves on any holdings of the Grand Pointe Semeres, so these Afro Creoles probably had no relationship to them.  

In November 1869, Honoré Bartien married Antointette, daughter of Eleri Semere of Orleans Parish, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish.  The recording priest said nothing of their "color."  

~

A father and young son with a similar-sounding surname came to New Orleans during the late antebellum period.  Native Louisianians would have called them Foreign French:

Eusèbe Semé, a 36-year-old farmer from France, reached New Orleans aboard the ship Glasgow out of Le Havre, France, in April 1848.  With him was his 9-year-old son Vincent.  Eusèbe told the port authority that his destination was Mississippi, so he and his son probably did not remain in South Louisiana. 

CONCLUSION

The Semers were a small family in Acadia, and they remained a small family in Louisiana.  However, a simple act of love by a member of this family has given us a priceless glimpse into the lives of our Acadian ancestors during Le Grand Dérangement.  Jean-Baptiste Semer le jeune's April 1766 letter from New Orleans to his father in France opens a window on the Acadian experience like few other documents that have come to light.  Jean-Baptiste le jeune wrote the letter 14 months after he came to Louisiana with the Broussard dit Beausoleil party from Halifax via St.-Domingue.  Jean-Baptiste le jeune followed the Broussards to Bayou Teche, and, though he dictated his letter to a nun in New Orleans exactly a year after he settled on the Teche, he returned to the bayou, married a fellow refugee from Halifax two years later, and created a family of his own.  He never saw his parents again--they both died before they had a chance to reunite with their son--but 20 long years after he came to Louisiana, he did reunite with his uncle Joseph, whom he had not seen in 30 years, and with a brother, a sister, and two female cousins he had never met.  Joseph, a widower, took his daughters, his niece, and younger nephew to upper Bayou Teche to live near his long-lost nephew.  Joseph never remarried and had no sons of his own.  Jean-Baptiste's younger brother, Grégoire, never married.  So our letter writer was the sole progenitor of this South Louisiana family, which remained on upper Bayou Teche.

Despite their early settlement in the old Attakapas District, this family owned no slaves during the late antebellum period, at least none that federal census takers counted in 1850 and 1860.  The Semeres were thus petit habitants, or small farmers, who participated only peripherally in the South's antebellum plantation economy.  

As early as the 1780s, non-Acadians with similar-sounding surnames also lived in the Bayou Teche valley and on the western prairies near their Acadian namesakes.  Most, if not all, of them--Semes, Semers, and Semeres--were free persons of color.  Since the Acadian Semeres of St. Martin Parish owned no slaves, at least none who were counted during the late antebellum period, these free persons of color probably were not related to them.  Meanwhile, two Semés, a father and his young son, arrived at New Orleans from Le Havre, France, in April 1848.  Their stated destination was Mississippi, so they probably did not remain in South Louisiana. 

Only two Acadian Semeres fought in the War Between the States--Onésime and Joachim, probably sons of Urbain and grandsons of the letter writer, Jean Baptiste.  Onésime was about to turn 40 when, in January 1863, he enlisted in the Yellow Jackets Battalion Louisiana Infantry, a front-line unit raised in St. Martin Parish that fought in South Louisiana.  In November of that year, the Yellow Jackets Battalion became a part of the Consolidated 18th Regiment and Yellow Jackets Battalion Infantry.  Onésime was assigned to Company G of that unit.  Joachim, who probably enlisted about the same time as his older brother, his company unrecorded, was in his late 30s in the early 1860s.  He served in the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, another front-line unit with a large concentration of Acadians that fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana through much of the war.  The Yankees captured Joachim at Fausse Pointe, near New Iberia, in late November 1863, when Federal forces invaded the Teche-Vermilion region for the second time that year.  They sent him as a prisoner of war to New Orleans and exchanged him at Red River Landing, in central Louisiana, the following July.  Both brothers survived the war and returned to their homes at Grand Pointe, St. Martin Parish.  

After the war, most of the descendants of Jean Baptiste Semer le jeune do not seem to have moved very far.  They can be found today in northern St. Martin Parish, especially at Breaux Bridge, Cecilia, and Henderson, near where their Acadian ancestor settled.  

By the early 1800s, the family's name had evolved from Semer to Semere, which is how it is usually spelled today.  The family's name also is spelled Cemair, Cemaire, Cemar, Chemer, Seimair, Seimaire, Seimer, Seimere, Seinere, Semair, Semaire, Semar, Semé, Seymaire, Seymer, Sumaire.  This family should not be confused with that of Louis Simar of La Pointe Noire in the Opelousas District, who were French Canadians, not Acadians.

