APPENDICES

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

BERTAUD/BERTEAU

[bare-toe]

ACADIA

There were several families with similar-sounding surnames living in greater Acadia before Le Grand Dérangement: 

Pierre Le Berteau dit Lyonnais, evidently from Lyon, France, married in c1697 probably at Newfoundland to a woman whose name has been lost to history.  Twins daughters, who likely died in childhood, were born to them in c1706.  Pierre and and his wife also had a son, who lived to create a family of his own.  Pierre dit Lyonnais remarried to Renée Carmel, widow of Joannis Deriboyen dit Valentin, probably at Newfoundland sometime after 1705.  She gave him another son, who also created his own family. 

Antoine dit Lyonnais, by his father's first wife, born at Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland, in c1702, remained at British-controlled Newfoundland after 1714 and married twice there, first to Anne Sabot in c1727, and then to Marie-Josèphe, daughter of Yves Glamard and Geneviève Coupiau dit Desaleur, in c1740.  His two wives gave him at least seven children, all born probably in Newfoundland:  Antoine, fils in c1728; Pierre le jeune in c1733; Joseph in c1741; Françoise in c1745; Jean-Baptiste in c1748; ____ in c1750; and ____ in c1751.  In c1751, he took his family to French-controlled Île Royale and settled at Petit-Bras-d'Or, where, in April 1752, a French official counted him and his family.  The officials noted that Antoine dit Lyonnais was age 50, that he had been a settler at Bras d'Or for one year, and that he was a "Native of Porte-aux-Basques, where he managed the affairs of the English."  The official also noted that son Pierre le jeune, age 19, was "still at Boston with the English."  Oldest son Antoine, fils married Marguerite Lejeune.  Antoine dit Lyonnais died before August 1761, in his late 50s, place unrecorded. 

Pierre, fils, by his father's second wife, born at Plaisance, Newfoundland, in c1705, married Jeanne, daughter of Jean Borny and Marie Commère and widow of Jean Sabot, at Port-aux-Basques in c1739, decades after Newfoundland had come under British control.  She gave him a son, Pierre III, born probably at Port-aux-Basques in c1740.  Like his older half-brother, Pierre, fils did not remain in Newfoundland.  He moved on to French-controlled Île Royale and died at Lorembec, near Louisbourg, in January 1753, age 48. 

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Pierre Bertaud dit Montaury, who, according to Acadian genealogist Bona Arsenault, was born in France in c1690, came to Acadia in the early 1700s, where he worked as a fisherman and a maître de grave.  Pierre married Marie, daughter of Pierre Martin and Anne Godin of Port-Royal, probably at Annapolis Royal in c1714.  Later in the decade, they settled at Port-Toulouse, Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island, before moving on to Havre-St.-Pierre on the north coast Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in the early 1720s.  Marie gave Pierre dit Montaury seven children; only the oldest was born in British Nova Scota:  Marie-Josèphe perhaps at Annapolis Royal, date unrecorded; Jacques at Port-Toulouse in c1718; Marguerite in c1720; Anne-Agathe at Havre-St.-Pierre in September 1724; Françoise in c1727; Jean-François in July 1729; and a second Marie-Josèphe in November 1732.  Their daughters married into the Gallon, Martin, Petitpas, and Longuépée families.  Pierre dit Montaury died probably at Havre-St.-Pierre between February 1733 and February 1734.  Only one of his sons created a family of his own: 

Oldest son Jacques dit Montaury, also called dit Breto, born at Havre-St.-Pierre in c1718, married Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of Jacques Quimine and Marie Chiasson of Chignecto, at Ste.-Anne de Beaubassin, Chignecto, in April 1741 and brought her to Île St.-Jean, where he worked as a fisherman/habitant.  In  August 1752, a French official counted him, Madeleine, and four of their children--Grégoire, Jean-Baptiste, Joseph, and Marie-Rose--at Havre-St.-Pierre.  His two older daughters, Anne and Marie-Rose, born at Havre-St.-Pierre in December 1742 and February 1745, were baptized as Berteaus at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, the parish church for Havre-St.-Pierre.  According to Bona Arsenault, by 1752, Jacques was using his father's dit--Montaury--as his surname, which is confirmed by the census of August of that year.  Son Grégoire married into the Blin family. 

Jean-François, called François, was born probably at Havre-St.-Pierre in c1727.  He was living there, still a bachelor, in 1752. 

According to Bona Arsenault, youngest son Pierre was born probably at Havre-St.-Pierre in c1730, but Acadian genealogist Stephen A. White does not list him with the family.  [For more of this family in pre-disperal Acadia, see Book Three]

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According to Bona Arsenault, Antoine Berteau, born in c1734, married Marguerite Lejeune and settled on Île St.-Pierre, a French-controlled island off the southern coast of Newfoundland, where they raised a large family.  

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Bona Arsenault says another Pierre Bertaud, born at St.-Nicolas de la Chaume, diocese of Luçon, France, in c1713, was captain of the goélette La Salée Robin and died on Île St.-Jean in 1758.  He seems to have left no descendants.

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

After the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg on Île Royale in July 1758, the redcoats rounded up most of the Acadian families on nearby Île St.-Jean and deported them to France.  The crossing took a heavy toll on the Bertaud dit Montaury family.  Marguerite Montaury, age 38, husband Pierre Gallon, age 48, and all of their children, at least five of them, perished aboard the transport Violet, which sank in a storm in mid-December of the southwest coast of England.  Others members of the family made the crossing without mishap.  Marguerite's older brother Jacques dit Montaury, wife Madeleine Quimine, and their children--Grégoire, Jean-Baptiste, Louis, Jacques-Aubin, Joseph, and Marie-Rose--crossed aboard the transport Supply, which left Chédabouctou Bay in an 11-ship convoy in late November, was driven by the North Atlantic storm to Bideford, England, for repairs and did not reach St.-Malo until the second week of March 1759.  Marguerite and Jacque's youngest sister Marie-Josèphe and her husband Pierre Longuépée also made the crossing from Île St.-Jean aboard Supply. 

The island Acadians did their best to make a life for themselves in the suburbs and villages of the St.-Malo area.  Jacques and his family resided in the suburb of St.-Servan-sur-Mer from 1759 to 1763.  Soon after reaching France, son Jacques-Aubin died at St.-Servan in May 1759, age 4, and infant son Joseph, who had been born on the crossing to St.-Malo, died at age 5 months also in May.  In 1763, after the war with Britain finally ended, Jacques and his family left France for Île St.-Pierre, a French-controlled fishery island off the southern coast of Newfoundland.  In 1778, during the American Revolution, British forces captured the island and deported the Acadians there to France.  Evidently Jacques's son Grégoire, who called himself Grégoire Berteau, and Grégoire's wife Françoise Blin, were among the Acadians deported back to France.  Their daughter Antoinette-Françoise was born in St.-Nicolas Parish, La Rochelle, in November 1782.  Meanwhile, from 1759 to 1772, Jacque's sister Marie-Josèphe and her family resided at Bonnaban, near St.-Malo, then at LaGouesnière and St.-Servan, where seven children were born to them.  According to Acadian genealogist Bona Arsenault, François Bertho, born in c1758, sans doute son of Jacques dit Montaury and Madeleine Quimine of Île St.-Jean, married Marie-Josèphe, daughter of Acadians Joseph Poirier and Ursule Renaud of Chignecto and Île St.-Jean, at Belle-Île-en-Mer, France, in 1781.  Their daughter Marie-Anne was born at Le Palais on the island in September 1782.  The priest who recorded her baptism called the father Fancion, not François, Berteau.  According to Arsenault, François's wife died at Le Palais in 1789, so he and his family remained in the mother country after the majority of the Acadians there resettled in Louisiana.  Interestingly, François and his family do not appear in any of the volumes of Albert J. Robichaux's study of the Acadians in France.  Evidently Jacques's sister Marie-Josèphe and her family also remained in France. 