Sources:  1850 U.S. Federal Census, St. Martin Parish; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slaves Schedules, St. Landry & St. Martin parishes; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, St. Landry & St. Martin parishes; Bernard, Cajuns & Their Acadian Ancestors, 30; Brasseaux, Foreign French, 2:308; Brasseaux, Founding of New Acadia, 60; BRDR, vol. 1a(rev.); Dafford Mural, Acadian Memorial, St. Martinville, LA; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, CD; Mouhot, ed., "Letter by Jean-Baptiste Semer," quote from pp. 223, 226; NOAR, vol. 4; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728-29; White, DGFA-1, 1448, 1578; Winslow, "French Inhabitants," p. 39; Winslow's 1755 List.

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, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Anne-Françoise [SEMER], & lists her with her father & a sister; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728-29, Family No. 859, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Anne-Francoise SEMER, gives her parents' names, says she was goddaughter of Pierre LANDRY & Francoise LANDRY, & that her family resided at St.-Servan from 1763-72; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 68-69, calls her Anne-Francoise, sa [Joseph SEMER's] fille, age 21, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkatin list, calls her Anne-Francoise SEMER, his [Joseph SEMER's] daughter, age 21, on the complete listing, says she was in the 16th Family aboard L'Amitié with her father & a sister, & that she was born in 1763 but gives no birthplace; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:703, 705 (Opel. Ch.: v.1-A, p.82), her marriage record, calls her Anne-Françoise SEMER "of St.-Malo, France," calls her husband Joseph SAVOT or SABOT "of Bonieu or Bonier, France," gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were François BRANDE, Charles VIGE, & P. LONTONY(?)[sic].

02.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls him Grégoire SEME, & lists him with a sister; Mouhot, ed., "Letter by Jean-Baptiste Semer," p. 222, note 10, taken from French genealogist Gérard-Marc Braud, calls him Grégoire-Dominique, son of Germain SEMER & Marie TRAHAN, & says he was born in c1768 but gives no birthplace; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 66-67, calls him Grégoire SEMÉ, cordier, age 16, on the embarkation list, does not include him on the debarkation list, calls him Grégoire SEMER, ropemaker, age 16, on the complete listing, & says he was in the 10th Family aboard L'Amitié with his sister; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 3:587 (GC Ch.: v. 1, p. 43), his death/burial record, calls him Grégoire SEMERE, but does not gives his parents' names nor mentions a wife.

Why did he & his sister Françoise not receive implements from the Spanish when they reached LA?  Were they heading for a settlement--Attakapas--where they would not set up their own household?  

Why did he never marry?  His death was recorded at Grand Coteau, which is in St. Landry Parish, but he could have died at Grande Pointe, southeast of Grand Coteau in northern St. Martin Parish, where the SEMEREs resided, & his burial was recorded at the nearest church.  There was no church at Cecilia, Grand Pointe, until 1891.  Even a church at Breaux Bridge, a few miles southwest of Cecilia, did not exist until 1847.  The church at Grand Coteau had been there since 1819.  

03.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls him Jean-Baptiste SEMER, & lists him singly; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:653-54 (SM Ct.Hse.: Succ. #49), his succession record, calls him Jean Baptiste SEMER, is dated Nov 1809, lists his widow as Marie THIBODEAUX, & his "legitimate children" as Louis, Urbain, Baptiste, Victoire m. Olivier GUÉDRY, Margaret m. Jean Baptiste GUÉDRY, Magdaleine m. Baptiste CALAIS, & Martha, & says Mary SURETTE, "a half sister to the mother [?] is a daughter of Pierre SURETTE & Marie THIBODEAUX, Mary SURETTE is widow of Ephraim ROBICHOT."  See also See also <thecajuns.com/cardmoney.htm>; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 124, 280, 416; De Ville, Attakapas Census, 1771, 13; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 8; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1785, 14. 

His estimated birth year is from the age given in the Attakapas census of 1771, not 1777.  The Attakapas censuses of 1766 & 1774 did not include ages.  