Antoine Berteau dit Lyonnais, fils, no kin to the Bertauds of Île St.-Jean, and his wife Marguerite Lejeune also ended up in France, perhaps with the other exiles of 1758.  Their son Jean-Baptiste was born in St.-Sauveur Parish, La Rochelle, in March 1768.  The priest who recorded the boy's baptism called Antoine, fils a marin de Louisbourg.  Daughter Marguerite-Antoinette was born in St.-Nicolas Parish, La Rochelle, in January 1781, and son Pierre-Thomas in December 1783.  The priest who recorded Pierre-Thomas's baptism noted that Antoine and Marguerite were from Miquelon, the French-controlled island next to Île St.-Pierre.  Arsenault also gives them daughters Marguerite, born in 1762; Antoinette in 1764; and Adélaïde in 1771; and sons Guillaume, born in 1770; and Antoine III in 1773.  

Acadian Berteaus ended up on at least two French-controlled islands in the Caribbean.  Marie-Gabriel, daughter of the deceased Pierre Berteau, menuisier gagiste, and Élisabeth Girouard, was born at Fort Royal, Martinique, in March 1775.  Thérèse Berteau, wife of Étienne Fontenelle of Île Royale and Inganiche, died at Port-Louis, Guadeloupe, in May 1760.

Spanish officials counted Pierre, son of François Berteau and Louise Ernaudine of Nantes, France, at Cabahannocer on the river above New Orleans in April 1766.  In his household lived a woman, a girl, and one slave.  Pierre remained at Cabahannocer and remarried to two Acadians from the Savoie and Bourgeois families there.  His being at Cabahannocer in April 1766 implies that he was an Acadian who had come to Louisiana with 600 other exiles from Halifax via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, in 1765.  However, when one considers his birth at Nantes in c1738  (based on the age given in the Cabahannocer census of January 1777), one suspects that he was a French immigrant, not an Acadian, who chose to live away from the bustle of New Orleans.

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

According to Bona Arsenault, a Berteau or Bertaud from greater Acadia emigrated to Louisiana:  Pierre Berteau, born in c1730, probablement son of Pierre Bertaud dit Montaury of Île St.-Jean, made his way to Louisiana probably from Halifax via Cap-Français, French St.-Domingue, and settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, now St. James Parish, on the Mississippi River above New Orleans.  In April 1766, Spanish authorities noted that Pierre or Pedro Berteau was part of Nicolas Verret's company of the Cabanocé militia.  Pierre married an Acadian at Cabanocé in August 1766.  Spanish authorities counted them and six children--two sons and four daughters, ranging in age from 10 to 1--on the left, or east, bank of the river at St.-Jacques in January 1777.  Pierre and his family were still there two years later, in March 1779.  Pierre remarried to an Acadian widow at St.-Jacques in November 1796.  However, the record of Pierre's second marriage says that his father was not Pierre Bertaud dit Montory of Île St.-Jean but rather François Berteau of Nantes, France.  

The Acadian Memorial in St. Martinsville, no doubt following Arsenault, includes Pierre Berteau on its Wall of Names, implying that he was an Acadian immigrant.  Other than Arsenault's assertion, however, this researcher has found no solid link between this Pierre Berteau and the Berteau/Bertauds of greater Acadia.  Pierre, son of François of Nantes, most likely was a Frenchman, not an Acadian, who lived in a predominantly Acadian community and took two Acadian wives.

Descendants of Pierre BERTEAU (c1739-1813; ?)

Pierre, son of François Berteau and Louise Ernaudine of Nantes, France, born probably at Nantes in c1739, had settled at Cabanocé, present-day St. James Parish, by April 1766.  He may have been married to a woman whose name has been lost to history.  He married, or remarried, twice at St.-Jacques, to Rose, daughter of Acadians Paul Savoie and Judith Michel, in August 1766, and to Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of Acadians Pierre Bourgeois and Marie-Françoise Cormier, in November1796.  Only Rose gave him children whose names have survived.  Their daughters married into the Blanchard, Frederick, Gaudet, and Theriot families.  Pierre died near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1813; the priest who recorded his burial said that Pierre was 85 years old when he died, but he probably was in his mid-70s.  Only one of his three sons had sons of his own, and most of his grandsons do not seem to have created families of their own.  By the 1830s, when the remaining line of the family moved to the Bayou Lafourche valley, Pierre Berteau's descendants disappear from the river parishes.  

1

Oldest son Jean-Charles, called Charles, from his first wife, born at St.-Jacques in c1768, married Scholastique, daughter of Acadian Pierre Michel, at St.-Jacques in February 1793.  Their son Joseph le jeune was born at St.-Jacques in November 1793, Charles-Eugène, called Eugène, in June 1797, and Pierre or Charles in February 1800 but died at age 13 months in April 1801.  Charles remarried to Madeleine, daughter of Acadian Jean-Charles Breaux and widow of Manuel Gautreaux, at St.-Jacques in April 1801.  Their son Jean-Baptiste-Evariste, called Evariste, was born at St.-Jacques in January 1802, a son, name unrecorded, died at age 2 months in June 1803, Louis Delomer was born in February 1807, Jean Charles, fils near Convent, St. James Parish, in May 1809, and Pierre Simon in September 1816.  

1a

Eugène, by his father's first wife, married Arthémise, daughter of Acadian Michel Lambert, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in February 1825.  Their son Auguste was born near Convent in January 1830, and Théosin Thomasin in December 1832.  One wonders if this family line survived. 

1b

Evariste, by his father's second wife, married Élise Rosalie, daughter of Anglo American Bourille Aycock, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in January 1833; Elise's mother was a Gautreaux.  They settled on Bayou Lafourche.

2

Joseph, by his father's first wife, born at St.-Jacques in c1773, married Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of French Creole Dominique LeBoeuf, at St.-Jacques in February 1801.  Their daughter married into the Breaux family.  Joseph died at St.-Jacques in November 1803; he was only 30 years old.  He and his wife had a daughter but no sons, so this line of the family, except for its blood, died with him.  

3

Youngest son Pierre, by his father's first wife, baptized at St.-Jacques, age unrecorded, in April 1781, died in St. James Parish in September 1807.  He was only 26 years old and did not marry.  

LOUISIANA: LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

By the 1830s, a line of Pierre Berteau's family, perhaps the only surviving one, had moved from the river to the Bayou Lafourche/Bayou Terrebonne valley:

Descendants of Jean-Baptiste-Evariste BERTEAU (1802-?; ?, François, Pierre)

Jean-Baptiste-Evariste, called Evariste, oldest son of Charles Berteau and his second wife Madeleine Breaux, was born at St.-Jacques on the river in January 1802, but he did not remain there.  He married Élise Rosalie, daughter of Anglo American Bourille Aycock, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in January 1833; Elise's mother was a Gautreaux.  Their daughters married into the Chauvin and Mahoney families.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in Terrebonne Parish counted 2 slaves--a 46-year-old black female and a 21-year-old black male--on Evariste Berthaud's farm in the parish's Ward 13.