There is much mystery surrounding his whereabouts in the 10-year period, 1755 to 1765.  If he was born in 1748, he would have been only 7 in 1755.  How in the world did someone so young become separated from his parents even in the chaos of the deportation from Minas in the autumn of 1755?  Who watched after him in the wilderness of present-day eastern New Brunswick during the terrible years that followed?  Why is he not on the list of Acadian prisoners at Halifax in Aug 1763 with other Acadian refugees?  See Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 249-52.  Was he being held somewhere else in Nova Scotia that year?  His name does not appear on the lists of Acadians prisoners at Fort Cumberland or Fort Edward either.  See Stanley LeBlanc PDFs.  So where was he in 1763, when he would have been 15 years old?  The notion that he was separated from his parents in 1755 & grew up with the Acadian resistance in eastern New Brunswick is an assumption based on the fact that he came to LA in Feb 1765 with the BROUSSARD dit Beausoliel party, which consisted of Acadians mostly from the prison compound at Halifax who had surrendered to the British in present-day eastern New Brunswick in the late 1750s & early 1760s.  Yet his name cannot be linked with any of those prisons in Nova Scotia.  Perhaps he was with his parents when they were exiled to Virginia in 1755, deported to England in 1756, & repatriated to France in 1763.  After the French & Indian War ended in early 1763 & he reached France that spring with the Acadians from England, he would have had the time, if he had found the opportunity, to return to Nova Scotia by late 1764, when the BROUSSARD party left Halifax for St.-Domingue.  But what would have been his motivation to leave his parents in France when he was 15 or 16?  We will have to wait for Stephen A. White's DGFA-2 to answer these questions.  

And then there is the question of who was his father.  The brochure accompanying the Dafford Mural at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville, calls him Jean-Baptiste SEMER & claims that he was son of Joseph SEMER, who reached LA in 1785 aboard one of the 7 Ships from France; the mural, in fact, depicts Joseph, figure number 3, embracing Jean-Baptiste, figure number 2, "his son," soon after the latter's arrival at Attakapas after a separation of 30 years.  Brasseaux, Founding of New Acadia, 60, mentions a letter from Jean-Baptiste SEMER in LA to his father that reached France in September 1766, but, ever the careful historian, Dr. Brasseaux does not give the name of Jean-Baptiste's father but calls him only "... one SEMER, an Acadian residing at Le Havre...."  No church record documenting births, baptisms, marriages, or deaths in the SEMERE family found in Hébert, Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, or 2-A, including baptismal records of Jean-Baptiste's many children & Jean-Baptiste's succession record in 1-B:653, links Jean-Baptiste with Joseph in any way, or mentions anyone else as Jean-Baptiste's father.  So one wonders where the editors of Wall of Names found evidence that Joseph & Jean-Baptiste SEMERE were father & son.  According to a recent article on Jean-Baptiste's remarkable letter to his father in France, Jean-Baptiste's father is identified as Germain SEMER, not Joseph.  See Mouhot, ed., "Letter by Jean-Baptiste SEMER," p. 220.  In note 10, p. 222, Mouhot cites French genealogist Gérard-Marc Braud for Germain's birth in 1720 at "Petcoudiac."  According to the age given in the passenger list of L'Amitié in 1785, Joseph was born in c1725.  Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728, Family No. 859, says that Joseph was born in c1727 but gives no birthplace.  Joseph & Germain were probably brothers, but this researcher has found no record verifying this relationship.  Mouhot/Braud goes on to say that Germain died at Hôpital du Sanitat in Nantes, France, on 25 Oct 1776, so he & his son Jean-Baptiste never reunited.  If Joseph was indeed the brother of Germain, Jean-Baptiste would have embraced his uncle, not his father, in 1785 when the older SEMER finally reached Attakapas.  