Charles Augustin, born probably in Lafourche Interior Parish in c1835, married Eveline, 19-year-old daughter of Richard H. Grinage of Terrebonne Parish, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in June 1858.  Their son Charles Albert was born in Terrebonne Parish in February 1860.  During the War of 1861-65, Charles Augustin served as a sergeant in Company E of the 1st (Dreux's/Rightor's) Battalion Louisiana Infantry, raised in Terrebonne Parish, which fought in Virginia early in the war--so he was a Louisiana Tiger.  Charles Augustin died on the Virginia Peninsula on 10 April 1862, perhaps from wounds suffered in a skirmish near Yorktown a few days earlier.  His daughter Mary Eveline had been born near Chacahoula, Terrebonne Parish, in December 1861, eight months after her father went off to war.  In July 1865, after the war finally ended, a petition was filed at the Houma courthouse for tutorship of his two young children, son Charles Albert, age 5, and daughter Mary Eveline, age 3 1/2.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Pierre of Nantes and Cabanocé/St.-Jacques was not the first Berteau to settle in South Louisiana, nor was he the last.  Some of his non-Acadian namesakes appeared in colonial Louisiana as early as the 1720s:

André, son of Étienne Berthault and Marie Gibottel of Les Clouzeaux, Poitou, France, married Marie Pointevine at New Orleans in January 1724.  Their son Pierre-André was born at New Orleans in February 1732.  

Jacques Bertaud, a master baker, married Gabrielle Gabion.  Their son Jean-Baptiste was born at New Orleans in August 1769, and Gabriel in August 1770 but died at age 16 months in January 1772.  

Jean-Baptiste Berteau, native of La Rochelle, France, died at New Orleans, in December 1788.  The priest who recorded his burial did not give Jean-Baptiste's age or his parents' names or mention a wife.  One wonders if this was the Jean-Baptiste, son of Acadian Antoine Berteau, born at La Rochelle, France, in March 1768, who might have come to Louisiana with other Acadians in 1785.  No Jean-Baptiste Berteau--or any member of that family--however, appears on any of the passenger lists of the Seven Ships from France.  

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During the late colonial period, another Berteau, or rather Bertaud, family, this one clearly not Acadian, also settled in St. James Parish among their "Acadian" namesakes.  The similarity of their birthplaces and ages, in fact, makes one wonders if French Creole Auguste Bertaud and "Acadian" Jacques Berteau were cousins.  

Descendants of Auguste BERTAUD (c1744-1827)

Auguste, son of Jacques Bertaud and Anne Brisont of Nantes, France, born at Nantes in c1744, married Marie, daughter of French Creole Louis Goyett, at Ascension, on the river above St.-Jacques, in May 1788.  Auguste remarried to Isabelle Brousse, widow of Acadians Firmin Babin and Jean-Baptiste Arceneaux, at Ascension in April 1795.  All of the witnesses to this second marriage--Siméon Breaux, Bénoni Landry, and Raphael Landry--were Acadian.  Auguste died in St. James Parish in February 1827; the priest who recorded the burial said that "Augustin" died at age 83.  His two sons who created families of their own took Acadian wives and settled on the river.

1

Oldest son Auguste, fils, by his father's first wife, born probably at Ascension in c1789, married Madeleine, daughter of Acadian Jean Duhon and widow of Sylvain LeBlanc, at the St. James church, St. James Parish, in November 1811.  Their son Auguste Eugène or Eugène Auguste was born in St. James Parish in September 1812, François in c1814 but died at age 3 in January 1818, a child, perhaps a son, name and age unrecorded, died in April 1815, Jean Colin, sometimes called Colin and J. C., was born in March 1816, François Trasimond, called Trasimond, in July 1819, Auguste Drosin, called Drosin, in February 1822, and Joseph or Auguste Philibert, sometimes called A. P.,  in August 1824.  Auguste, fils died in St. James Parish in October 1847; the priest who recorded his burial said that Auguste was 63 years old when he died, but he probably was in his late 50s.  In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 53 slaves--29 males and 24 females, all black, ranging in age from 53 years to 6 months--on the Widow Ate. Berthaud's plantation in the parish's Eastern District next to Philibert Berthaud; this was Auguste, fils's widow, Madeleine Duhon.  

1a

Eugène Auguste married Florine, daughter of Acadian Alexandre Melançon, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in February 1835.  Their son Auguste le jeune was born near Convent in June 1839.  Their daughters married into the Bourgeois and Fols families.  In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 8 slaves--6 females and 2 males, 4 blacks and 4 mulattoes, ranging in age from 50 years to infancy--on Eugène Berthaud's farm in the parish's Eastern District next to Drauzin Berthaud.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 10 slaves --all females, all black, ages 60 to 2, living in 3 houses--on Eug. Bertheaud's farm in the parish's Right Bank Ninth District.  Eugène Auguste remarried to Adeline, daughter of Acadian Firmin Aucoin, at the St. James church, St. James Parish, in April 1864.  Eugène may have died near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in September 1869; the priest who recorded the burial did not bother to give any parents' names, mention a wife, or even give Eugène Berthaut's age at the time of his death. 

Auguste le jeune, by his father's first wife, married Louise M., daughter of French Creole Richard Duval, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in May 1864. 

1b

Jean Colin married Marie Melagie or Mélasie, daughter of Acadian Paul Melançon, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in May 1837.  Their son Joseph was born near Convent in June 1843 but died at age 4 months the following October, Jean Camille was born in September 1844, and Jean Eugerol in December 1848.  Their daughter married into the Reynaud family.  In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted a single slave--a 37-year-old black female--on Colin Berthaud's farm in the parish's Eastern District between Trazimond Berthaud and Philibert Berthaud.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 3 slaves--all females, 2 blacks and a mulatto, ages 44, 34, and 12--on the Widow Colin Bertheaud's farm in the parish's Right Bank Sixth District, so Colin must have died by then.  

1c

Drosin married Florestille, Florentine, or Florestine, another daughter of Alexandre Melançon, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in February 1842.  Their son Auguste Aristide, called Aristide, was born in St. James Parish in March 1843, and Jean Drosin, called Drosin, fils, in August 1850 but died at age 14 months in October 1851.  Their daughter may have married into the LeBlanc family.  In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 9 slaves--5 males and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 60 to 2--on Drauzin Berthaud's farm in the parish's Eastern District between Eugène Berthaud and Trazimond Berthaud.  Drosin died in St. James Parish in September 1853; he was only 31 years old.  

During the War of 1861-65, Aristide served in Company E of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in St. James Parish, which fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  He enlisted in the company in October 1861, age 18, and died of the measles at Camp Roman, outside of New Orleans, only two weeks after he enlisted! 

1d

Trasimond married Estelle, daughter of French Creole Jean Baptiste Bergeron, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in April 1843.  Their son Pierre Trasimond was born in St. James Parish in February 1850, and Jean Baptiste in August 1855.  Their daughter married into the Hill family in Assumption Parish in June 1869, so one wonders if the family moved from the river to the upper bayou.  In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 7 slaves--4 females and 3 males, all black except for 1 mulatto, ranging in age from 34 to 3--on Trazimond Berthaud's farm between Drauzin Berthaud and Colin Berthaud.  

1e

In July 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 2 slaves--both 28-year-old black males--on Philibert Berthaud's farm in the parish's eastern district between Colin Berthaud and the Widow Ate. Berthaud.  Auguste Philibert married Laura, daughter of Acadian Joseph LeBlanc, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in August 1853.  Their son Augustin was born in St. James Parish in July 1854, Joseph Albert in April 1857, François Edgard was baptized at the St. James church, St. James Parish, age unrecorded, in August 1861, and Joseph Camille was born in March 1868.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 2 slaves--a 48-year-old black female and a 38-year-old black male--in Philibert Bertheaud's household in the parish's Right Bank Ninth District.  The same census taker counted 71 slaves living in 36 houses on A. P. Bertheaud and brothers' plantation in the same district.