The date of Jean-Baptiste's death also is a mystery.  This researcher has found no burial record for Jean-Baptiste SEMERE.  His succession record, cited above, was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse in Nov 1809.  But he was years in his grave by then.  Several church records dated 1 Jan 1789, 6 Aug 1800, 6 Aug 1800, & 6 Aug 1800, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:735 (SM Ch.: v.5, #449), 1-A:157 (SM Ch.: v.5, #299), 1-A:742-43 (SM Ch.: v.5, #300), & 1-A:677-78 (SM Ch.: v.5, #301), refer to missions par arriba de Baillou Tech [on the upper Bayou Teche] at the Widow SEMER.  In 1789, Jean-Baptiste's sister Françoise was a widow, so the earlier church record could have been referring to her.  However, Françoise was no longer a widow in 1800, so it is likely that the Widow SEMER in these church records was Marie THIBODEAUX, wife of Jean-Baptiste SEMERE.  But the mystery continues.  Note the numbers of the St. Martinville church records cited above.  The 1789 record is in v.5 & is numbered #449.  The 1800 records are in the same volume but are numbered #299, #300, & #301.  This is strange record keeping, to be sure.  Is the 1789 record misdated, or numbered incorrectly?  SM Ch: v.5, #449, is the marriage contract for Marie SUDRIC, who married surgeon Louis VEILLON of New Orleans at Attakapas, now St. Martinville, in early 1789.  The actual marriage record, dated 2 Feb 1789, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:735, is cited as SM Ch.: v.4, #35, which makes more sense in light of the 1800 records.  Evidently the marriage contract, which mentions Widow SEMER, was included in a later volume, so, judging by the consistency of the dates in the Marie SUDRIC/Louis VEILLON marriage records, 1789 is not a mistake.  Thus, it could be possible that Jean-Baptiste SEMERE died before Jan 1789.  But the mystery continues.  A Jean-Baptiste SEMAIR witnessed the marriage of Victoire SEMAIR & Olivier GUIDRY at St. Martinville in Jun 1791, & the priest who recorded the marriage did not say that the bride's father was deceased at the time of the marriage.  See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:375, 707 (SM Ch.: v.4, #57).  But the witness could have been Jean-Baptiste, fils, age 15, Victoire's brother, not her father, & the Attakapas priest, Father Bernard de DEVA, could have been having a busy day when he recorded the marriage in the parish register.  Notice that Jean-Baptiste, père was not a witness to his sister Françoise's marriage to Carencro resident William NORRIS of PA in Aug 1796, but younger brother Grégoire was a witness at least to the marriage investigation.  See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:598-99, 705 (SM Ch.: Marriage Investigation:  Folio D, #6 & 6A; NI Ch.: OA-#3; & NI Ch.: OA Folio #3), dated 12 & 23 Aug 1796.  One would think that if Jean-Baptiste SEMERE, père were alive in Aug 1796, he would have been consulted on his younger sister's betrothal to a Presbyterian Anglo American.  But all of this is probably an elaborate red herring.  A church record in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:332 (SM Ch.: Folio E, p.27), dated 8 Oct 1806, identities our elusive Widow SEMER as Augusta NEZAT, not Marie THIBODEAUX.  So Jean-Baptiste SEMERE, père probably was very much alive in Jan 1789, certainly in Aug 1789, when he appeared on an Attakapas militia list, cited above (his son Jean-Baptiste, fils, would have been only 13 in Aug 1789, too young for the militia, even in that day, so Jean-Baptiste, père is the one on the militia list).  For daughter Marie-Madeleine's marriage records, dated 31 Jan 1799 & 4 Feb 1799, listing him as deceased, see Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:156, 706 (SM Ch.: Folio B-1; SM Ch.: v.4, #169).  So there is no question that he was dead by Jan 1799, a full decade before his succession was filed.  He is called deceased also in the marriage record of daughter Marguerite, dated 3 Jun 1806.  See Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:335, 653 (SM Ch.: v.5, #61).  Augusta NEZAT does not appear in any other church record than the one cited above, so, again, this may be a case of sloppy record keeping.  I will play it safe, then, & use a verifiable, logical date--daughter Marie-Madeleine's Jan/Feb 1799 wedding--for Jean-Baptiste SEMERE's demise.  

The burial record of wife Marie THIBODEAUX, dated 9 Jul 1810, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:699 (SM Ch.: v.4, #605), calls her Marie THIBODEAUX [or Mrs. Olivier THIBODEAUX][sic], the wid. SEYMER of La Grand Pointe, says she died on 8 Jul 1810 at her residence & was buried the next day, age 70 yrs.  Why does the record say "[or Mrs. Olivier THIBODEAUX]"?  Was this a clumsy reference to her father?  Jean-Baptiste SEMERE's succession record, cited above, hints that his widow, Marie THIBODEAUX, had been married to Pierre SURETTE, not Olivier THIBODEAUX, who probably was a cousin.  