2

Jérôme, by his father's first wife, born at Ascension in August 1790, married Madeleine, daughter of Acadian Pierre Breaux, at the Donaldson church, Ascension Parish, in May 1812.  Their son Jérôme Valmont, called Valmont, was baptized at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, age unrecorded, in June 1818, Auguste Saneville was born in Ascension Parish in October 1821, Pierre Telesphore, called Telesphore, in December 1827, and Alexandre in October 1829 but died at age 10 in October 1839.  Their daughters married into the Aquetrehm, Brooks, and Mire families.  Jérôme died in Ascension Parish in October 1847; the priest who recorded his burial said that Jérôme was 54 years old when he died, but he was 57.  

2a

Auguste Sanville died in Ascension Parish in September 1839.  He was only 18 years old and did not marry.  

2b

Valmont married Clémence, daughter of French Creole Damas Lessard, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in January 1840; Clémence's mother was a Bourque.  Their child, perhaps a son, name unrecorded, died 8 days after its birth in Ascension Parish in April 1842, Maurice was born in c1844 but died at age 3 in July 1847, Paul Lucien was born in June 1848, Jean Trasimond in July 1851, Charles Henry in August 1853, and David in January 1858.  

Charles Henry may have married cousin Ludivine Bertaud at the St. James church, St. James Parish, in June 1869; they had to secure a dispensation for fourth degree of consanguinity in order to marry. 

2c

Telesphore married Odille, daughter of Acadian Bénoni Mire, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in January 1853.  Their son Joseph Wilson was born in Ascension Parish in October 1859, and Pierre Ambroise in October 1861.  

3

Youngest son Raphael-Clément, by his father's second wife, born at Ascension in November 1795, may not have survived childhood.  

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During the antebellum period, Frenchmen with similar-sounding names, who would have been called Foreign French by Louisiana natives, emigrated to the Bayou State: 

T. Bertaud, a 25-year-old clerk from France, reached New Orleans aboard the ship Nestor out of Nantes in April 1822.  According to the ship's manifest, he planned to return to France.  

An 8-year-old boy named Berthoud came to New Orleans from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands aboard the ship Betsy & Peggy in November 1823.  One hopes he did not come alone.  

Jacob Berthold, a 43-year-old Frenchman whose occupation was not recorded, reached New Orleans aboard the ship MacLellan out of Le Havre in November 1836.  

Francois Bertaud, a 27-year-old baker from France, landed at New Orleans from the ship Talma out of Bordeaux in December 1839.  

A 25-year-old French merchant named Berthoud reached New Orleans aboard the ship Strafford out of Bordeaux in March 1846.  

Pierre Bertot, a 24-year-old French farmer, came to New Orleans aboard the ship Rouennais out of Le Havre in December 1849.  

In July 1860, the federal census taker in Jefferson Parish counted an astonishing 155 slaves living in 31 houses on M. Berthoud's plantation.  Needless to say, this was one of the largest slaveholdings in the state.  

In July 1860, the federal census taker in Plaquemines Parish counted 7 slaves--5 males and 2 females, all black, ranging in age from 50 to 5--on James Berthoud's farm.  

CONCLUSION

Pierre Berteau came to Louisiana by April 1766, when he first appears in colonial records as a member of the Cabanocé/St.-Jacques militia.  He may already have been married then; the records are unclear.  Also unclear is his ethnicity.  One Acadian genealogist claims that Pierre was an Acadian from Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, but a marriage record indicates that he may have been born in Nantes, France, in c1739 and may not have been an Acadian after all.  Pierre married twice, for certain, at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, and both of his wives were Acadians.  He had at least three sons, but only one of them, the oldest one, had sons of his own.  Pierre died in St. James Parish in 1813, probably in his mid-70s.  By the 1830s, his descendants had moved from the river to Bayou Lafourche, where the family remained a small one in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, and where its name evolved into Bertheaud.

Meanwhile, another, more robust family who preferred to spell their surname Bertaud or Berthaud appeared at St.-Jacques in the 1780s.  Auguste Bertaud also was a native of Nantes, France, and clearly was not Acadian.  He, too, married twice and fathered three sons.  His youngest son died young, but his older sons, who took Acadian wives, perpetuated this line of the family.  They remained on the river, in St. James and Ascension parishes, during the antebellum period.

Compared to their namesakes in the Bayou Lafourche valley, Auguste's line of the family was more successful not only genetically, but also economically.  Son Auguste, fils died a few years before the United States government began compiling slave registers in 1850, but that year his widow held 55 slaves on her plantation on the east bank of the river in St. James Parish, and her five sons held 27 more slaves between them.  In 1860, Auguste, fils's sons held a total of 86 slaves on the family's holdings in the parish.  In contrast, a grandson of Pierre Berteau held only two slaves on his Terrebonne Parish farm in 1860.  

The War of 1861-65 took a heavy toll on both lines of the family.  After Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, Federal commands controlling the lower Mississippi freed the slaves on every plantation their forces could reach.  Union navy gunboats shelled and burned dozens of plantation houses along the lower Mississippi.  Successive Federal incursions in the Bayou Lafourche valley devastated that region, and Confederate foragers also plagued the area when the Federals were not around.   

Military service records indicate that only three members of the family served Louisiana and the Confederacy in uniform, one from the "Acadian" line, another from the French Creole line, and a third from New Orleans.  Amazingly, only the one from New Orleans, a first sergeant in Company E of the 30th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, survived the war.  The other two died early in the conflict. ...

The family's name also is spelled Bartau, Bertau, Bertauld, Bertaut, Berteaux, Berteauxt, Berthau, Bertho, Berto, Bertol.  

Sources:  1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, St. James Parish; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. James, Terrebonne parishes; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2001, 2066-67, 2185, 2320, 2423; Brasseaux, Foreign French, 1:47, 2:31, 3:27; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:44, 139; De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 19; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 29; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vols. 1, 3, 4; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; Menn, Large Slaveholders of LA, 1860, 255, 353; NOAR, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 602-04, 626-27; Wall of Names, 11; White, DGFA-1, 131-33; White, DGFA-1 English, 30.

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, 11 (pl. 1R), calls him Pierre BERTEAU; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2423, calls him Pierre BERTEAU, says his father was probablement Pierre BERTAUD dit Montory of Île St.-Jean, calls his first wife Natalie SAVOIE, gives the name of only 1 child, daughter Marie, born in 1775, & says he was born in c1730; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 171, & Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 424, the record of his first marriage, call him Pierre BERTO & his wife Rose SAVOY; BRDR, 2:86, 134 (SJA-2,36), the record of his second marriage, calls him Pedro BERTEAU, widower of Rosalia SAVOY, gives his & his wife's parents' names, says his parents were Francisco [BERTEAU] & Luisa ERNAUDINE of Nantes, France, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Pedro MICHEL, Josef CORNIER[fils], & Josef BERTEAU [his son]; BRDR, 3:96 (SMI-8, 17), his death/burial record, calls him Pierre BERTEAU, age 85, but does not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also Bourgeois, 161; Voorhies, J., 115; De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 19; De Ville, Acadian Coast, 1779, 25.  

His estimated birth year is from the St.-Jacques census of 1777, not Arsenault or his burial record.  

Was he Acadian or French?  His listing in Wall of Names implies that he was Acadian, but the folks at the Acadian Memorial seem to be following Arsenault, who may be wrong here.  Even if Arsenault was right about who his parents were, would an Acadian from Île St.-Jean have come to LA from Halifax in 1765?  The record of his second marriage hints that he was a Frenchman from Nantes, not an Acadian from Île St.-Jean, & so his family in LA was French, not Acadian.  What Acadian would have been born in Nantes in the late 1730s? 

The Cabanocé census of 1766 was taken in April & says he had a wife and a daughter 4 months before he married Rose.  So was Rose SAVOIE actually his second wife?  

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