04.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls him Joseph SEMER, & lists him with no wife & 2 daughters; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728-29, Family No. 859, calls him Joseph SEMER, says he was born in c1727 but gives no birthplace, does not give his parents' names, says he was a ploughman, that he married Anne LANDRY in c1754 but gives no place of marriage, says she was born in c1728 but gives no birthplace, says she died 15 Jun 1766, age 38, & was buried next day, St.-Servan, includes the birth/baptismal records of son Michel, born in c1755 but gives no birthplace, daughter Marine, born in c1758 but gives no birthplace, daughter Anne-Francoise, born & baptized 7 Aug 1763, St.-Servan, goddaughter of Pierre LANDRY & Francoise LANDRY, & daughter Marie-Marguerite, born & baptized 16 Apr 1766, St.-Servan, goddaughter of Jean-Baptiste DAIGLE & Élizabeth LANDRY, & says he, his wife, son Michel, & daughter Marine "disembarked at St.-Malo from England on May 22, 1763 from the ship, L'Ambition," & that the family lived in St.-Servan from 1763-72; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 68-69, calls him Joseph SEMER, laboureur, age 60, on the embarkation list, Josef SEMAR, on the debarkation list, & Joseph SEMER, plowman, age 60, on the complete listing, says he was in the 16th Family aboard L'Amitié with no wife & 2 daughters, says he married Anne LANDRY in c1754 but gives no place of marriage, that she died in 1766 but gives no place of burial, & that daughter Anne-Francoise was born in 1763 but gives no birthplace.  See also Winslow's 1755 List.

What happened to his son Michel, who would have been 20 in 1785?  Did he marry in France & choose to stay there, or did he die young?

05.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Marie [SEMER], & lists her with her father & a sister; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728-29, Family No. 859, calls her Marine SEMER, says she was born in c1758 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, says she, her parents, & brother Michel "disembarked at St.-Malo from England on May 22, 1763 from the ship, L'Ambition," & that the family lived in St.-Servan from 1763-72; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 68-69, calls her Marie, sa [Joseph SEMER's] fille, age 25, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Marie SEMER, his [Joseph SEMER's] daughter, age 25, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 16th Family aboard L'Amitié with her father & a sister.  

What happened to her in LA?

06.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Françoise SEME soeur [of Grégoire SEME], & lists her with a brother; Mouhot, ed., "Letter by Jean-Baptiste Semer," p. 222, note 10, taken from French genealogist Gérard-Marc Braud, calls her Marie-Francoise [SEMER], says she was born c1762, Le Havre de Grace, Notre-Dame (Seine-Maritime) parish, that she was daughter of Germain SEMER & Marie TRAHAN, & that she married Joseph BOUDREAU on 30 May 1785, St.-Martin-de-Chantenay; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 66-67, calls her Franéoise SEMÉ, sa [Grégoire SEMÉ's] soeur, age 25, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Françoise SEMER, his [Grégoire SEMER's] sister, age 24, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 10th Family aboard L'Amitié with no husband & a brother; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:598-99, 705 (SM Ch.: Marriage Investigation: Folio D, #6 & 6A; NI Ch.: OA-#3; NI Ch.: OA Folio, #3), the record of her second marriage, calls her Françoise SEMER, "a Catholic, widow of BOUDRAUD, of Havre de Grace, France," & Françoise SEMER, "widow BOUDREAUX, born at Havre [France]," calls her parents Germain SEMER & Marie TRAHAN of Acadia, calls her second husband William NORIS, "resides at Carencro, 30 yrs. old, of Redston, Pennsylvania, in this colony for 12 yrs., in this parish for 2 yrs., Presbyterian," & William NORRIS, "born in Pennsylvania, Presbyterian," calls his parents William [NORRIS] of London, England & Mary MELIS of Pennsylvania, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Louis CHEMIN, sacristan, primary witness, Jean FRANC-MERCADE, primary witness, William Pitte HIGBEE of Philadelphia, William CARUTHERS, James CLARK of Mariland, the diocese of Baltimore, Louis ST. JULIEN of France, Simon BENOIT, & Grégoire SEMERE [her brother]; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-A:851 (SM Ch.: v.4, #860), her death/burial record, calls her Marie Françoise SEMER, "native of Nantes, spouse of William NORIS, inhabitant of la grand bois," says she was 51 when she died at her home, & that she was buried in the parish cemetery, does not give her parents' names or the name of her first husband, & says her burial record was signed by François POTIER.  

Why is Françoise SEMERE called the mother in the baptismal record of Joseph BREAUX, fils, son of Joseph BREAUX, père, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:113 (SM Ch.: v.4, #617), dated Jul 1794?  The baptismal record says the boy was born in Aug 1791.  Did Françoise marry Joseph BREAUX before she married William NORRIS of Carencro?  No record of her marriage to Joseph BREAUX has been found, other than this hint in a baptismal record.  Note that the record of her marriage to William NORRIS calls her widow BOUDREAUX, not widow BREAUX.  But the plot thickens.  The baptismal record of Marie Adèle, daughter of Antoine BOUDREAUX & Marie SAVOY, dated 6 Feb 1814, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-A:114 (Opel. Ch.: v.2, p.23), says the girl's paternal grandparents were Joseph BOUDRAUD of Acadia & Marie SEMER of St.-Malo.  This would be Marie-Françoise SEMERE.  One of the godparents is Joseph BOUDRAUD, "uncle of the baptized," which seems to be saying that Joseph the godfather was Antoine the father's brother!  How could this be?  The passenger list of L'Amitié, cited above, shows that Marie-Françoise SEMERE came to LA only with brother Grégoire, not with any children by her first husband, Joseph BOUDREAUX, whom she had married at St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, near Nantes, on 30 May 1785, less than 3 months before her ship set sail from Paimboeuf, the port of Nantes, on 20 Aug!  Was she pregnant when she crossed to LA, & her son or sons were born in LA after she settled at Grand Pointe in the Attakapas District?  Evidently so, at least in the case of Antoine.  The baptismal record of Antoine, son of Joseph BOUDREAUX & Marie-Françoise SEMERE, dated 9 Jan 1787, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:88 (SM Ch.: v.3, #160), says that the boy was born on 28 Feb 1786.  Do the math--he would have been conceived in ... May 1785, the same month his parents married back in France.  (So he should be added to the list of Acadian immigrants to LA as one of the in utero arrivals.)  But the plot thickens even more.  Louis, son of Joseph BOUDREAUX & Marie-Françoise SEMERE, was born at Attakapas in May 1789!  See his baptismal record, dated 7 Oct 1789, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:90 (SM Ch.: v.4, #382).  This means that when Françoise SEMERE reached LA in Nov 1785, she was not the widow, but simply the wife, of Joseph BOUDREAUX.  His date of arrival in the colony is unknown; he may have come on an earlier ship in 1785 or a later one, or he may have reached the colony after 1785.  This makes it clear that the Joseph BREAUX, fils born at Attakapas in Aug 1791 was actually Joseph BOUDREAUX, fils; the baptismal record cited at the beginning of this paragraph is either a mistake by the Attakapas priest in recording the boy's surname, or a transcription error by Father Hébert & his editors.  Joseph BOUDREAUX, père was dead by Aug 1796, when Françoise SEMERE remarried.  

Was Grand Bois, which means Big Woods, the same place as Grand Pointe, or were they different communities?  If she died at Grand Pointe & was buried "in the parish cemetery," would her family have had to move her body to St. Martinville, the only place, other than Opelousas, where a Catholic church was located in that area in 1813?  This may be a hint that Grand Bois was not the same place as Grand Pointe, & that Grand Bois was near St. Martinville.  Or, perhaps the St. Martinville church had "parish cemeteries" in every community under its jurisdiction, not just the one near the church at the old Attakapas Post.  

07.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Marie-Marguerite SEMER niece [of Jean-Baptiste LEBLANC], & lists her with  her uncle & his wife; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 728-29, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marie-Marguerite SEMER, gives her parents' names, says she was the goddaughter of Jean-Baptiste DAIGLE & Élizabeth LANDRY, & that her family resided at St.-Servan from 1763-72; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 66-67, calls her Marie-Marguerite SEMER, nièce au dit [Jean-Bte LEBLANC], age 19, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Marie-Marguerite SEMER, his [Jean-Baptiste LEBLANC's] niece, age 19, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 5th Family aboard L'Amitié with her uncle & his wife; NOAR, 4:265, 285 (SLC, M5, 44), her marriage record, calls her Maria Margarita SEMAIRE, calls her husband Antonio RIMBEAU, "native of Marseilles," gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Vicente LLORCA & Josef MARTINEZ.

Exactly how was she kin to Jean-Baptiste LEBLANC?  Why didn't she travel with her father & older sisters, who crossed to LA on the same ship?  Maybe she did & was only listed with the LEBLANCs at debarkation.    

She & her husband disappear from New Orleans church records during the late colonial period, nor do they appear in South Louisiana church records outside of the city during the antebellum period.  So where did they go?  Did they remain in the city & have no children? 

[top of page SEMERE]

Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier