APPENDICES

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

COMEAUX

[kuh-MOH, KOH-mo]

ACADIA

Pierre Comeau, a cooper, born in France in c1598, came to Acadia with Isaac Razilly and the sieur d'Aulnay in 1632.  He was, therefore, along with Germain Doucet, one of the first permanent settlers in the colony.  

There have been questions about the origin of the Comeau family progenitor in Acadia.  Family historian Father James Comeau, O.P., claims that the Pierre Comeau who came to Acadia was the son of Jean de Comeau de Créancy, seigneur of Chassenay, in the upper Loire valley, and Marguerite Ocquidem de La Choselle.  According to Acadian genealogist Stephen A. White: "There is, however, no proof of this claim.  Father Comeau only found this: that a Pierre de Comeau, born in 1606, was the son of Jean de Comeau de Créancy.  The similarity of names does not constitute by itself a proof of identity.  All things considered, it would seem most unlikely for this to have been one and the same person, for the following reasons:  a. One never finds the particle (de) in any documentation concerning the Comeau family in Acadia.  b. According to the censuses, the Acadian Pierre Comeau was at least eight years older than the similarly named Pierre de Comeau.  c. The trade of the Acadian Pierre Comeau was hardly the type of employment to which a member of a noble family would have been destined in the seventeenth century.  One never sees the titles 'esquire' and 'barrelmaker' attributed to the same person in documents of that time period."

Pierre Comeau the barrel maker worked his trade at La Hève, Razilly's headquarters, before moving to Port-Royal, where he married Rose Bayon in c1649, when he was age 51.  Rose, who was age 18 at the time of their marriage, may have come to Acadia with her father in 1636 aboard the St.-Jehan, the ship that brought the first French families to the colony.  Rose and Pierre had nine children.  Their three daughters married into the Gaudet, Hébert, and Rivet families.  Five of their six sons, all born at Port-Royal, created families of their own.  Pierre was counted at Port-Royal in 1686; he was age 88.  The date of his death has been lost to history.  

Oldest son Étienne, born in c1650, married first to Marie-Anne, daughter of Martin Lefebvre and Barbe Bajolet of La Rochelle, France, at Port-Royal in c1670.  They had three children, including a son, Alexandre, who married a Doucet.  Their two daughters married into the Michel dit Saint-Michel and Doucet families.  Étienne remarried to Marie, daughter of René Landry l'aîné and Perrine Bourg and widow of Germain Doucet, fils, at Port-Royal in c1698, but they had no children.  Étienne died at Annapolis Royal in January 1723, age 73.  

Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon, born in c1652, married Jeanne, daughter of Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry, at Port-Royal in c1677.  They settled on haut rivière, or the upper river, at Port-Royal, and had 18 children, including six sons who married into the Pitre, Roy dit LaLiberté, Amireau, Lord, Thibodeau, and Cormier families.  Eight of L'Esturgeon and Jeanne's daughters married into the Pitre, Vigneau, Raymond, Thébeau, Langlois, Lord, and Thibodeau families.  Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon died at Annapolis Royal in April 1730, age 80.   

Jean l'aîné, born in c1656, married first to Françoise, daughter of Etienne Hébert and Marie Gaudet, who gave him 19 children, including seven sons who married into the Bézier dit Joan dit Larivière, Forest, Levron, Thibodeau, Soulard, Bertrand, and Girouard families.  Seven of their daughters married into the Girouard, D'Amours de Chauffours, Richard, Soulard, Trahan, Melanson, and Gisé dit Des Rosiers families.  In 1717, after Françoise died, Jean l'âiné was recorded at Port-Toulouse, Île Royale, now Cape Breton Island, having gone there probably to escape British authority in Nova Scotia, but he returned soon afterwards to Annapolis Royal, where he remarried to Catherine, daughter of François Joseph dit Lejeune and Jeanne Lejeune, in January 1720 and fathered a twentieth child, a daughter who was born in November 1720, a week after Jean l'âiné was buried at Annapolis Royal.  She married into the Daniel family at Grand-Pré.  

Pierre le jeune dit Des Loups-Marins, born in c1658, married Jeanne, daughter of Jacques Bourgeois and Jeanne Trahan, at Port-Royal in c1689.  They had 10 children, half of them sons, but only François, a middle-son, married, into the Lord and Pitre dit Marc families.  Three of their daughters married into the Martin dit Barnabé and Brun families.  

Youngest son Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, born in c1665, married Catherine, daughter of Antoine Babin and Marie Mercier, at Port-Royal in c1686.  They moved to the Minas Basin and had 15 children, including five sons who married into the Landry, Aucoin, and Hébert families and settled at Minas.  Eight of their daughters married into the Breau, Boudrot, Landry, Saulnier, Aucoin, and Pitre families and also settled at Minas.  In fact, Comeau Village at Minas consisted mainly of the large family of Jean le jeune.  

[For more of this family in pre- and post-dispersal Acadia and Canada, see Book Three]

In 1755, descendants of Pierre Comeau the cooper could be found in the Minas Basin at Grand-Pré, Rivière-aux-Canards, and Pigiguit; at Chepoudy and Petitcoudiac near Chignecto; on Île St.-Jean; and on Île Madame off the southern coast of Île Royale.  But most of them were still living at Annapolis Royal.  

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

[For the family's travails during the Great Upheaval, see Book Six]

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

Comeaus were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  The first of  them came to Louisiana from Halifax via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, in February 1765 with the Broussards:

Victor Comeau of Chepoudy, age 25, came with wife Anne Michel, age 32, widow of Michel Brun, and their two young sons--Thomas, age 2, and infant Jean, who had been born at Cap-Français, Haiti, on the long voyage down from Halifax. 

Descendants of Victor COMEAUX (c1740-1760s; Pierre, Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon, Abraham)

Victor, second son of Jean Comeau le jeune and Brigitte Savoie, born probably at Chepoudy in c1740 (Bona Arsenault says c1733), followed his family to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in 1755.  He escaped with his mother and stepfather probably to the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore in 1758.  By the early 1760s, however, he and his younger brother Charles had become separated from the rest of their family and were prisoners of war at Halifax.  Victor married Anne, 30-year-old daughter of fellow Acadian Jacques Michel and Jeanne Breau and widow of Michel Brun, probably at Halifax in c1763.  They followed the Broussard dit Beausoleil party from Halifax to the lower Mississippi valley via Cap-Français, French St.-Domingue, in late 1764 and early 1765 and reached New Orleans in February.  Their younger son, Jean, was born either aboard ship or at Cap-Français on the voyage down; the boy was baptized at the island port.  Victor was one of the Acadians who exchanged Canadian card money for Louisiana currency at New Orleans by April.  This done, he and his family followed the Broussards to the Attakapas District, where they helped establish La Nouvelle-Acadie on the banks of lower Bayou Teche.  They settled in the Teche community called La Manque and had no more children in Louisiana.  Victor died at Attakapas in the late 1760s.  In April 1771, soon after his death, Anne remarried again--her third marriage--to widower Joseph Cormier of Chignecto and Prairie Bellevue in the Opelousas District.  Her older son by Victor Comeau died young, but her other Comeau son, Jean, raised by his stepfather, settled at Carencro on the northern edge of the Attakapas District.  Jean had only one son of his own, but that son created a vigorous line of the family at Carencro. 

1

Older son Thomas, born probably at Halifax in c1763, was age 14 in 1777, when he was counted with his mother and stepfather Joseph Cormier at Opelousas.  Thomas did not marry.  

2

Younger son Jean, born at Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, today's Haiti, probably in January 1765, followed his widowed mother to the Opelousas District in the early 1770s, where she remarried to cattleman Joseph Cormier.  Jean married Esther, daughter of fellow Acadians Simon LeBlanc and his second wife Marguerite Guilbeau, at Attakapas in January 1786.  They settled at Carencro near the boundary between the Opelousas and Attakapas districts, just south of where Jean had been raised on Prairie Bellevue.  Their son Julien was born probably at Carencro in August 1793.  Their daughters married into the Babineaux and Savoie families.  Jean died in Lafayette Parish in February 1828; the priest who recorded his burial said that Jean was age 68 when he died, but he was closer to 63; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse later that month; in March, his heirs petitioned the court to emancipate "a faithful slave, Jacques."  In June 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 2 slaves--a 46-year-old black female, and a 19-year-old black male--on Mrs. John Comaux's farm between Marie Coralie Comaux and "Mrs." Julien Comaux.  Jean fathered only one son, Julien, but the son's line was a vigorous one. 

Julien married Marie Céleste or Célestine, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Athanase Breaux and Marie Catherine Arceneaux, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in June 1817.  They settled at Carencro.  Their son François Hippolyte, called Hippolyte, Polyte, and also Jean Hippolyte, was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age unrecorded, in February 1823, Jean Homere or Omer, called Omer, at age 3 months in April 1827 but died at age 8 in August 1835, Joseph Osémé, called Osémé, was born in January 1829, Athanase in May 1833, Pierre Edvin, Edwin, or Televin was baptized at age 6 months in November 1835, Alexis Hippolyte at age 2 months in October 1837, and Eusèbe in c1839.  Their daughters married into the Mouton and Sonnier families.  Julien remarried to Arthémise Caruthers or Credeur probably at Carencro in the late 1840s.  Their daughter married into the Hébert family.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 7 slaves--3 males and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 16 years to 10 months--on "Mrs." Julien Comaux's farm next to Mrs. John Comaux.  Julien, a widower again, died probably at Carencro in July 1864, age 71. 

Hippolyte, by his father's first wife, married Esselle or Estelle, daughter of fellow Acadians Augustin Benoit and Anastasie Babineaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in July 1841.  They settled probably at Carencro.  Their son Hippolyte, fils was born in August 1846, Rosémond in August 1848, Julien le jeune in February 1850, and Jean in June 1862 but died at age 3 1/2 in March 1866.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 3 slaves--a 23-year-old black female, a 3-year-old black male, and a 1-year-old mulatto male, living in a single house--on Hypolite Comaux's farm next to P. Edvin Comaux. 

Hippolyte, fils married Onésima, daughter of fellow Acadian Onésime Richard and his Anglo Creole wife Marguerite Arthémise Credeur, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1867, and remarried to Eveline, daughter of fellow Acadians Alexis Blanchard and Marguerite Trahan, at the Vermilionville church in July 1869.

Rosémond married Céleste Adolice, Adolie, or Adalie, daughter of French Canadian Louis Roger le jeune and his Acadian wife Marie Azélima Prejean, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1870.  Their son Louis Steve had been born in Lafayette Parish in October 1869. 

Joseph Osémé, by his father's first wife, married cousin Marie Odoisea, Adoiska, Adoliska, Ladaiska, Lodaiska, or Lodovisca, daughter of fellow Acadians Symphorien Prejean and Eugènie Breaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in April 1849.  They settled probably at Carencro.  Their son Omer was born in January 1852, Jean Alphée, called Alphée, in June 1856 but died at age 2 1/2 in February 1859, Dominique G. was born in August 1858, and Symphorien in January 1861 but died at age 9 1/2 in August 1870.  Their daughters married into the Breaux and Hernandez families.  Osémé died probably at Carencro in December 1865, age 36; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in July 1866.  One wonders if his death was war-related.  His daughter Zemea was born in January 1866, a month after his death. 

Athanase, by his father's first wife, married Louisa or Louise, daughter of fellow Acadians Caliste LeBlanc and Marguerite Eurasie Bernard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1854.  They settled probably at Carencro.  Their son Jean Athanase was born in November 1854 but died at age 10 months in October 1855, Joseph Bernard was born in August 1856 but died at age 3 1/2 in May 1860, Aurelien was born in February 1863, and Caliste Ozémé in January 1868. 

Pierre Edwin, by his father's first wife, married Anatalie or Nathalie, another daughter of Onésime Richard and Marguerite Arthémise Credeur, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in May 1858.  The settled probably at Carencro.  Their son Joseph was born in March 1861.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted a single slave--a 6-year-old mulatto female--on P. Edvin Comaux's farm next to Hypolite Comaux. 

Eusèbe, by his father's first wife, married Evelina, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Lessaint Prejean and Julienne Richard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1860.  Eusèbe died in Lafayette Parish in June 1863, age 63; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse later in the month.  Was his death war-related?  He and his wife had a daughter, Julienne, born in October 1861, but she died at age 2 in November 1863, and they had no sons, so his line of the family did not survive. 

~

Two more Comeaus from Chepoudy--Victor's older cousin and a younger brother--also came to Louisiana from Halifax via St.-Domingue in 1765, but probably in a later party.  If they followed the Broussards to lower Bayou Teche that spring, they did not remain there but settled, or resettled, in the Opelousas District: 

Victor's cousin Michel Comeau, age 31, came with wife Marie-Madeleine Girouard, age 28, and their son Jean, age 5.  They had more children at Opelousas. 

Victor's younger brother Charles Comeau, age 23, and wife Anastasie Savoie, age 21, had their children at Opelousas.   

Descendants of Michel COMEAUX (c1734-1804; Pierre, Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon)

Michel, son of Jean Comeau and Madeleine Amireau, born probably at Chepoudy in c1734, married Marie-Madeleine, daughter of Michel Girouard and Marie Thibodeau, at Chepoudy in March 1756, early in Le Grand Dérangement.  As their marriage date attests, the young couple escaped the British roundup of 1755 and fled probably to the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore.  By the early 1760s, they were prisoners at Halifax, where British officials counted them with three children in August 1763.  They came to Louisiana in 1765 and settled at Côte Pointe Creole in the Plaquemine Brûlé area of the Opelousas District, where they had more children.  Their daughters married into the Bellard and Doucet families.  Michel became a prosperous cattleman in the district.  He held only 4 head of cattle in 1771, but by 1788 his herd had grown to 500 head!  In 1796, he held a dozen slaves.  Michel died at Opelousas in the spring of 1804; the priest who recorded his burial said that Michel was age 80 when he died, but he was closer to 70.  His only surviving son moved down to the Attakapas District in the late 1790s or early 1800s but returned to the Opelousas area.  Michel's grandsons settled at Grand Coteau and also at Church Point on upper Bayou Plaquemine Brûlé. 

1

Oldest son Jean, born probably at Halifax in c1760, was counted in the Opelousas census of 1777, age 17.  Did he marry? 

2

Louis, born either aboard ship or at New Orleans in April 1765 and baptized at New Orleans in May, was counted in the Opelousas census of 1777 as age 7, but he would have been closer to 12.  Did he survive childhood and marry? 

3

Youngest son Michel, fils, born probably at Opelousas in November 1772, married Marie-Louise, called Louise, daughter of French Creole Joseph Latiolais and Julienne Barre of Coquelin, at Opelousas in December 1800.  They settled at Fausse Pointe on lower Bayou Teche near present-day New Iberia.  Their son Onésime was baptized at Opelousas, age unrecorded, in November 1800, a son, name unrecorded, died 6 days after his birth in July 1802, and Michel III was born probably at Fausse Pointe in August 1805.  One of their daughters married into the Fontenot family.  Daughter Marie-Louise, age 20, gave birth to a "natural son," Edmond, in St. Martin Parish in December 1823; the priest who recorded the boy's baptism called him a Comeaux and did not give the father's name; Marie-Louise may have had a "natural daughter" named Marie in June 1821.  Michel, fils died at Fausse Pointe in May 1808, age 36; his succession was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse the following January.  His widow Marie-Louise moved up the Teche to La Grand Pointe, where she bore a "natural son," name unrecorded, who died at birth in November 1816.  Michel, fils's sons "returned" to St. Landry Parish and settled near Grand Coteau and Church Point.  

3a

Onésime married Eloise, daughter of fellow Acadian Joseph Doucet and his Creole wife Céleste Bellard, at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, in August 1823.  Their son Onésime, fils was born in St. Landry Parish in March 1827, and Joseph in May 1830 but died at age 1 in July 1831.  Their daughter married into the Labbé family.  Onésime, père remarried to Marie Eléonore or Léonore, daughter of Antoine Labbé and his Acadian wife Modeste Hébert, at the Opelousas church in January 1838.  Their son Antoine was born in St. Landry Parish in March 1839 but died the following July, Théodule was born in April 1842, Jules in February 1848, Jean Demosthène near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in January 1854, Homer in June 1857, and Joseph le jeune in September 1861, when his father was in his early 60s.  Their daughter married into the Ramoin family. 

Onésime, fils, by his father's first wife, married Julie, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Doucet III and Marie Carmelite Richard, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in September 1849.  Their son Joseph was born near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in May 1851, Onésime III in March 1853, Julien in March 1858, and Pierre Faustin in February 1860.  Onésime, fils's succession was filed at the Opelousas courthouse in January 1866; he would have been age 39 that year. 

Jules, by his father's second wife, married Marie Doralise, daughter of André Veroni and Elisa Carrière, at the Church Point church, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in August 1867.  Their son Joseph Nesat was born near Church Point in September 1867, and Élisée in July 1870.  Was he the Jules Comeaux whose succession record was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse, St. Martin Parish, in December 1870?  If so, he would have been age 22 that year.  And if so, one wonders why his succession record would have been filed in St. Martin Parish. 

3b

Michel III married French Creole Madeleine Lacombe in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in August 1834.  Their son Michel IV was born in St. Landry Parish in March 1836, Edmond le jeune in December 1842, Onésime le jeune near Grand Coteau in October 1846, Joseph in August 1848, François near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in February 1853, and Jean Martial in February 1858.  Michel III may have remarried to Clara Dacieux or Dussieux in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in February 1862, and sanctified the marriage at the Church Point church the following October. 

Edmond le jeune, by his father's first wife, married Virginie, daughter of French Canadian Noël Roy III and his Creole wife Eugènie Menard, at the Church Point church, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in April 1866.  They settled at Coulee Triffe near Church Point. 

3c

Grandson Edmond, who called himself a Comeaux, married Marie Tarsile, called Tarsile, daughter of Acadians Achille Savoy and Marie Elisa Prejean, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in October 1854, and sanctified the marriage at the Grand Coteau church, St. Landry Parish, in November.  Their son Jean was born near Grand Coteau in December 1855, Aymar or Numa in September 1859 but died the following January, Joseph near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in March 1861, and Joseph Numa near Grand Coteau in August 1866.

Descendants of Charles COMEAUX (c1742-1805; Pierre, Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon, Abraham)

Charles, third and youngest son of Jean Comeau le jeune and Brigitte Savoie and Victor's younger brother, was born probably at Chepoudy in c1742.  Charles escaped with his family probably to the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore in 1755.  By the early 1760s, however, he was a prisoner at Halifax.  He married cousin Anastasie, daughter of fellow Acadian Paul Savoie and Judith Michel of Chepoudy, in c1765.  They came to Louisiana the year of their marriage and settled in the Bellevue area of the Opelousas District, where their children were born.  Their daughters married into the Broussard, Langlinais, Mouton, and Sonnier families.  Charles, like his cousin Michel, became a prosperous cattleman in the district.  He held 19 head of cattle in 1771; by 1788, his herd had increased to 643 head!  In 1796, he owned 10 slaves.  Charles died at Opelousas in August 1805, at "age about 60 yrs."; his succession record had been filed at the Opelousas courthouse the previous March.  Beginning in the 1780s, his sons moved down to the Côte Gelée area of present-day Lafayette Parish and settled along the Vermilion.  One grandson returned to St. Landry Parish, and some of Charles's descendants settled near Breaux Bridge and New Iberia on Bayou Teche and far out on the prairies near present-day Ville Platte, but most of them remained in Lafayette Parish.  Charles's was by far the largest Comeaux family line west of the Atchafalaya Basin, if not in all of South Louisiana. 

1

Oldest son Antoine-Charles or Charles-Antoine, called Charles, fils, born at Opelousas in the late 1760s, married Perpétué, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean-Baptiste Broussard and his first wife Anne Brun, at Attakapas in January 1786.  They settled along the lower Vermilion near Côte Gelée.  Their son Camille was born in August 1792, Éloi was baptized at Attakapas, age 3 months, in June 1795, Édouard, perhaps also called Cadet, was born in February 1798, and Charles Valière in November 1800.  Their daughters married into the Baudoin, Broussard, Mouton, and Sonnier families.  Charles, fils died in Lafayette Parish in July 1830; the priest who recorded his burial said that Charles was 66 years old when he died, but he probably was in his early 60s; his successions were filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in January 1849 and September 1850, years after his death.  His daughter Marie Estelle "died ... in a drowning accident at age 8" a week before Charles died; one wonders if their deaths were related.  

1a

Éloi married Marie Cléonise, also called Phelonise, daughter of fellow Acadians François Louvière and Marie Louise Thibodeaux of Fausse Pointe, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in August 1813.  They settled at Côte Gelée on the lower Vermilion.  Their son Éloi, fils was born on the Vermilion in April 1816, Joseph in January 1824 but died at age 5 in November 1829, Charles Émile, called Émile, was born in June 1828, François was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 7 months, in October 1830, and Louis Valéry, called Valéry, at age 1 in July 1834.  Their daughters married into the Bourg and Broussard families.  Éloi, père died in Lafayette Parish in September 1847, probably a widower; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Éloi died "at age 48 yrs.," but he was 52; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in February 1848. 

Éloi, fils married Marguerite Meline, Amelina, or Mélanie, daughter of Moïse Bonin and his Acadian wife Marie Denis Breaux, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in September 1836.  They settled at Fausse Pointe near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish.  Their daughters married into the Broussard, Landry, and Oubre families.  In October 1850, the federal census taker in St. Martin Parish counted 2 slaves--a 12-year-old black female and an 8-year-old black female--on Éloy Comeau's farm at Fausse Pointe.  This probably was Éloi, fils.  He remarried to Marie Zéolide, called Zéolide, daughter of fellow Acadians Gilbert Hébert and Céleste Labauve, at the St. Martinville church in February 1851.  They also settled at Fausse Pointe.  Their son Joseph Luke was born in May 1852, and Joseph in December 1857.  Éloi, fils may have remarried again--it would have been his third marriage--to cousin Azélie Comeaux in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in February 1864.  Their son Julien was born in Lafayette Parish in February 1867. 

Charles Émile married Joséphine, daughter of fellow Acadians Charles Granger and Susanne dit Suzette Granger, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in November 1845.  Their daughter married into the Missonnier family.  Charles Émile, called Émile by the recording priest, who did not give Émile's parents' names, mention a wife, or even record his age, may have died in Lafayette Parish in October 1856; if so, he would have been age 28 when he died.  Did he father any sons?

François married Marie Clara, called Clara, daughter of fellow Acadians Leufroi Sonnier and Françoise Aureline Landry, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in March 1852.  Their son Éloi le jeune was born in Lafayette Parish in January 1853, and Esperat in October 1858.  They were living near Youngsville by 1860. 

Valéry married Célanie or Célamine, daughter of fellow Acadians Michel Adrien Richard and Anastasie Granger, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1856.  Their son Gustave was born in Lafayette Parish in November 1856, Octave in November 1858, Éloi le jeune near Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, in February 1861, Émile in April 1863, O'Neil in April 1866, Dupré near Ville Platte, then in St. Landry but now in Evangeline Parish, in August 1868, and Joseph Sevigne near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in August 1870. 

1b

Édouard married Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadians Simon Granger and Françoise Landry of Côte Gelée, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in February 1817.  They settled on the lower Vermilion near Côte Gelée.  Their son Édouard, fils was born in November 1817, Baptiste Axaris was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 7 1/2 months, in April 1826 but died at age 6 in August 1832, Valéry was born in October 1827, and Fusien or Lucien in December 1833.  Their daughters married into the Bell, Bernard, Dubois, Landry, and Melançon families, and perhaps into the Nunez family as well.  Édouard, père, at age 48, remarried to Marie Carmélite, called Carmélite, daughter of fellow Acadian Pierre Landry and Françoise Landry and widow of Charles Granger, fils, in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in April 1846.  Their daughter married into the Broussard family.  Édouard, père died in Lafayette Parish in August 1850; the Vermilionville priest who recorded the burial, and who did not give any parents' names or mention a wife, said that Édouard died "at age 60 years"; he was 52; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in September.  His three surviving sons settled near New Iberia on lower Bayou Teche. 

Édouard, fils, by his father's first wife, married Marguerite Célanie, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Melançon and Susanne Landry, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in April 1836.  They settled at Côte Gelée, near present-day Youngsville.  Their son Alfin or Valsin was born in February 1839 but died at age 3 1/2 in September 1842, Aladin was born in February 1841, Ursin in March 1843, Edmond in July 1850, and Édouard III or Edward in November 1855.  They also had a son named Théoville, also called Théonide.  In August 1850, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted a single slave--an 18-year-old black female--on Édouard Comeau's farm in the parish's Western District, three farms up from Désiré Comeau.  Was this Édouard, fils?  Édouard, fils died probably at Côte Gelée in June 1860; the Vermilionville priest who recorded the burial, and who did not give any parents' names or mention a wife, said that Édouard died "at age 45 yrs.," but he was 42.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted a single slave--a 16-year-old black female--on Edward Comeaux's farm next to Napoléon Melançon and several farms up from Mrs. Désiré Comeaux.  If this was Édouard, fils, he died a few weeks before his slave was counted. 

Aladin married fellow Acadian Marie Celima, called Celima, Broussard at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, in July 1865.  Their son Ernest was born near Abbeville in October 1869. 

Ursin married Marie Irma, called Irma, daughter of fellow Acadians Arvillien Broussard and Marie Boudreaux, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in September 1865.

Théoville married Aurore, daughter of Joseph Viator and Clementine Viator, at the New Iberia church, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in January 1866.  Their son Joseph was born near New Iberia in November 1866.  They were living near Youngsville a few years later. 

Edmond married Élodie, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Osémé Boudreaux and Céleste Melina Cormier, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in April 1870.

Valéry, by his father's first wife, married French Creole Aspasie or Anastasie Leleu at the New Iberia church, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in April 1848.  Their son Alcide was born near New Iberia in October 1848, and Aristide in September 1851.  Valéry died near New Iberia in February 1852; the priest who recorded his burial said that Valéry died "at age 26 yrs.," but he was 24; his succession was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse in April 1853. 

Alcide married Telvina, daughter of fellow Acadian Simon Valière Robichaux and Creole wife Doralie Bodin, at the New Iberia church, Iberia Parish, in December 1868.  Their son Adolphe was born near New Iberia in April 1870. 

Aristide married Delphine, another daughter of Simon Valière Robichaux and Doralie Bodin, at the New Iberia church, Iberia Parish, in April 1870.

Fusien, by his father's first wife, married Spanish Creole Coralie Viator, at the New Iberia church, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in May 1854.  Their son Édouard was born near New Iberia in April 1858, Alcide in October 1859, Homere in March 1861, Joseph in November 1862, Jean Octave in September 1864, Gustave in June 1866, and Pierre Eustache in March 1870. 

1c

Charles Valière married Gertrude, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Broussard and Gertrude Thibodeaux of Vermilion, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in May 1820.  Their child, name unrecorded, perhaps a son, died at birth in Lafayette Parish in December 1822, son Charles Valière, fils was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 4 months, in March 1827, Valéry le jeune was born in September 1832, Adolphe was baptized, age 3 1/2 months, in August 1834, Lauzin at age 45 days in April 1837, and François at age 2 months in February 1839.  They also had a son named Jean.  Their daughters married Broussard cousins.  Charles Valière, père may have died in Lafayette Parish in November 1849; the Vermilionville priest who recorded the burial of Charles Comeaux, husband of ____ Broussard, said that Charles died "at age 40 yrs.," but this Charles would have been age 49. 

Jean married cousin Euphémie, daughter of Pierre Meaux and his Acadian wife Céleste Broussard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in December 1850.  They were living near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, a few years after their marriage.  Their daughter married a Broussard cousin.  Jean remarried to cousin Azelima, Azelina, or Mélanie, daughter of fellow Acadians Alexandre Guidry and Carmelite Broussard, at the Vermilionville church in December 1855.  Their son Rémi was born in Lafayette Parish in December 1858.  They were living near Abbeville a decade later. 

Adolphe married cousin Eugénie, another daughter Pierre Meaux and Céleste Broussard, at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, in April 1855, and remarried to double cousin Marie Eugènie, daughter of fellow Acadians Ursin Jean Olidon Broussard and Marie Urasie Broussard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1858.  Their son Aymar was born in Lafayette Parish in November 1858.  Adolphe remarried again--his third marriage--to Marie Gadrate or Godrate, daughter of fellow Acadians Désiré Benoit and Celima Thibodeaux, at the Vermilionville church September 1865. 

Lauzin married double cousin Azéma, daughter of fellow Acadians Ursin Isidore Broussard and Célanie Comeaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in February 1860.  They settled near Youngsville.  During the War of 1861-65, Lauzin, called Lozin in Confederate records, served in Company E of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafayette Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  He enlisted in the company only a few weeks after his daughter Ophelia was born, and he fathered another daughter, Rose, during the war while he was waiting to be exchanged.  After his unit surrendered in northwestern Louisiana in May 1865, Lauzin returned home to Azema.  Their son Ernest was born near Youngsville in December 1866, and Omer in April 1868. 

Charles Valière, fils married Azéma, daughter of fellow Acadian François Benoit and his Creole wife Cléonise Montet, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in April 1861; he was 34 years old at the time of the wedding.  Their son Eustache was born in Lafayette Parish in January 1862, Onésiphore in May 1863, Alcée near Youngsville in June 1866, Albert in January 1868, and Duha in April 1870. 

François married cousin Marie Sylvanie, called Sylvanie, daughter of fellow Acadians Ursin Jean Olidon Broussard and Marie Eurasie Broussard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1867.  Their son Luc was born near Youngsville in December 1867, and Jean Horace in November 1869. 

2

Pierre, born at Opelousas in c1770, married Cécile, daughter of Philippe Langlois and his Acadian wife Marie-Jeanne Sonnier, at Opelousas in October 1791.  They probably settled near Côte Gelée also.  Their son Pierre, fils was baptized at Opelousas, age unrecorded, in September 1799.  Their daughter married into the Gaspard family.  Pierre died at brother Charles's home at Côte Gelée in February 1810, age 40.  His only son returned to St. Landry Parish.  One of his grandsons settled near Breaux Bridge on upper Bayou Teche.

Pierre, fils married Louise, Lisa, Lise, or Élise, daughter of Simonet Durio and his Acadin wife Madeleine Landry, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in February 1826, and sanctified the marriage at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, in July 1830.  Their son Jean Baptiste was born in St. Landry Parish in May 1834, and Cleopha in December 1836.  Their daughters married into the Anselm, D'avy or David (French Creole, not Acadian), Guilbeau, Raulin, and St. Blancat families, and perhaps into the Richard family as well.  In November 1850, the federal census taker in St. Landry Parish counted 6 slaves--3 males and 3 females, all black except for 1 mulatto, ranging in age from 40 to 1--on Pierre Comeau's farm.  In 1860, the federal census in St. Landry Parish counted 6 slaves again--2 males and 4 females, all black except for 1 mulatto, ages 58 to 9--on Pierre Comeau's farm. 

Jean Baptiste married Cephalide, daughter of fellow Acadian Charles Dupuis and his Creole wife Célestine Patin, at the Breaux Bridge church, St. Martin Parish, in March 1858.

Cleopha married Estelle, daughter of French Canadian Jean Baptiste Roy, fils, and his Acadian wife Lise Pitre, at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, in May 1860.  Their son Cléopha Henry was born in St. Landry Parish in February 1861, and Pierre Hebard in July 1866. 

3

Auguste or Augustin, baptized at Opelousas, age unrecorded, in June 1779, married Céleste or Célestine, daughter of fellow Acadians Sylvain Sonnier and Madeleine Bourque and widow of Élisée Missonier, at Opelousas in February 1797.  In the early 1800s, they moved down to the old Attakapas District and settled on the Vermilion River south of present-day Lafayette.  Their son Hippolyte, born in c1797, was baptized at Opelousas, age 4, in August 1801, Pierre Valmont, called Valmont and also André, at age 6 months in November 1802, Norbert at age 3 in February 1808, Drosin at age 2 months in February 1808 but died in St. Martin Parish at age 1 1/2 in October 1809, Symphorien was baptized at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, age 2 months, in February 1808, and twins Charles le jeune and Martin were baptized at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, age 4 months, in October 1811.  Their daughters married into the Bernard and Guidry families.  Augustin died a widower in Lafayette Parish in September 1829, age 50.  

3a

Hippolyte married Marie Eugénie, called Eugénie, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre LeBlanc and Hortense Broussard of Vermilion, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in May 1820.  They settled on the Vermilion.  Their son Hippolyte, fils was born in Lafayette Parish in April 1823 but died the following January, Charles was born in September 1827, Augustin le jeune was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 17 months, in October 1831, and Pierre or René Edgar, called Edgar, at age 2 1/2 in July 1837.  Their daughters married into the Belaire, Guidry, and Landry families.  Hippolyte, père died near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in June 1867; the priest who recorded the burial said that Hippolyte died "at age 68 yrs.," but he may have been a year or two older.

Charles married Adveline, Adeline, or Eveline, daughter of fellow Acadian Gédéon Landry and his Creole wife Anne Josèphe Lormand, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in February 1850.  Their son Charles Augustin was born in Lafayette Parish in April 1857, Nicolas Desmartiniere near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in June 1862 but died the following November, and Pierre Odelon was born near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in November 1863.  They were living near Abbeville again by the mid-1860s.  Their daughter married into the Harrington family. 

Augustin le jeune married Marie Euranie, called Euranie, daughter of fellow Acadians Ursin Jean Olidon Broussard and Marie Eurasie Broussard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in February 1854.  Their son, name unrecorded, died in Lafayette Parish, age 7 days, in October 1857.  Augustin le jeune "of Vermillion" remarried to Lydia, daughter of fellow Acadians Lezin LeBlanc and Valzere Broussard, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in August 1865.  Their son Désiré was baptized at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, age 10 months, in November 1866, Hippolyte le jeune was born in March 1868, and Lezin Henri in near New Iberia, Iberia Parish, in August 1869. 

Edgar married Eusèide, daughter of Nicolas Walleau, Valleau, or Vallot and and Marguerite Domingues and widow of Dominique Girouard, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in June 1856.  Their son Pierre Nicolas was born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in February 1863, and Edgar, fils in March 1870.  In 1860, the federal census taker in Vermilion Parish counted 2 slaves--a 21-year-old black female, and a 5-year-old black male, living in 1 house--on Edgar Como's farm in the parish's western district. 

3b

Pierre Valmont married fellow Acadian Eugènie Landry in Lafayette Parish in the early 1820s.  Their son Pierre, fils, also called Déopalière, was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 3 days, in June 1827, Augustin le jeune at age 3 months in October 1837, and Alexandre in July 1844.  Their daughters married Landry cousins.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 2 slaves--a 44-year-old black female, and a 44-year-old black male, living in 1 house--on Valmond Comeaux's farm near Lefroy Comeaux.  Valmont died in Lafayette Parish in March 1863; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Valmont died "at age 48 yrs.," but he was 61.  One wonders if his death was war-related. 

Pierre, fils married Marcellite, daughter of fellow Acadians Onésime Melançon and Mélanie Prejean, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in April 1868.  Their son Zacharie was born near Youngsville in January 1869. 

Alexandre married Aurelia, daughter of fellow Acadians Octave Granger and Marcellienne Trahan, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in June 1868.  Their son Pierre Galbert was born in Lafayette Parish in January 1870. 

3c

Norbert married first cousin Clarisse, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Comeaux and Rosalie Prejean, his uncle and aunt, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in November 1826.  Their son Norbert, fils was born probably in Lafayette Parish in c1832,  Émile was baptized at the Vermilionville church, age 2 months, in May 1833, Dorcili at age 2 months in January 1835, Charles Sevigne was born in November 1836, Seville was baptized at age 8 months in December 1839 but died at age 9 months in January 1840, Charles Ovide was born in March 1840, a child, name unrecorded, perhaps a son, died at age 5 in August 1853, and a second Norbert, fils was born in September 1852.  In October 1850, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 2 slaves--a 25-year-old black female, and a 17-year-old black male--on Norbert Comeau's farm in the parish's western district.  Clarisse died in Lafayette Parish in January 1853, age 40; her succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in March 1856.  Norbert, père died in Lafayette Parish in November 1858; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Norbert died "at age 50 yrs.," but he was 53; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse in January 1859. 

Norbert, fils l'aîné died in Lafayette Parish in December 1852, age 20, and probably did not marry. 

Charles Ovide married cousin Hebertville, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Landry and Azélie Comeaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in February 1862.  During the War of 1861-65, Charles Ovide served in Company A of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafayette Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  He enlisted in the company in March 1862, only a month after his wedding.  He was wounded at Vicksburg on 24 Jun 1863 but survived the war and returned to his family. 

During the War of 1861-65, Dorcili served in Company F of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafayette Parish, which fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, and in Company I of the Consolidated 18th Regiment and Yellow Jackets Battalion Infantry, which fought in Louisiana.  After surviving the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, Dorcili was "sent to interior" on sick leave.  He returned to his unit in southern Alabama by July and followed it to South Louisiana that autumn.  He was absent sick again, this time at New Iberia, not far from home, in the early summer of 1863.  He may have fought with his new regiment, the Consolidated 18th Infantry, at Mansfield, Louisiana, in April 1864.  Like younger brother Charles Ovide, Dorcili survived the war and returned to his family.  He married Edita, daughter of fellow Acadian Napoléon R. Lalande and his Creole wife Suzanne Fabre and widow of Leufroi Richard, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in November 1865.  Dorcili's succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse, Lafayette Parish, in November 1869; he would have been age 35 that year. 

3d

Symphorien married Euphémie, daughter of fellow Acadians Olivier Landry and Julienne Breaux, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in August 1831.  Did they have any children?

3e

Martin married Emeranthe Eremise or Eremise Emeranthe, also called Eloise, daughter of perhaps fellow Acadians François Arceneaux and Marie Mouton, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in July 1833; the marriage was recorded at the Vermilionville courthouse in May 1844.  Their son Martin Telesphore, called Telesphore, was born in Lafayette Parish in July 1834, François Thelesmar in March 1837, Pierre Théole near Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, in August 1845, and a child, name and age unrecorded, perhaps a son, died in Lafayette Parish in May 1847.  Martin died in Lafayette Parish in April 1850, age 38. 

Telesphore married Aurore, daughter of Louis Dautreuil and Émeranthe Leleu and widow of Charles Bertrand, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in January 1858.  Their son Martin Elzean or Azarius was born in St. Martin Parish in September 1858 but died in Lafayette Parish, age 11 months, in August 1859.  During the War of 1861-65, Telesphore served in Company F of the 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafayette Parish, which fought in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.  He survived the war and returned to his family.  Telesphore died in St. Martin Parish in June 1866; the priest who recorded his burial said that Telesphore died "at age 38 yrs.," but he was 32; his succession was filed at the St. Martinville courthouse later in June. 

François Thelesmar married fellow Acadian Elzina Thibodeaux, widow of Stanislas Garrigues, in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in February 1868.

3f

Charles le jeune married Marie Elise, Elisa, Eleine, or Hélène, daughter of Hippolyte Bonin and his Acadian wife Marie Doiron, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in April 1834.  Their son Hippolyte was baptized at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, age 2 months, in December 1836 but died at age 1 in September 1837, Louis was born in St. Martin Parish in September 1841, Henri Hertelle in December 1843, Valérien in November 1845, and Cyprien near Breaux Bridge in January 1849.  Their daughter married into the Thibodeaux family.  Charles le jeune may have died near Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in March 1867; the priest who recorded the burial did not give Charles's parents' names or mention a wife, but he did say that Charles died "at age 50 yrs."; this Charles would have been age 56. 

Henri married Élodie, daughter of Sellerive Domengeaux and Idalie Cailler, at the Breaux Bridge church, St. Martin Parish, in January 1865.  Their son Jean was born Breaux Bridge in March 1867. 

4

Youngest son Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, baptized at Opelousas, age 6 weeks, in October 1781, married Rosalie, 22-year-old daughter of fellow Acadians Charles Prejean and Marguerite Richard, at Attakapas in October 1802.  They remained in Attakapas and settled at Côte Gelée near present-day Broussard.  Their son Jean Baptiste Désiré was born in July 1814, and Charles Duclise, Euclis, or Euclide in November 1818.  Their daughters married into the Bernard, Breaux, Broussard, Comeaux, and Landry families.  Baptiste remarried to fellow Acadian Marguerite Adélaïde Mouton, widow of Cyprien Arceneaux, in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in June 1845.  Baptiste died in Lafayette Parish in June 1847; the Vermilionville priest who recorded his burial said that Jean Baptiste died "at age 56 yrs.," but he was 66; his succession was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse the following August.  In November 1850, the federal census taker in St. Landry Parish counted 6 slaves--4 males and 2 females, all black, ranging in age from 60 to 6--on Ww. Bte Comeau's farm; these probably were the slaves of Baptiste's widow, Marguerite Adélaïde Mouton. 

4a

Jean Baptiste Désiré, by his father's first wife, married Céleste, daughter of fellow Acadians Edmond Landry and Anastasie Giroir, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in November 1836.  Their daughter married a Landry cousin.  In August 1850, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 6 slaves--2 males and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 29 to 2--on Désiré Comeau's farm in the parish's western district next to François Landry and three farms down from Édouard Comeau.  Was this Jean Baptiste Désiré?  Did he father any sons?  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 9 slaves--3 males and 6 females, 5 blacks and 4 mulattoes, ages 42 years to 4 months, living in 1 house--on Mrs. Désiré Comeaux's farm several farms down from Edward Comeaux; these may have been the slaves of Jean Baptiste Désiré's widow, Céleste Landry. 

4b

Charles Duclise, by his father's first wife, married fellow Acadian Marie Élodie Landry probably in Lafayette Parish by the late 1840s.  Their son Alphonse was born in Lafayette Parish in January 1851, and Jean in August 1852.  Their daughters married into the Landry and Larriviere families.  The federal census taker in Lafayette Parish in September 1850 counted 5 slaves--1 male and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 30 to 3--on C. D. Comeau's farm next to Émilien Landry in the parish's western district; this probably was Charles Duclise.  Charles Duclise may have died near Breaux Bridge, St. Martin Parish, in March 1867; the priest who recorded the burial did not give Charles's parents' names or mention a wife, but he did say that Charles died "at age 50 yrs."; this Charles would have been age 48. 

~

A Comeau wife from France went to the Opelousas District in 1785.  Another from France may have gone to the Attakapas District: 

Marguerite Comeau, age 32, crossed on L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in November.  With her were husband Jean Broussard, age 40, and an 11-year-old son.  She died at Attakapas in December 1792, in her late 30s.

.

Monique Comeau, age 38, crossed on La Caroline, the last of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in December.  With her were husband Basile Chiasson, age 36, an 11-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old son.  They were only one of three families from France who chose to settle on the Opelousas prairies, so she probably was closely related to the Comeauxs already there.  She died by July 1789, when her husband remarried at Opelousas.  

~

In the late 1790s, a Comeaux wife who had immigrated from France moved from the river to the Opelousas District: 

Anne-Eléonore, called Eléonore, Comeau came to Louisiana on L'Amitié with her parents in 1785, married Pierre, son of fellow Acadian Joseph-Ignace Hébert, at St.-Jacques on the river in July 1788, and followed him to the Opelousas District in the late 1790s.  Her succession record was filed at the Opelousas courthouse, St. Landry Parish, in September 1821; she would have been age 50 that year; her estate record was filed at the Opelousas courthouse the following April.  

~

During the antebellum period, four Comeaux brothers from upper Bayou Lafourche moved to lower Bayou Teche and settled in St. Mary Parish.  However, two of the brothers and a nephew returned to upper Bayou Lafourche during the late antebellum and immediate postwar periods: 

Descendants of Antoine Eusèbe COMEAUX (1804-; Pierre, Jean le jeune, Jean-Baptiste, Simon)

Antoine Eusèbe, fourth son of Alexandre Simon Comeaux and Marguerite Anne Blanchard, born at Assumption in December 1804, married fellow Acadian Elisa or Eliza LeBlanc in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in October 1829.  They lived in Assumption Parish before returning to lower Bayou Teche, where Antoine became a major planter in St. Mary Parish.  Their daughter married into the Charpentier family.  In December 1850, the federal census taker in St. Mary Parish counted 34 slaves--23 males and 11 females, all black, ranging in age from 80 to 1--on Antoine Comeaux's plantation.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in St. Mary Parish counted 77 slaves on Antoine Comeau's plantation in the parish's Western District--enough to make him one of the state's major planters.  Antoine, at age 60,  remarried to Anne or Anna Raymond, daughter of Bertrand Audibert and Marie Bertrande Mistrot, at the New Iberia church, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in March 1864.  They settled near New Iberia.  His oldest son returned to Assumption Parish perhaps soon after the War of 1861-65. 

1

Oldest son Désiré, by his father's first wife, born in Assumption Parish in June 1834, married Clara Bertrand, a Creole, not an Acadian, probably in St. Mary Parish in the late 1850s or early 1860s.  They "returned" to Assumption Parish by the late 1860s. 

2

Alexandre Aristide, called Aristide, from his father's first wife, was born near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in June 1846.

3

Joseph Ernest, by his father's first wife, was born near Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish, in August 1849.

Descendants of Alexandre Simon COMEAUX, fils (1809-1850s; Pierre, Jean le jeune, Jean-Baptiste, Simon)

Alexandre Simon, fils, sixth son of Alexandre Simon Comeaux and Marguerite Anne Blanchard, born in Assumption Parish in July 1809, married Augustine, also called Azema, daughter of French Creole Adélard Verret, in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in July 1832, and sanctified the marriage at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in April 1833.  Evidently they, too, lived in Assumption Parish before joining his brothers on lower Bayou Teche.  Alexandre, fils's succession was filed at the Franklin courthouse, St. Mary Parish, in January 1852; he would have been age 43 that year. 

1

Oldest son Joseph Séraphin was born in Assumption Parish in December 1834.

2

Louis Telesphore was born in Assumption Parish in September 1836.

3

Youngest son Édouard, born in either Assumption or St. Mary Parish in the late 1830s or early 1840s, married Teresa, daughter of Auguste Trastour and ____ Barrabino, at the Charenton church, St. Mary Parish, in July 1864.  They settled near Franklin. 

~

Other COMEAUXs on the Western Prairies

Local church and civil records make it difficult to link many Comeauxs in the western parishes with known lines of the family there.  One suspects that some of the Comeauxs who lived on the western prairies during the immediate post-war period were Afro Creoles once owned by Acadian Comeauxs:

Erma Comeaux died near New Iberia in September 1839, age 20.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give her parents' names. 

Marguerite Comeaux married John Vining in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in January 1840.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Was Marguerite a sister of Antoine et al. of Assumption and St. Mary parishes?

Michel Comeaux married French Creole Modeste Labbé, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Antoine was born near Church Point on upper Bayou Plaquemine Brûlé, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in April 1844.  Which Michel Comeaux was this?

Pierre Despallier or Despaleine Comeaux married Clémentine LeBlanc, place and date unrecorded, and settled in St. Martin Parish by the late 1840s or early 1850s.  Their daughter Euphémie was born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in August 1851; Eulaliein St. Martin Parish in February 1854, son Jules Numa near Abbeville in April 1856, Octave near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in June 1858, and Andoche in September 1862.  

Céleste Comeaux married Acadian Alexandre Doucet in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in June 1850.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

The federal census taker in Lafayette Parish in September 1850 counted 17 slaves--11 males and 6 females, all blacks except for 1 mulatto, ranging in age from 60 to 2--on Widow Comeaux's farm in the parish's western district.  Which Widow Comeaux was this? 

Pierre Comeaux married Marie Céleste Giroir in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in January 1851.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Sylvestre Comeaux died near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in either March or April 1851, age 8 months.  The priest who recorded the boy's burial did not give the parents' names.  Was Sylvestre's father Valéry? 

Eugénie Comeaux died in Lafayette Parish in September 1851.  The Vermilionville priest who recorded the burial did not give Eugénie's parents' names, mention a husband, or her age at the time of her death. 

Manuel Comeaux married Joséphine Lavigne, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Léon was born near Ville Platte, then in St. Landry but now in Evangeline Parish, in June 1854.  How was Manuel kin to the other Comeauxs?

Étienne Comeaux married Célestine Dartes or Dartez, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Laurenza was born near Charenton, St. Mary Parish, in December 1854.  Was he kin to Antoine et al. of Assumption and St. Mary parishes? 

Carmélite Comeaux married French Creole Alexandre Langlinais in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in March 1855.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Was Carmélite the widow of Lessin Isidore Broussard, who died in March 1852?

Adrian Como, as he was called in the church record, married Terzile Rantrap at the Pattersonville church, St. Mary Parish, in May 1855.  The priest who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Was Adrian an Acadian Comeaux?  If so, was he kin to Antoine et al. of Assumption and St. Mary parishes?  Was he the same Adrien Comeaux who married Joséphine Enduortt, place and date unrecorded, and settled near Pattersonville by the late 1860s? 

Athanus Comeaux's son Jean died in Lafayette Parish, age 10 months, in October 1855.  The Vermilionville priest who recorded the boy's burial did not give his mother's name. 

Julie Comeaux married Anglo Creole Samuel Caruthers in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in January 1856.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Pierre Comeaux married Clémentine LeBlanc, place and date unrecorded.  Son Jules Numa was born near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, in April 1856. 

Amélie, daughter of Adolphe Comeaux, died in Lafayette Parish, age 25, in April 1856.  The Vermilionville priest who recorded the burial did not give her mother's name. 

Jean Baptiste Comeaux married Azélie Bame, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Louis Omer was born near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in August 1856. 

Michel Comeaux married Eurasie Clément, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Joseph Adelma was born near Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, in August 1856. 

Théodore Comeaux married Louisa Comeaux, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Marie Desmeiges was born near Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, in April 1857. 

Joachim Comeaux's succession was filed at the Franklin courthouse, St. Mary Parish, in November 1858.  Was Joachim kin to Antoine et al. of Assumption and St. Mary parishes? 

In June 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted a single slave--a 9-year-old black female--in Marie Coralie Comaux's household next to Mrs. John Comaux.

In July 1860, the federal census taker in Lafayette Parish counted 2 slaves--a 22-year-old black females, and a 17-year-old black males--on Lephroy Comeaux's farm near Valmond Comeaux.  

Octave Comeaux married Eugénie Himel, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Edward was born near Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish, in July 1860.  Was Octave kin to Antoine et al. of Assumption and St. Mary parishes? 

A succession for Marie Aurelia Comeaux, wife of Duc Bonin, was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse, Lafayette Parish, in January 1861. 

Sylvanie Comeaux died near Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, age unrecorded, in September 1861.  The priest who recorded the burial, true to form, did not give Sylvanie's parents' names. 

Emelilia Comeaux married French Creole Désiré Derouen at the Abbeville church, Vermilion Parish, in December 1862.  The priest who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Savinia Comeaux married Alcide Polasky in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in June 1865.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Marie Comeaux, daughter of Carmélite Hulin, was born near Youngsville, Lafayette Parish, in July 1865.  The priest who recorded the baptism did not give the girl's father's name. 

James Comeaux married Élisabeth Matte, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Mélanie was born near Church Point, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in February 1866. 

A succession for Élise, probably Élisée, Comeaux was filed at the St. Landry Parish courthouse in July 1866.  The succession does not mention a wife or any parents' names. 

Célina Comeaux, widow of Sem Blancos, married Louis Henry De Courson "de Ky Leu" in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in October 1866.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Hilaire Comeaux married Émelia Landry in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in January 1867.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Sophie Comeaux married Charles Martin in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in July 1867.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Joseph Comeaux married Eudallie Miller, widow of Ursin Doucet, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in September 1867.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Suzanne, daughter of Louisiana Comeaux, was born near Youngsville, Lafayette Parish, in December 1867.  The priest who recorded the baptism did not give the father's name or the mother's parents' names. 

Valrie or Volerin, probably Valéry, Comeaux married Carmilie Granger, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Euphémie was born in Lafayette Parish in December 1867.  Son Dueri married Sophie, daughter of Moise Broussard and Euranie Hulin, at the Youngsville church in September 1870. 

A succession for Azèle Comeaux, wife of Placide Mouton, was filed at the Lafayette Parish courthouse in January 1868.  Was it post-mortem? 

Carmélite Comeaux, daughter of Carmélite Hulin, was born near Youngsville in March 1868.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give the girl's father's name.  

Madeleine Comeaux married John Larouay or Loury in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in March 1868.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

"Madame" Comeaux died in St. Landry Parish in June 1868, age 27.  The Opelousas priest who recorded the burial said nothing more about her. 

Evalida Comeaux died a day after her birth in St. Landry Parish in June 1868.  The Opelousas priest who recorded the burial, true to form, did not give the infant's parents' names. 

Coralie Comeaux married Étienne Hernandez in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in December 1868.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Marie Alida, daughter of Ulalie Comeaux, was born near Iota, then in St. Landry but now in Acadia Parish, in December 1868.  The priest who recorded the baptism did not give the girl's father's name or the mother's parents' names. 

Armand Comeaux married Mathilde Duval, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Désiré was born near Brashear, now Morgan, City, St. Mary Parish, in January 1869. 

William Comeaux married Amelia Landry, place and date unrecorded.  Their son James was born near Franklin, St. Mary Parish, in January 1869. 

Joseph Comeaux married Marie Modeste _____, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Brigitte married into the Fusilier family at Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, in June 1869. 

Pierre Comeaux married Pélagie LeBlanc, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Euphémie married Théodule, son of fellow Acadians Rosémond Hébert and Marie Templet, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1870.  Who was Pierre's father? 

Adrien Comeaux married Joséphine Endourtt, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Rosalie Émilie was born near Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish, in February 1870. 

Élizé Comeaux married Bélizaire Bernard at the Youngsville church in February 1870.  The priest who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

Maxilien Comeaux married Melina Doucet, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Doralise Doucet married Rosémond, son of Auguste Guillory and Euphranie Arilean, at the Ville Platte, church, then in St. Landry but now in Evangeline Parish, in February 1870. 

Julie, daughter of Marinette Comeaux, married Joseph, son of Anglo Americans Louis Weston and Jenny Weston, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry in February 1870.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the bride's father's name.  Who were Marinette's parents?

Dueri, son of Volarien or Valéry Comeaux and Carmélite Granger, married Sophie, daughter of Moïse Broussard, at the Youngsville church, Lafayette Parish, in September 1870. 

Euphémie Comeaux married Lucien Broussard in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in November 1870.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

More Comeaus came to Louisiana in 1765 from Halifax via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, but they did not follow their cousins to the western prairies.  They settled, instead, at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  The area soon became known as the Acadian Coast:  

Catherine Comeau, age 39, widow of ____ Lafaye, came with her 15-year-old daughter.  Catherine remarried to fellow Acadian Joseph Guilbeau at Cabanocé in October 1767.  She was a widow again by 1779, when Spanish officials counted her at St.-Jacques.  

Isabelle Comeau, age unrecorded, came with husband Pierre Arosteguy, fils.  Isabelle was pregnant on the long voyage from Halifax to New Orleans, and she gave birth to a daughter at New Orleans in August 1765 before moving on to Cabanocé.  

~

A Comean came to Louisiana from Maryland in 1767 and settled in a new Acadian community on the river above New Orleans:

Charles Comeau, age 58, a widower, came with three children--Marianne, called Anne, age 22, Jean-Charles, age 18, Firmin, age 14--and orphan Élisabeth, or Isabelle, Comeau, age 9.  The Spanish sent them to St.-Gabriel d'Iberville on the river, not far above the Acadian community of Cabanocé/St.-Jacques.  Charles did not remarry but lived with his son Jean-Charles at St.-Jacques.  Daughter Anne married into the Doucet family and settled at St.-Gabriel.  The fate of orphan Élisabeth is not revealed in the records. 

Descendants of Jean-Charles COMEAUX (c1749-1823; Pierre, Jean l'aîné, Étienne)

Jean-Charles, called Charles, elder son of Charles Comeau and Madeleine Landry, born probably at Minas in c1749, was deported with his family to Maryland in 1755.  He followed them to Louisiana in 1767 and settled with them at St.-Gabriel.  He married Cécile, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Dugas and Cécile Bergeron, at nearby St.-Jacques in September 1776.  They settled at St.-Gabriel.  Their children included:  Firmin, buried at St.-Gabriel, age unrecorded, in March 1781.  Their daughter married into the Cointment, Dehon, and Henry families.  Jean-Charles remarried to Anne-Catherine, called Catherine, daughter of Anglo-Americans Daniel Bauche, Bouche, Bousch, Boush, or Bush and Dina Louis, at St.-Gabriel in July 1781.  Their children, all born at St.-Gabriel, included:  Jean-Louis-Laurent, called Jean-Louis and Louis, in January 1784; Bernard-Guillaume in January 1786; Charles-Daniel, called Charles D., in September 1787; Gilbert in c1788; Henri-Firmin in September 1789; twins Étienne and Pierre Amand in December 1791; Joseph-Julien, called Julien, in January 1794; Marion in August 1796; Philippe in May 1800; and Anne Delphine in June 1802.  Jean Charles died near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in July 1823; the priest who recorded his burial said that Jean Charles was age 79 when he died; he was closer to 74.   His daughters by both wives married into the Cointment, Dehon, Henry, Hébert, and LeBlanc families.  Nine of his sons, all from his second wife, created families of their own and settled in Iberville, East and West Baton Rouge, and Ascension parishes, adding substantially to the number of Comeauxs living on the river.  Most of the Comeauxs on the river, in fact, are Jean-Charles's descendants.

1

Jean-Louis-Laurent, called Jean-Louis and Louis, from his father's second wife, married Anastasie, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Hébert and Marie Itna Landry, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in February 1808.  Their son Louis Joachim Laurent or Laurent Joachim, called Joachim, was born near St. Gabriel in December 1809, Victorin in September 1811, Louis Valsin, called Valsin, in May 1813, and Jean Louis, fils or Louis Eugène in January 1815 but died at age 2 in January 1817.  Their daughter married into the Aillet and Dehon families.  Jean Louis died near St. Gabriel in May 1825; the priest who recorded his burial said that Jean Louis was age 35 when he died, but he was 41.  

1a

Joachim married Carmélite, daughter of Louis Julien Aillet and his Acadian wife Marie Victoire Lejeune, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in February 1832.  Their son Augustin was born near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in December 1837.  Their son Augustin died near St. Gabriel, age 2 1/2 years, in July 1840, Laurent was born in July 1840 but died at age 11 1/2 in January 1852, and Cyprien Lucas was born in September 1847.  Their daughters married into the Covington and Parks families, and perhaps into the Landry family as well. 

1b

Victorin died near St. Gabriel in August 1838, age 26, and did not marry.  

1c

Valsin married Zerbine, daughter of fellow Acadian Magloire Dupuy and his Creole wife Henreitte Serret and widow of Onésime Landry, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in July 1838.  The federal census taker in West Baton Rouge Parish in August 1850 counted 7 slaves--4 males and 3 males, all black, ranging in age from 50 to 1--on V. Comeaux's farm; this may have been Valsin.  Valsin died near Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish, in June 1854; the priest who recorded his burial said that Valsin died at "age 44 yrs.," but he was 41.  Did Valsin and Zerbine have any children of their own?  In July 1860, the federal census taker in West Baton Rouge Parish counted 2 slaves--both females, both black, ages 72 and 16--on Widow Val. Comeaux's farm near Adolphe Dupuy; these may have been the slaves of Valsin's widow, Zerbine Dupuy. 

2

Bernard-Guillaume, by his father's second wife, married Marie Rose, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Richard and Cécile Dupuis, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in April 1809.  Their son Bernard Lesime or Onésime, called Onésime, was born near St. Gabriel in January 1810, and Treville in May 1811.  Their daughter married into the Gomez family.  Bernard died in August 1816, age 30.  

Bernard Onésime married Ann Bordon, Borgon, or Bogan at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in June 1840.  Their son James was born near St. Gabriel in August 1841. 

3

Charles-Daniel, called Charles D., from his father's second wife, married Marie Carmélite, called Carmélite, daughter of fellow Acadians Bénoni Hébert and Marie Madeleine Allain, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in February 1813.  They settled in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Their son, name unrecorded, was born near St. Gabriel in October 1813 but died the following December, Jean Ternault, Dameau, Darneau, d'Arnaux, Darno, Dermon, Dernon, or Valence was born in April 1815, Charles Daniel, fils in February 1817, Lucillio Laurent in November 1818, and Pierre Fulsi in January 1834.  Their daughters married into the Doiron, Legendre, and Stumpley families.  Charles D., père died probably in West Baton Rouge Parish in December 1850; the Baton Rouge priest who recorded his burial said that Charles died at "age 60 years," but he was 63; he was buried "in Highland Cemetary." 

3a

Jean d'Arnaux married Felonise, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Theriot and Céleste Breaux of West Baton Rouge Parish, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in March 1836.  Like their parents, they settled in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Their son Jean Eugène was born in December 1836, and Pierre Paul in June 1845.  Jean d'Arnaux, called John Darno by the recording priest, remarried to Julienne Celina or Celima, daughter of fellow Acadians John Henry and Hermegilde Gaudin, at the Baton Rouge church in November 1851.  Their son Jean d'Arnaux, fils was born near Baton Rouge in May 1855, and James Daniel in December 1858. 

3b

Charles Daniel, fils married French Creole Forestine or Florestine Sylvanie Tullier probably in West Baton Rouge Parish in the late 1830s or early 1840s.  Their son Pierre Victorin was born near Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish, in August 1848, and Charles Daniel III in February 1862.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in East Baton Rouge Parish counted 2 slaves--a 44-year-old black female, and a 7-year-old black female, living in 1 house--on Chas. D. Comeaux's farm.  One wonders when he moved to that parish.  Charles Daniel, fils remarried to cousin Désirée, daughter of fellow Acadians Florestin Aucoin and his Creole wife Élisabeth Verdou, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in September 1867; they had to secure a dispensation for second degree of affinity in order to marry.

4

Gilbert, by his father's second wife, married Marie Mélisaire, daughter of fellow Acadians Arsène Breaux and Marie Geneviève Daigre, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in May 1818.  Their son Étienne Hermogène, called Hermogène, was born near St. Gabriel in March 1819, and Gilbert, fils posthumously in April 1820.  Gilbert, père died near St. Gabriel in November 1819, five months before his younger son was born; the priest who recorded the burial said that Gilbert was age 30 when he died. 

4a

Gilbert, fils married Mary Adeline, called Adeline, daughter of Francis Gallaugher and his Acadian wife Marguerite Landry, at the St. Gabriel church, St. Gabriel Parish, in February 1843.  Their daughters married into the Allain and Arbour families.  Gilbert, fils died near St. Gabriel in December 1845, age 25, and was buried "in St. Raphaël's cemetary."  Gilbert, fils fathered no sons, so his line of the family, except for its blood, died with him. 

4b

Hermogène married Elisa or Eliza, daughter of fellow Acadian Janvier Allain and his Creole wife Élise Boush, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in January 1848.  Their son Joseph Edgard was born near St. Gabriel in December 1848 but died at age 5 months in May 1849, Gilbert Rodolph was born in March 1850, Hermogène Edwin in January 1854, and Egbert Amédée in December 1856. 

5

Henri-Firmin, by his father's second wife, married Marie Marguerite, called Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Hébert and Anne Marie Dupuy, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in April 1811.  Their son Henri, fils was born near St. Gabriel in January 1813 but died at age 1 1/2 in August 1814, a son, name unrecorded, died at age 1 month in December 1814, Firmin Gerville was born in January 1816, twin Jean Surville, called Surville, in May 1818 but died at age 9 in February 1827, another Firmin was born in November 1820, and a child, perhaps a son, name unrecorded, died at age 7 months in June 1824.  Their daughter married an Hébert cousin.  Henri died near St. Gabriel in September 1823, age 34.  

Firmin married Marie Emma, Aimée, or Irma, daughter of J. B. Friou and Marcelline Prosper of West Baton Rouge Parish, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in December 1838.  They settled in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Their son Joseph Saturnin, called Saturnin, was born in November 1842, and Alfred near Brusly in January 1849.  Their daughters married into the Broussard and Bourgogne families. 

Saturnin married Marie Victoire, daughter of Fortune Gonet or Gonnet and his Acadin wife Marie Braud, at the Brusly church, West Baton Rouge Parish, in October 1869.

6

Étienne, a twin, by his father's second wife, married Marie Céleste, called Céleste, another daughter of Arsene Breaux and Marie Geneviève Daigre, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in February 1820.  Their son Sosthène Breau was born near St. Gabriel in March 1826, and Étienne Fergus or Jasque in June 1833 but died the following September.  Their daughters married into the Breaux, Hébert, Rils, and Rivet families. 

Sosthène married Elvenia, Elvania, Elvira, or Helvenia, daughter of Joseph Barthélemy Ramouin and his Acadian wife Émilie Hébert, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in December 1851.  They settled across the river near Plaquemine.  Their son Walton Emerson was born in October 1852, Joseph O. in July 1863, and a son, name and age unrecorded, died near St. Gabriel in February 1866. 

7

Pierre Amand, a twin, by his father's second wife, married Marie Hortense, called Hortense, daughter of fellow Acadians Grégoire LeBlanc and Marie Barbe Babin, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in October 1820.  Their son Pierre, fils was born in Ascension Parish in December 1826.  Their daughter married into the Melançon family.  Pierre, père died in Ascension Parish in January 1828, age 36. 

Pierre, fils married Virginie, daughter of Achille Altazin and Sarah Krage, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in April 1858.  Their son Jean Achille, called Achille, was born near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1863 but died in Ascension Parish, age 10 months, 9 days, in July 1864, and Louis Adam was born in November 1864.  Pierre, fils died in Ascension Parish in June 1865, age 38.  Was his death war-related? 

8

Joseph-Julien, called Julien, from his father's second wife, married Anne Delphine, daughter of Jean Lambremont and Marguerite Hamiliton, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in January 1819.  Their son Joseph Joachim was born near St. Gabriel in October 1820, Joseph Firmin in May 1822 but died at age 1 1/2 in September 1823, Joseph Trasimond, called Trasimond, was born in October 1824, Jean Baptiste Ernest, called Ernest, in January 1831, and Joseph Émile in September 1844 but died at age 9 months in July 1845.  Their daughters married into the Breaux, Mears, and Verret families.  Joseph Julien died near St. Gabriel in May 1849; he was 55 years old.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Iberville Parish counted 10 slaves--4 males and 6 females, all black, ranging in age from 35 to 1, living in 2 houses--on Widow Julien Comeaux's farm next to Widow T. Comeaux; these were the slaves of Julien's widow, Anne Delphine Lambremont. 

8a

Trasimond married Marie Domitille, called Domitille, daughter of fellow Acadians Firmin Davat Landry and Mellisere Braud, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in January 1847.  Their son Julien Gaspard was born near St. Gabriel in March 1852, and Joseph Trasimond, fils in September 1855.  Trasimond, père died near St. Gabriel in April 1856; he was only 31 years old.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Iberville Parish counted a single slave--a 55-year-old black female--on Widow T. Comeaux's farm next to Widow Julien Comeaux; this probably was the slave of Trasimond's widow, Domitille Landry. 

8b

Joseph Joachim married Mathilde or Mathilda, daughter of Pierre Treville Marrionneaux and Lydia Billings, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in October 1848.  Their son Julien Edward was born near St. Gabriel in August 1849, and Joseph Walter in August 1850. 

8c

Ernest married Lavinia, Livinia, or Luricia, another daughter of Pierre Treville Marrionneaux and Lydia Billings and widow of Ulgère Baugnon, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in December 1852.  Their son Duncan Duillius was born near St. Gabriel in December 1857. 

9

Youngest son Philippe, by his father's second wife, married Eugènie, daughter of fellow Acadians Honoré Daigle and Adélaïde Hébert, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in January 1822.  Their daughter married into the Danos and Lacave families.  Philippe remarried to fellow Acadian Victorine Arianne or Uranie Landry at the St. Gabriel church in February 1825.  Their son Pierre Joachim was born near St. Gabriel in December 1825 but died at age 10 months in November 1826, Philogène was born in December 1828, and Jean Lovinski, called Lovinski, in November 1830.  Their daughter married into the Capdevielle family.  Philippe died near St. Gabriel in March 1855; the priest who recorded the burial said that Philippe died at "age 56 years," but he was 54. 

9a

Lovinski, by his father's second wife, married Joséphine, daughter of Louis Édouard Guitteau and Joséphine Pignoux, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in January 1853.  Their son Joseph Lovinski was born near St. Gabriel in August 1859. 

9b

Philogène, by his father's second wife, married cousin Eliza, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Arvillien Rivet and Roseline Landry, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in October 1858.  Their son Philippe André was born near St. Gabriel in July 1859, and Philogène, fils near Plaquemine in October 1866. 

Firmin COMEAUX (c1753-1781; Pierre, Jean l'aîné, Étienne)

Firmin, younger son of Charles Comeau and Madeleine Landry, born probably at Minas in c1753, was deported with his family to Maryland in 1755.  He followed them to Louisiana in 1767 and settled with them at St.-Gabriel on the river above New Orleans.  He died at St.-Gabriel in March 1781, age 28, and did not marry.  

~

A widow brought her Comeau children to Louisiana from Maryland in 1768: 

Marguerite Babin, age 38, widow of Alexis Comeau, Charles's brother, came with the large party of Maryland exiles from Port Tobacco led by Alexis and Honoré Breau of Pigiguit.  She brought with her four children--Joseph, age 17, Marguerite, age 13, and twins Étienne and Pierre, age 8.  Spanish Governor Ulloa insisted that they settle at Fort San Luìs de Natchez, far from other Acadian communities.  The Breaus and their fellow exiles, who had relatives at St.-Jacques and St.-Gabriel, refused to go to Natchez, but the governor would not relent.  He threatened to deport Alexis, Honoré, and their families if they did not go where he told them to go.  To avoid deportation, the Breau brothers went into hiding while Spanish soldiers escorted the rest of their clan, including Marguerite Babin and her Comeau children, upriver to the isolated post; it took them an entire month to get there.  In 1769, after a revolt against Ulloa ousted the unpopular governor, his successor, Governor-General Alejandro O'Reilly, essentially pardoned the Breaus and allowed them and their kin to settle where they wanted.  None of them remained at Natchez.  Marguerite Babin's daughter married into the LeBlanc family.  Her Comeau sons settled at St.-Gabriel, near their cousins, where they had wanted to go all along.  Oldest son Joseph, however, did not remain on the river; he followed his in-laws to upper Bayou Lafourche in the late 1780s. 

Descendants of Étienne COMEAUX (c1760-1819; Pierre, Jean l'aîné, Étienne)

Étienne, also called Charles, second son of Alexis Comeau and Marguerite Babin and twin brother of Pierre, born probably in Maryland in c1760, came to Louisiana with his widowed mother and siblings in 1768 as part of the large party of Maryland exiles led by Alexis and Honoré Breau.  He followed them first to San Luìs de Natchez and then to St.-Gabriel after the Spanish released them from Natchez.  He married Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Blanchard and Marie-Jeanne Landry, at St.-Gabriel in May 1792.  Their daughters married into the Gil, Landry, and Templet families.  Étienne died near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in December 1819; the priest who recorded his burial said that Étienne was age 65 when he died, but he was closer to 60.  His two sons settled at St. Gabriel and died young, but not before they married and had sons of their own.  Étienne's grandsons settled at Baton Rouge. 

1

Older son Joseph-Valéry, called Valéry, born at St.-Gabriel in August 1793, married cousin Marcelline, daughter of fellow Acadians Grégoire Babin and Marine LeBlanc, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in June 1819; they had to secure a dispensation for consanguinity relationship in order to marry.  Their son Jean or John Dugregey, called Dugregey and John D., was born near St. Gabriel in April 1820.  Valéry died near St. Gabriel in November 1822, age 29. 

John Dugregey married Doralise Virginie, daughter of fellow Acadians Rémi Doiron and Julie Richard, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in February 1845.  Their son Alfred Valéry was born near Baton Rouge in December 1847, and Théodore Victor in March 1850. 

2

Younger son Gilbert, born at St.-Gabriel in October 1798, married Constance, daughter of George Kleinpeter and Margarita Judith Rither, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in April 1820.  Their son Étienne le jeune was born near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in August 1822, and Gilbert, fils in December 1830.  Gilbert, père died near St. Gabriel in January 1832, age 33.  His married son settled at Baton Rouge. 

Gilbert, fils married Mary Anne, also called Susan, daughter of James West and Nancy Hawes, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in January 1852.  Their son Robert was born near Baton Rouge in October 1862.  In June 1860, the federal census taker in East Baton Rouge Parish counted 8 slaves--4 males and 4 females, all black, ranging in age from 70 to 3, living in 2 houses--on Gilbert Comeaux's farm.   Gilbert, fils died near Baton Rouge in May 1865, age 34, and was buried "in the Kleinpeter cemetery."  Was his death war-related? 

Descendants of Pierre COMEAUX (c1760-?; Pierre, Jean l'aîné, Étienne)

Pierre, third son of Alexis Comeau and Marguerite Babin and twin brother of Étienne, was born probably in Maryland in c1760.  He came to Louisiana with his widowed mother and siblings in 1768 as part of the large party of Maryland exiles led by Alexis and Honoré Breau.  He followed them first to San Luìs de Natchez and then to St.-Gabriel after the Spanish released them from Natchez.  He married Claire, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean-Charles Breau and Marie-Josèphe Landry, at St.-Gabriel in January 1785.  Their daughter married into the Domingue family.  Pierre and Claire may have had no sons or at least none who survived childhood, so this line of the family, except for its blood, probably died with him.  

~

A Comeau family emigrated to Louisiana directly from St.-Domingue probably in the late 1760s:  

Descendants of Charles COMEAUX (1725-?; Pierre, Étienne)

Charles, third and youngest son of Alexandre Comeau and Marguerite Doucet, born posthumously at Port-Royal in October 1725, was deported to Connecticut in 1755.  He married Marie-Marguerite, called Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadian Joseph Babineau dit Deslauriers and Marguerite Dugas, probably in Connecticut in c1758.  Marguerite used the surname Deslauriers, not Babineau.  They were still in Connecticut in 1763.  In 1763 or 1764, they followed other Acadians from New England to French St.-Domingue and lived at Mirebalais in the island's interior, where their marriage was blessed in September 1764.  Two of their sons, probably twins, died at age 5 at Mirebalais in September and October 1764.  Another son, born at Mirebalais in November 1766, died probably soon after his birth.  They were among the few Acadians who emigrated to Louisiana directly from St.-Domingue, probably in the late 1760s, perhaps with one of the Acadian parties from Maryland that transshipped at Cap-Français in 1767 or 1768.  With them was daughter Anne, who had been born probably in Connecticut in c1762.  They had more children in Louisiana, including another son.  Spanish officials counted them on the left, or east, bank of the river at St.-Jacques in 1777.  Daughter Anne married into the Bernard (German Creole, not Acadian), Gaudet, and Levert families.  Only one of their four sons, the one born in Louisiana, created a family of his own; he remained at St.-Jacques, later St. James Parish, one of the few Comeaux families to settle there.  His sons and grandsons settled near Convent. 

1

Joseph, perhaps a twin, born in Connecticut in c1759, died at Mirebalais, St.-Domingue, age 5, in September 1764.

2

Pierre, perhaps a twin, born in Connecticut in c1759, died at Mirebalais, St.-Domingue, age 5, in October 1764.

3

Joseph, the second son so named, born at Mirebalais, St.-Domingue, in November 1766, probably died soon after birth.  

4

Youngest son François, born probably at St.-Jacques in c1767, married Marguerite, daughter of Pierre Charpentier and Jeanne Moutard of New Orleans, at St.-Jacques in February 1790.  Their son Charles le jeune was born at St.-Jacques in July 1793, and François-Célestin, called Célestin, in November 1795.  Later in the decade they lived for a time at St.-Jean-Baptiste on the Upper German Coast, where François was called a "creole" in a daughter's baptismal record in August 1798.  Their daughter married into the Guidry family.  François died at St.-Jacques in August 1799, age 33.  Only his younger son had sons of his own; he and his descendants remained in St. James Parish.  

4a

Charles le jeune married Marie Josephine, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Marie Bourgeois dit Cabot and Hélène LeBlanc, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in April 1817.  Their daughter married into the Mire family.  Charles le jeune died near Convent in October 1819; the priest who recorded his burial said that Charles was age 28 when he died, but he was 26.  He and his wife probably had no sons, so this line of the family, except for its blood, died with him.  

4b

Célestin married Scholastique, daughter of Jacques Caillouet and his Acadian wife Scholastique Theriot, at the St. James church, St. James Parish, in September 1822.  Their son Célestin Numa, called Numa, was born near Convent, St. James Parish, in September 1823, Thomas H. in August 1828 but died at age 15 in November 1843, Jacques or James Casimir was born in March 1829[sic], and their infant son, named unrecorded, died in July 1832.  Célestin died near Convent in December 1848; the priest who recorded the burial said that Célestin died at "age 50 yrs.," but he was 53.  In September 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 4 slaves--2 males and 2 females, all black, ranging in age from 15 to 9--on Ww. Cn. Comeau's farm in the parish's Eastern District; these probably were the slaves of Célestin's widow, Scholastique Caillouet.  Célestin's only married son settled near Convent before moving to Bayou Lafourche after the War of 1861-65. 

Numa died near Convent, St. James Parish, in October 1855, age 32, and probably did not marry. 

Jacques Casimir, called James Como by the recording priest, married Azélia, daughter of fellow Acadian Olivier Thibodeaux and his Creole wife Azélie Hymel, at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in November 1857.  Did Jacques "anglicize" his name, or was this simply what the Convent priest recorded?  His son Numa Félicien was born near Convent in June 1861, Joseph Jacques in November 1863, Louis Noe Vincent in August 1867, and Thomas Félix near Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, in September 1870. 

~

The arrival date of several Comeaus who settled on the river is anyone's guess, but they likely reached the colony in the late 1760s.  One came from the French island of Martinique.  The others may have come from Halifax, Maryland, or, more likely, directly from St.-Domingue: 

Anne, daughter of Pierre Comeau of Port-Royal, came to Louisiana from Champflore, Martinique, between 1766 and 1768 with her second husband, Charles, son of Sr. Jean Mouton of Chignecto, and a nearly grown son, Georges.  They settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, where Spanish officials counted them on the left, or east, bank of the river in 1777.  

Élisabeth, or Isabelle, Comeau married fellow Acadian Joseph Guidry at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques in May 1767.  She may have come to Louisiana with a contingent of Acadian exiles from Halifax or Maryland passing through Cap-Français in 1765 or 1766.   Spanish officials counted them on the left, or east, bank of the river at St.-Jacques in 1777.  Élisabeth died in St. James Parish in July 1821, in her early 80s.  

Joseph Comeau was the widower of fellow Acadian Anne Bourgeois when he came to Louisiana in the late 1760s with his son Charles, who would have been in his late teens.  They may have come to Louisiana with a contingent of Acadian exiles from Halifax or Maryland passing through Cap-Français in 1765, 1766, or 1767, or they may have come from St.-Domingue on their own. 

Descendants of Joseph COMEAUX (?-?; Pierre, ?)

Joseph Comeau remarried to Madeleine, daughter of fellow Acadian Joseph Babineaux dit Deslauriers and Marguerite Dugas, at Cabahannocer in January 1768; this made him a brother-in-law of the Charles Comeau who had come to the colony directly from French St.-Domingue about the same time.  Madeleine, a native of Annapolis Royal, was exiled with her family to Connecticut in 1755, went with them to St.-Domingue in the early 1860s, and came to Louisiana from St.-Domingue in the late 1760s with her sister and brother-in-law.  She and Joseph settled at St.-Jacques, where Madeleine gave him more children.  Their daughter married into the St. Pierre family.  Joseph does not appear in either the 1777 or 1779 censuses at St.-Jacques, so he probably had died by then.  His son by his second wife died young, but Joseph's older son Charles, by his first wife, created a family of his own.  Charles also was dead by 1777, but he managed to father a son by then, though one wonders if the line survived. 

1

Older son Charles, by his father's first wife, born in c1749, married cousin Marie, daughter of Jean Marquis and his Acadian wife Marie Comeau, at St.-Jacques in January 1773.  Their son François was baptized at St.-Jacques, age unrecorded, in September 1774.  Charles died at St.-Jacques in February 1775, age 26. 

François married Euphrosine, daughter of François Croiset and Jeanne Carrière, at St.-Jacques in January 1800.  Their son Godefroi died at St.-Jacques 9 days after his birth in November 1800, Laurent was born in August 1803, and Jean François posthumously in June 1814.  François died in St. James Parish in January 1814; the priest who recorded his burial said that Francois died at "age about 37 yrs.," but he was closer to 40.  Did his family line survive?

2

Younger son Louis, by his father's second wife, died at St.-Jacques, age unrecorded, in February 1773. 

~

The largest contingent of Comeaus to go to Louisiana did not arrive until 20 years after the first of their kinsmen came to the colony.  Half a dozen Comeau families crossed on six of the Seven Ships from France in 1785.  Most of them chose to settle in river communities:

Charles Comeau, age 37, and wife Marie Clossinet, age unrecorded, crossed on Le Beaumont, the third of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in August.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers to Baton Rouge.  

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Two large families and a Comeau wife crossed on the La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, that reached New Orleans in early December.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers the new Acadian community of Bayou des Écores, north of Baton Rouge:

Marguerite-Geneviève Comeau, age 50, crossed with husband Jacques Forest, age 55, a 15-year-old son, and a 21-year-old niece.  One wonders if Marguerite survived the crossing.  

Simon Comeau of Rivière-aux-Canards, age 44, crossed with wife Marguerite-Geneviève Aucoin, age 45, and eight children--Marie-Luce, age 21, Élisabeth-Madeleine, age 20, Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, age 18, Félicité-Augustine, age 16, Jean-Baptiste, age 14, Alexandre-Simon, age 10, Pierre-Paul, age 9, and Joseph-Marie, an infant.  They had no more children in Louisiana.  After a series of hurricanes devastated the Bayou des Écores community in 1794, they relocated to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their daughters married into the Aucoin, Bourg, Marion, Pulaski, and Renaud (French Creole, not Acadian) families.  Their oldest son, who married at Bayou des Écores, settled at nearby Baton Rouge, but Simon's other sons followed him to the upper Lafourche and contributed substantially to that center of family settlement. 

Marie Thériot, age 42, widow of Joseph Comeau, Simon's younger brother, crossed with five children--Élie-Marie, age 20, Joseph-Mathurin, age 18, Simon-Pierre, age 16, Jeanne, age 12, and Marie-Élisabeth, age 6.  They remained on the river.  Only one of her children, oldest son Élie-Marie, seems to have married and created a family of his own, at Baton Rouge, but the family line, except for its blood, may not have survived. 

.

Some of the 1785 arrivals remained on the river, but only one family line developed there:

Charles COMEAUX (c1748-1775?; Pierre, Jean l'aine, Étienne)

Charles, son of Jean Comeau and Marguerite Turpin, was born on Île Royale in c1748, counted on the north shore of Île Madame, off the southern coast of Île Royale, with his widowed father and four siblings, and was deported to France with his sister brother David, sister Marguerite and her husband, Jean Dupont of Louisbourg, aboard the English transport Duke William, which reached St.-Malo in December 1758.  He resided at St.-Malo from 1758 to 1761 and at nearby Plouër-sur-Rance from 1761 to 1764.  He went to Cayenne, French Guyenne, in South America, aboard the ship Le Fort in April 1764 but soon returned to France.  He married fellow Marie, daughter of fellow Acadians Louis Clossinet dit Moulin and Marguerite Longuépée and widow of Pierre-Mathurin Girard dit Dumoulin, probably in France.  She was 21 years older than Charles!  They came to Louisiana in 1785 aboard Le Beaumont and followed most of their fellow passengers to Baton Rouge.  Charles may have died at St.-Jacques in February 1775, age 26.  

Descendants of Élie-Marie COMEAUX (1765-?; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Élie-Marie, sometimes called Charles, eldest son of Joseph Comeau and Marie Thériot, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in November 1765, followed his widowed mother and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores, where he married Marie-Renée, also called Iréné, daughter of fellow Acadians Simon-Pierre Trahan and Marie-Josèphe Granger, in April 1795.  Marie-Renée also was a native of France and had come to Louisiana in 1785 aboard Le Beaumont.  After the Acadians abandoned Bayou des Écores in the early 1790s, they moved to Baton Rouge.  Élie died probably at Baton Rouge by November 1815, when his wife remarried at Baton Rouge.  His daughters married into the Lopez and Martinez families.  His only son may have died young, so only the blood of this family line endured. 

Joseph-Célestin, baptized at Pointe Coupée, age 11 months, in May 1801, may have died young. 

Joseph-Mathurin COMEAUX (1767-; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Joseph-Mathurin, second son of Joseph Comeau and Marie Thériot, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in September 1767, followed his widowed mother and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores.  He may have died young.  

Simon-Pierre COMEAUX (1769-?; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Simon-Pierre, third and youngest son of Joseph Comeau and Marie Thériot, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in October 1769, followed his widowed mother and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores.  He also may have died young.  

Descendants of Jean-Baptiste COMEAUX (1771-?; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Jean-Baptiste, eldest son of Simon Comeau and Marguerite-Geneviève Aucoin, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in May 1771, followed his parents and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores, where he married Marie-Josèphe, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Bourg and his first wife Anne-Josèphe Daigre, in February 1792.  After a series of hurricanes decimated the Bayou des Écores community, his parents and siblings moved to upper Bayou Lafourche, but he and Marie-Josèphe went to Baton Rouge.  Their daughter married into the Hommie family.  Jean Baptiste remarried to Julie Thérèse, daughter of fellow Acadians Antoine Bourg and Modeste Molaison, probably at Baton Rouge in the late 1790s.  Their daughters married into the Longuépée family.  Only his oldest son seems to have married and created a family of his own.  He and his descendants settled in West Baton Rouge Parish. 

1

Oldest son Simon-Pierre, by his father's second wife, born at Baton Rouge in December 1797, married Marie Rose, daughter of François Seguin and Pélagie ____, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in January 1824.  They settled in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Their son Simon Jean Baptiste was born in October 1824, Auguste or Augustin was born in September 1826 but died at age 2 in September 1828, and Gilbert was born in March 1840. 

Simon Jean Baptiste "of West Baton Rouge Parish" married Irma, daughter of André Lemoine and Brigitte Paillot of West Baton Rouge Parish, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in July 1846.  They settled near Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish.  Their son Émile was born in March 1848, and Amédée in December 1851.  Their daughter married into the Legendre family.  Simon Jean Baptiste remarried to first cousin Julie Ludivine, daughter of fellow Acadians Simon Longuépée and Sophie Comeaux, his uncle and aunt, at the Brusly church in May 1859; Julie's mother was Simon's paternal aunt Sophie Comeaux; they had to secure a dispensation for second degree of consanguinity in order to marry.  Their child, name unrecorded, perhaps a son, died probably near Brusly a few days after its birth in December 1858, and Joseph Aristide was born in March 1860. 

2

Jean, by his father's second wife, baptized at Baton Rouge, age 1, in August 1801, may have died young. 

3

Alexis, by his father's second wife, born probably at Baton Rouge in c1804, died near Baton Rouge in November 1844.  He was only 40 years old.  The priest who recorded Alexis's burial did not give his parents' names or mention a wife, so one wonders if he was a son of Jean Baptiste and if he ever married. 

4

Youngest son Thomas, by his father's second wife, born at Baton Rouge in 1808, also may have died young. 

~

Other COMEAUXs on the River

Area church and civil records make it difficult to link some Comeauxs on the river with known Acadian lines of the family there:

Anna, daughter of Joseph Comeaux and Maria ____, married Thomas, son of Anglo American Levy Johnson of Maryland, at Baton Rouge in June 1807. 

Jean Baptiste Comeaux, widower of Marie Hébert, died near Convent, St. James Parish, in February 1820.  The priest who recorded the burial said that Jean Baptiste was a native of France and age 101 when he died.  This means he would have been born in c1719!  Two Jean-Baptiste Comeaus came to Louisiana from France in 1785, and both were natives of France, but their birth years were 1771 and 1783.  One wonders if the Convent priest made a mistake in recording Jean Baptiste's age.  

Julie Comeaux of West Baton Rouge Parish married fellow Acadian Louis Longuépée at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in June 1830.  The priest who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  She may have been the Julia Comeaux who gave birth to son Louis Jule probably in West Baton Rouge Parish in January 1840; the Pointe Coupee priest who baptized Louis and called him a Comeaux did not give the boy's father's name or the mother's parents' names.  Julia gave birth to another son, Jean Baptiste Edmond, in West Baton Rouge Parish in December 1843; again, the Baton Rouge priest who recorded the boy's baptism in September 1844 and called him a Comeaux did not give the father's name or the mother's parents' names. 

Thanks to the sloppy penmanship of the federal census taker in Iberville Parish in August 1850, it is difficult to make out the names of two Comeaux slave holders in that parish who appear on the slave schedules for that year.  One Comeaux held 23 slaves--11 males and 12 females, all black except for 1 mulatto, ranging in age from 55 years to 6 months--on his or her plantation, and the other owned 20 slaves--11 males and 9 females, all black, ranging in age from 45 years to 6 months--on his or her plantation next to the other Comeaux.  

Franck, son of ____ Comeaux, was born near Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, in December 1853.  The priest who recorded the boy's baptism the following July did not give the parents' names, only the boy's name and his father's surname. 

Simon Comeaux's day-old child, name unrecorded, died near Baton Rouge in December 1858.  The priest who recorded the newborn's burial did not give the mother's name, so one wonders which Simon Comeaux may have been the father. 

Lise Comeaux, wife of ____ Landry, died at age 18 in Ascension Parish in October 1861.  The Donaldsonville priest who recorded the burial gave no parents' names nor the given name of Lise's husband. 

Charles Comeaux married Marguerite, perhaps a Brashars, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Jesse Darnand was born near Baton Rouge in February 1867, and daughter Joséphine Hyacinta "'about' 1867" and baptized at the Baton Rouge church in September 1870.   

Adam, son of Charles Como, as he was called in the church record, died near Convent, St. James Parish, age 4, in November 1868.  The priest who recorded the boy's burial did not give the mother's name. 

.

A Comeaux family living near Baton Rouge during the antebellum and immediate post-war periods cannot be linked by local church records to other members of the family in the area:

Descendants of J. B. V. COMEAUX (?-)

J. B. V., perhaps Jean Baptiste Victor, Comeaux of West Baton Rouge Parish married Acadian Azéma or Agenia Trahan at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in October 1838.  The priest who recorded the marriage called him "J. B. of West Baton Rouge Parish" but did not give his or his wife's parents' names.  

Séverin Victor, baptized at the Baton Rouge church, age 5 months, in February 1840, married Malvina or Mulvina, daughter of Louis Butler and Anne Barillier of East Baton Rouge Parish, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in August 1864.  Their daughter Irénée was born near Baton Rouge in August 1865, and son Pierre Vital in September 1868. 

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Many of the Comeauxs who came to Louisiana from France in 1785 chose to settle not on the river but on upper Bayou Lafourche:

Marie-Madeleine-Adélaïde Landry, age 22, wife of Jean-Baptiste Comeau, crossed on La Bergère, the second of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in August.  With her was 2-year-old son Jean-Baptiste, fils.  Her husband did not go to Louisiana.  She and her son followed the majority of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche, where she remarried to a French Creole in August 1798.  

.

Anne-Marie, called Marie, Comeau, age 40, wife of Alain Bourg, age 43, crossed with two of their children, ages 20 and 11, aboard Le Beaumont, the third of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in August.  They did not follow most of their fellow passengers to Baton Rouge but settled, instead, on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Anne-Marie died a widow in Assumption Parish in August 1835, age 90.  

Madeleine Comeau, age 34, crossed on Le Beaumont with husband Joseph Guidry, age 36, and four of their children, ages 9 to infancy.  They also settled on the upper Lafourche.  

.

Honoré Comeau of Ste-Famille, Pigiguit, age 71, second wife Anastasie Célestin dit Bellemère, age 45, and two of her Boudrot sons, ages 17 and 14, by her first husband, crossed on Le St.-Rémi, the fourth of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in September.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Honoré died at Lafourche by January 1788, when his wife was listed in a census there as a widow; he would have been in his early 70s at the time of his death.  

Mathurin Comeau, age 25, born in Bristol, England, crossed alone on Le St.-Rémi.  He married fellow passenger Sophie-Marie, daughter of fellow Acadian Joseph Hébert, at New Orleans soon after they reached the colony.  They settled on upper Bayou Lafourche. 

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Benoît Comeau, age 48, wife Anne Blanchard, age 45, six of their children--Jean, age 19, Marie-Anne-Victoire, age 16, Anne-Eléonore, age 14, Marguerite-Anastasie, age 12, Rose-Julie, age 5, and newborn Claire-Adélaïde--and Anne's sister Madeleine Blanchard, age 40, crossed on L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in November.  Benoît and Anne had no more children in Louisiana.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their daughters married into the Chiasson, Guillot, Hébert, LeBlanc, and Richard families.  Their only son probably did not marry, so this line of the family probably did not survive.  Its blood lived on, however.  Marguerite Anastasie, widow of Claude Marie LeBlanc, died in Lafourche Interior Parish in December 1845, age 72.  Claire or Clarisse Adélaïde, wife of François Victor Chiasson, died in Lafourche Parish in July 1867; the Thibodaux priest who recorded her burial said that Clarisse Adélaïde died "at age 83 yrs.," but she was 81; she also was one of the last Acadian immigrants in Louisiana to join our ancestors. 

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The Comeauxs from France created a third center of family settlement on upper Bayou Lafourche: 

Descendants of Mathurin COMEAUX (1760-c1805; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Claude)

Mathurin, eldest son of Simon Comeau and Marie-Madeleine Thériot, was born at Bristol, England, in August 1760.  His father died there soon after his birth.  In May 1763, Mathurin followed his widowed mother to France aboard La Dorothée and lived with her at Plouër, near St.-Malo, that year, and at nearby St.-Servan from 1764 to 1765.  His mother remarried to a widowed Thériot cousin in July 1766 but died in May the following year, age 28.  Mathurin was raised probably by relatives and became a sailor in France.  He crossed to Louisiana in 1785 aboard Le St.-Rémi, the fourth of the Seven Ships, and married fellow passenger Sophie-Marie, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Hébert and his second wife Marie Benoit, at New Orleans in October 1785, soon after they reached the city on the same vessel.  They followed most of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their daughters married into the Bélanger family.  Mathurin died by May 1805, when his wife remarried at Assumption.  One of his sons settled in Terrebonne Parish, the first Comeaux to go there. 

1

Oldest son Jean-Charles, born at Ascension in December 1790, probably died young.  

2

Jean-Pierre, born at Assumption in July 1799, married Marie Marguerite, called Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadian Julien Crochet and his Creole wife Marguerite Belanger, in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in January 1823.  Their son Henry Julien was born probably in Terrebonne Parish in March 1831, Jean Baptiste in February 1833, and Jean Élie, called Élie, in April 1835.   Their daughters married into the Belanger, Bergeron, and Marcel families.  Jean died in Terrebonne Parish in November 1848; the Houma priest who recorded his burial said that Jean died "at age 51 yrs.," but he was 49; a petition for succession inventory in his name was filed at the Houma courthouse in May 1855. 

Élie married Marie Lutetia, called Lutetia, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Bergeron and Joséphine Pitre, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in October 1855.  Their son Désiré Lucian was born in Terrebonne Parish in July 1857, Henri Alfred in December 1858, and Ernest Albert near Montegut in August 1869. 

3

Charles-Raymond, born at Assumption in August 1801, may have died young. 

4

Youngest son Jean Baptiste Zéphirin, born at Assumption in April 1803, also may have died young. 

Jean COMEAUX (c1766-?; Pierre, Pierre l'aîné dit L'Esturgeon, Maurice)

Jean, son of Benoît Comeau and Anne Blanchard, was born probably on Île Miquelon in c1766.  He followed his family to Cherbourg, France, in the late 1760s, to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships, in 1785, and settled on upper Bayou Lafourche.  He was his parents' only son, and he does not seem to have married, so his family line probably did not survive.  

Jean-Baptiste COMEAUX (1783-; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Claude, Alexis)

Jean-Baptiste, fils, son of Jean-Baptiste Comeau and Marie-Madeleine-Adélaïde Landry, was born at St.-Similien, Nantes, France, in December 1783.  His father, a sailor, remained in France, but his mother took Jean-Baptiste, fils to Louisiana aboard La Bergère, the second of the Seven Ships, in 1785 and took him to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Jean-Baptiste may have died young, taking his line of the family with him.  

~

A Comeaux who had come to Louisiana from Maryland in the late 1760s as a teenager and lived on the river for a quarter of a century joined his cousins from France on upper Bayou Lafourche in the late 1780s:

Descendants of Joseph COMEAUX (c1751-1817; Pierre, Jean l'aîné, Étienne)

Joseph, elder son of Alexis Comeau and Marguerite Babin, was born probably at Minas in c1751.  His family was deported to Maryland in 1755.  He followed them to Louisiana in 1768 with the large party of Maryland exiles led by Alexis and Honoré Breau.  He lived first at San Luis de Natchez and then at St.-Gabriel after the Spanish released the Acadians from Natchez.  He married Anne-Isabelle, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre dit La Vielliarde Landry and his first wife Anne-Élisabeth Dupuis, at nearby St.-Jacques in June 1778.  Anne-Isabelle was a native of Maryland and also had come to Louisiana in 1768.  By the late 1780s, they were living on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their daughters married into the Hébert and Malbrough families.  Joseph remarried to Marie-Madeleine, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Blanchard and Anne-Symphore Hébert and widow of Mathurin Trahan, at Assumption in November 1798.  Marie-Madeleine was a native of St.-Suliac, France, near St.-Malo, and had come to Louisiana with her widowed mother aboard La Bergère in 1785.  Their daughters married into the Giroir and Viola families.  Joseph died in Assumption Parish in February 1817, age 65.  Half of his six sons either died young or did not marry.  His oldest son returned to the river and settled near Baton Rouge before returning to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Joseph's younger married sons remained on the Lafourche.  His youngest son, Eugène, became a major planter in Assumption Parish. 

1

Oldest son Pierre-Vital, called Vital, from his father's first wife, born at Ascension in April 1779, married Céleste, daughter of Jean Prosper, also called Gascogne, and his Acadian wife Marie Madeleine Lavergne, at the St. Gabriel church, Iberville Parish, in June 1818.  They lived at Baton Rouge before moving to upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their son Jean Baptiste, born near Baton Rouge in June 1819, Joseph Telesphore, called Telesphore, in March 1823, and Joseph Manuel was baptized at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, age 2, in April 1830.  Their daughter married into the Hébert family in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Vital died in Assumption Parish in June 1833; the priest who recorded his burial said that Vital was age 52 when he died, but he was 54.  

Joseph Telesphore married Octavie, daughter of fellow Acadians Édouard Hébert and Eléonore Girouard, at the Paincourtville church, Assumption Parish, in December 1845.  Their son Joseph Aristide was born near Paincourtville in May 1847, and Jules Hernest in February 1851.  Joseph Telesphore died near Paincourtville in October 1851, age 28. 

2

Pierre-Alexis, by his father's first wife, born at Ascension in April 1792, may have died near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in February 1824.  The priest who recorded his burial said that Pierre was age 34 when he died but did not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  

3

Jean-Louis, by his father's first wife, born at Assumption in May 1794, died at age 5 in July 1799.  

4

Augustin, by his father's first wife, baptized at Assumption, age unrecorded, in October 1797, died in February 1817, age 20, and did not marry.  

5

Élias- or Élie-Joseph, by his father's second wife, born at Assumption in September 1799, married Constance, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Landry and Marguerite Landry, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, October 1820.  Their son, named unrecorded, died in Assumption Parish a day after his birth in January 1822, Eugène E., probably Élie, was born in August 1824, Paul Caiphas or Cléopha, called Cléopha, in September 1826, and Joseph Télésphore, called Télésphore, in August 1831 but died at age 6 in January 1838.  Their daughter married into the Aubry and LeBlanc families.  In August 1850, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 13 slaves--9 males and 4 females, all black except for 1 mulatto, ranging in age from 46 to 6--on Élie Comeau's farm in the parish's Second Congressional District.  Élie died near Plattenville in October 1853, age 54.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 14 slaves--12 males and 2 females, all black, ages 65 to 17--on Widow Élie Comeaux's farm in the parish's Tenth Ward between Eugène E. Comeaux and Maxille LeBlanc; these were the slaves of Élie's widow, Constance Landry. 

5a

Eugène E. married cousin Aureline, daughter of fellow Acadians Maxille LeBlanc and Marie Landry, at the Paincourtville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1848; they had to secure a dispensation for third degree of consanguinity in order to marry.  Their daughters married into the Hébert and Landry families.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 3 slaves--a 28-year-old black female, and 2 black males, ages 6 and 4--on Eugène E. Comeaux's farm in the parish's Tenth Ward next to Widow Élie Comeaux and near Maxille LeBlanc.  Did Eugène E. father any sons? 

5b

Cléopha married Léonelle, daughter of fellow Acadians Simon LeBlanc and Basille Babin, at the Paincourtville church, Assumption Parish, in June 1849.  Their son Célestin Vileor was born near Paincourtville in April 1850, Adrien Elevoide in May 1851, Joseph Simon in January 1856, Adam Élie in March 1857 but died the following May, Édouard Lucien was born in March 1858, and Cléopha Prosper in December 1859 but died the following April.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 4 slaves--3 males and 1 female, all blacks, ranging age from 34 to 16, living in 1 house--on Cléophas Comeaux's farm next to Widow Simon LeBlanc in the parish's Tenth Ward. 

Célestin Vileor married first cousin Marie Alice, daughter of Terence LeBlanc and his Creole wife Elina Simoneaux, his maternal uncle and aunt, at the Paincourtville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1869; they had to secure a dispensation for second degree of consanguinity in order to marry. 

6

Eugène-Florentin, by his father's second wife, born at Assumption in October 1801, married Henriette, also called Anne, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Hébert and Marie Marguerite Adélaïde Landry of Ascension Parish, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1820.  Their son Jules was born in Assumption Parish in January 1823, and Louis Octave, called Octave, in February 1832.  Their daughter married into the Noveret family.  In August 1850, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 17 slaves--9 males and 8 females, all black, ranging in age from 55 years to 6 months--on Eugène Comeau's farm in the parish's Second Congressional District; this probably was Eugène Florentin.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 43 slaves on Eugène Comeaux's plantation in the parish's Ninth Ward on Bayou Lafourche next to L. O. Comeaux.  Eugène died near Plattenville in October 1864; the priest who recorded the burial said that Eugène died at "age 60 years," but he was 63. 

6a

Jules married Victorine, daughter of French Creole Louis Darbois or Verbois and his Acadian wife Marie Carmelite Bourgeois, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1843.  Their son François Richard was born near Plattenville in January 1849, Hippolyte, also called Galbert, was born in July 1850 but died the following December, and Jules Omer was born in September 1857.  Their daughter married into the Blanchard family in St. James Parish.  In August 1850, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 2 slaves--both black females, ages 45 and 15--on Jules Comeaux's farm in the parish's Second Congressional District.  He and his family may have resided briefly at Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, in the mid-1850s. 

6b

Louis Octave married Louise Marie, daughter of William A. Sims and Éloise Marie Sims, at the Labadieville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1856; the marriage also was recorded at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish.  Their infant, name unrecorded, perhaps a son, died near Plattenville in July 1856.  In August 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted a single slave--a 26-year-old black female--on L. O. Comeaux's farm in the parish's Ninth Ward on Bayou Lafourche next to Eugène Comeaux's plantation. 

~

A series of hurricanes devastated the Bayou des Écores community north of Baton Rouge during the early 1790s.  As a result, most of the Acadians there, all immigrants from France, abandoned the settlement.  Some relocated to nearby Baton Rouge, but most of them, including Comeauxs, settled among their cousins on upper Bayou Lafourche: 

Simon Comeaux died in Assumption Parish in June 1818, age 77.  

Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, married her first husband, fellow Acadian François-Marie Bourg, at Bayou des Écores and remarried to cousin François-Étienne Aucoin at Assumption in June 1800.  She died in Assumption Parish in December 1835; the Plattenville priest who recorded her burial said that Madeleine was age 60 when she died, but she was 68.  

Descendants of Alexandre-Simon COMEAUX (1775-1837; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Alexandre-Simon, also called Alexis, second son of Simon Comeau and Marguerite-Geneviève Aucoin, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in March 1775, followed his parents and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores.  By the mid-1790s, he was living with his family on upper Bayou Lafourche, where he married Marguerite-Anne, daughter of fellow Acadians François Blanchard and Hélène Giroir, at Assumption in February 1799.  Marguerite-Anne was a native of Nantes, France, and had come to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié in 1785.  Their daughters married into the Bertrand (French Creole, not Acadian) and Hayes families, and perhaps into the Vining family as well; one, perhaps two, of them settled on lower Bayou Teche.  Alexandre died in Assumption Parish in July 1837, age 62.   Six of his seven sons married.  The two older ones remained on Bayou Lafourche.  The four younger ones moved to lower Bayou Teche during the antebellum period, but two of them returned to Assumption Parish in the 1850s. 

1

Oldest son Simon-Joseph, called Simonet and Simonin, born at Assumption in November 1799, married Eulalie, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Gaudet and Eulalie Guédry, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in April 1825.  Their son Simonet Jean Baptiste, called Jean Baptiste, was born in Assumption Parish in September 1827, Antoine Désiré in May 1832, and Édouard Désiré in January 1839.  Their daughters married into the Aucoin, Bertrand (German or French Creole, not Acadian), David (Foreign French, not Acadian), Foret, Friou, and Hébert families.  Simonet died near Plattenville in October 1854, age 55. 

1a

Antoine Désiré died near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in March 1855, age 22, and did not marry. 

1b

Jean Baptiste married Eveline, daughter of fellow Acadian André Boudreaux and Pauline Foret and widow of François Gaspard, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in April 1865; they had to secure a dispensation for second degree of affinity in order to marry; Jean Baptiste was 38 years old at the time of the wedding.  Their son Paul Homer was born near Plattenville in January 1866, and Alcide in May 1868. 

2

Apollinaire, born at Assumption in February 1801, died in June 1819, age 18, and did not marry.  

3

François, baptized at Assumption, age unrecorded, in March 1803, married Rose Adélaïde, daughter of fellow Acadians Francois Georges Bourg and Adélaïde Bertrand, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in February 1825.  Their son Adrien François was born in Assumption Parish in August 1828, and Marcellin posthumously in July 1830.  François died in Assumption Parish in December 1829; the priest who recorded his burial said that François was age 28 when he died, but he probably was closer to 25.   His younger son followed his uncles to St. Mary Parish. 

Marcellin "of St. Mary Parish" married Lucie or Lucille, daughter of fellow Acadians Apollinaire Girouard and Marie Théotiste Aucoin, at the Thibodaux church, Lafourche Parish, in September 1857.  In July 1860, the federal census taker in Assumption Parish counted 2 slaves--a 21-year-old black female, and an 8-month-old black male, living in their own house--on Marcelin Comeaux's farm in the parish's Fourteenth Ward along Bayou L'Ours.  Marcellin joined his uncles in St. Mary Parish in the early 1860s but returned to upper Bayou Lafourche later in the decade.  Marcellin died near Paincourtville, Assumption Parish, in December 1868; the priest who recorded the burial, and who did not give any parents' names or mention a wife, said that Marcelin died at "age ca. 37 years," but he was 38.  He was one of the few Comeauxs who lived in Lafourche Parish. 

4

Antoine Eusèbe, born at Assumption in December 1804, married fellow Acadian Elisa LeBlanc in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish, on lower Bayou Teche, in October 1829.  They lived in Assumption Parish before returning to lower Bayou Teche, where Antoine became a major planter in St. Mary Parish.  His oldest son returned to upper Bayou Lafourche in the 1860s. 

Désiré, born in Assumption Parish in June 1834, married Clara Bertrand, a Creole, not an Acadian, probably in St. Mary Parish in the late 1850s or early 1860s.  They "returned" to upper Bayou Lafourche during the 1860s.  Their son Félix was born near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in May 1866, and Jean Edgard in March 1870. 

5

Jean Baptiste le jeune, born in Assumption Parish in November 1807, married Marie Adèle, daughter of fellow Acadians Auguste Doiron and Anne Daigle, in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in January 1836, and sanctified the marriage at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, the following month.  Evidently they lived in Assumption Parish before joining his brothers on lower Bayou Teche.  They returned to upper Bayou Lafourche in the early 1850s.  Their son Armand was born near New Iberia, then in St. Martin but now in Iberia Parish, in May 1842, Jean Baptiste Orestile near Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish, in February 1849, and Auguste Aurelien near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in July 1854.

6

Alexandre Simon, fils, born in Assumption Parish in July 1809, married Augustine, also called Azéma, daughter of Adélard Verret and , in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in July 1832, and sanctified the marriage at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in April 1833.  Evidently they, too, lived in Assumption Parish before joining his brothers on lower Bayou Teche.

7

Youngest son Louis François, born in Assumption Parish in November 1815, married Nancy, daughter of Anglo-American Conrad Hartman, in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in February 1843.  Their son Antoine Ferdinand was born near Pattersonville, St. Mary Parish, in November 1849, François Louis in September 1853, Conrad Adolphe, called Adolphe, in March 1855, Alcide Didiere probably near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in February 1864 but died there at age 2 in June 1866, David was born near Plattenville in February 1866, and Joseph Alexandre in January 1870.  In December 1850, the federal census taker in St. Mary Parish counted 2 slaves--both males, both black, both 40 years old--on Louis Comeaux's farm.  He and his family were living near Brashear, now Morgan, City, at the southern end of St. Mary Parish, in 1861, but the baptismal records of their children show that they returned to upper Bayou Lafourche later in the decade. 

Descendants of Pierre-Paul COMEAUX (1776-c1820; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Pierre-Paul, third son of Simon Comeau and Marguerite-Geneviève Aucoin, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in August 1776, followed his parents and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores.  By the mid-1790s, he was living with his family on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Spanish officials were still counting him there with his widowed father a few years later.  Pierre-Paul married Marie-Clémence, called Clémence, daughter of French Creole René dit Simon Simoneaux and his first wife Isabelle-Luce Daigle, an Acadian, at Assumption in the early 1800s.  Their daughters married into the Giroir and Moïse families.  Pierre Paul died by March 1821, when he was listed as deceased in his youngest son's baptismal record.  Three of his four sons married, and one of them settled in Terrebonne Parish.  The others remained in Assumption Parish. 

1

Oldest son Eustache, born in Assumption Parish in January 1808, married Rose Adélaïde, called Adélaïde, daughter of fellow Acadians Nicolas Thibodeaux and Mélanie Basilise Lejeune, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in September 1850; Eustache was in his early 40s at the time of the wedding.  His son Eustache Zémi or Ozémé, called Ozémé, was born at Bayou Black in August 1851, Joseph in September 1853, Alexis Octave in September 1857, Émile Adam, called Adam, in February 1860,  Augustin Ernest in December 1861 but probably died at age 1 in December 1862, and Justin Trasimond, called Trasimond, was born in April 1864.  Eustache died in Terrebonne Parish in June 1866, age 58; a "petition for inventory & tutor" was filed at the Houma courthouse for his children the following December. 

2

Simon Rosémond, born in Assumption Parish, in September 1811, married Azélie, also called Rosalie, Adèlie, and Arelite, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre Hébert and Élisabeth Mazerolle, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in December 1833.  Their son Adolphe was born near Plattenville in January 1850, and Joseph Ulysse in July 1853.  They also had a son named Ursin.  Their daughters married into the Campeau, Crochet, and Landry families.  Simon died near Plattenville in January 1866, age 54.  His only married son settled near Pierre Part, on the north shore of Lake Verret. 

Ursin married Sidalise, daughter of Marcellin Simoneaux and his Acadian wife Mélanie Landry, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in September 1855.  Their son Joseph Osémé was born near Paincourtville in October 1856, Sylvestre Anatole Léonore near Pierre Part in December 1861, Jean Baptiste Sosthène in April 1864, and Émile Albert in July 1870. 

3

Alexandre Hyacinthe, born in Assumption Parish in September 1813, died at age 2 in August 1815.  

4

Youngest son Louis Ulysse, born in Assumption Parish in March 1818, married Augustine, daughter of Augustin Campos and his Acadian wife Émelie Hébert, at Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in February 1839.  Their son Alexandre Merville was born near Plattenville in December 1844, Augustin Pierre in February 1847, Honoré in December 1848, Joseph Dosilia near Paincourtville in February 1851, and Étienne Désiré near Plattenville in December 1853.  Their daughter married a Simoneaux cousin.  Louis died near Plattenville in November 1854, age 36.  

Alexandre Merville may have been the Meuville Comeaux who died near Plattenville, Assumption Parish, in December 1867; the priest who recorded the burial did not give Meuville's parents' names or his age at the time of his death.  If this was him, he would have been age 23.  He probably did not marry. 

Descendants of Joseph-Marie COMEAUX (1785-1850; Pierre, Jean le jeune dit Jean-Augustin, Jean-Baptiste)

Joseph-Marie, fourth and youngest son of Simon Comeau and Marguerite-Geneviève Aucoin, born at St.-Servan, France, near St.-Malo, in March 1785, followed his parents and siblings to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, in 1785 and went with them to Bayou des Écores.  By the mid-1790s, they had moved to upper Bayou Lafourche, where Joseph, being the youngest child in his family, probably delayed creating a family of his own to care for his aging widowed father.  Joseph Marie, at age 37, married Marie Célesie, called Célesie, another daughter of Pierre Hébert and Élisabeth Mazerolle, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in January 1822, four years after his father died.  Joseph Marie died in Assumption Parish in June 1850, age 65. 

1

Oldest son Joseph Léon, born in Assumption Parish in January 1826, may have been the Léon Comeaux who died near Plattenville in July 1870.  If so, he died at age 44.  Did he marry? 

2

Alexis Gédéon was born in Assumption Parish in August 1828.  Did he die young?  Did he marry? 

3

Jean Baptiste Duval, called Duval, born in Assumption Parish in February 1835, married Amelie, daughter of fellow Acadians Hippolyte Breaux and Hélène Duhon, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in February 1859.  Their son Joseph Albert Ernest was born near Plattenville in September 1866. 

4

Youngest son Alexandre Simon le jeune was born in Assumption Parish in May 1846, when his father was in his early 60s.

~

Anne Comeaux and her third husband, Canadian Joseph Levert, moved from St. James on the river to upper Bayou Lafourche, where she died in Lafourche Interior Parish in January 1832, age 70.  

~

Other COMEAUXs in the Lafourche Valley

Local church and civil records make it difficult to link some Comeauxs in the Bayou Lafourche valley with known lines of the family there:

Narcisse Comeaux married Eugénie Comeaux, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Frédéric Victor was born in Assumption Parish in May 1833.  

Dominique Comeaux married Marie Joséphine Guillot, place and date unrecorded.  Their son Paul Laurent was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in May 1843. 

Joseph Comeaux died near Paincourtville, Assumption Parish, age 28, in October 1851.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give the parents' names or mention a wife. 

Gratieuse Comeaux, wife of Anatole Landry, died in Assumption Parish, age 28, in January 1858.  The Plattenville priest who recorded the burial did not give any parents' names. 

Marie Émée Comeaux was born near Pierre Part, Assumption Parish, in September 1860.  The priest who recorded the baptism did not give any parents' names. 

Marie Clémentine, daughter of Émelie Comeaux, was baptized at the Plattenville church, age unrecorded, in December 1862.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give the father's name.  Which Émelie Comeaux was this? 

Marguerite Comeaux married French Creole Jean Baptiste Fryo or Friou in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Parish in December 1863.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Church records show no Comeaus other than Acadians during the colonial and early antebellum periods.  There were, however, Comeauxs who lived in South Louisiana during the antebellum and immediate post-war periods who may have been owned and freed by Acadian Comeauxs and took the family's surname.  Church records hint that Comeaux slaves who were freed by Federal forces during the War of 1861 also used the family's surname as their own:

In the succession of Acadian immigrant Jean Comeaux filed at the Lafayette Parish courthouse in early March 1828, the parish clerk noted:  "Heirs wish to emancipate a faithful slave, Jacques."  One wonders if Jacques the slave became Jacques Comeaux, free man of color.  

Michel Comeaux, a free man of color, married Lise Cheves or Chives, a free woman of color, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in November 1839.  

Amélina Comeaux, freewoman, married Gorelias Mouton, freedman, in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in January 1868.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage gave no parents' names. 

Lessin Comeaux married Carmelite Narcisse Allen.  Their daughters married into the Burke and Michel families in Lafayette Parish in January and May 1869.  Their daughter Ursule's husband, Lessin Pierre Michel, was called a freedman by the Vermilionville priest who recorded their marriage in January 1869, so Lessin, Carmelite, their daughters, and their sons-in-law probably were Afro Creoles. 

Jim Comeaux married Marie Madeleine ____, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Alice was born near Charenton, St. Mary Parish, in May 1869.  Were Jim and Marie Madeleine freed persons? 

Henri or Henry Comeaux married Mathilde Don Louis in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in January 1869, and sanctified the marriage at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in May 1870.  The bride's surname hints that the couple may have been Afro-Creoles, perhaps freed persons. 

Célestine, daughter of Joseph Comeaux, also called a Bertrand, and Rosalie Comeaux, married Clerville, son of Jean François and Carmélite Duhon, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in January 1869.  The groom's surname hints that this couple, also, may have been Afro-Creoles. 

Lessin Comeaux married Carmélite Narcisse Allen, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Ursule married Lessin Pierre Michel, a freedman, son of Henriette Lambert, at the Vermilionville church in January 1869.  Daughter Roselia married Moise, son of Lagmon or Loymon Burke and Marie Burke, at the Youngsville church in May 1869.  Were Lessin and wife Carmélite Narcisse also freed people? 

Félicien, son of Félix Comeaux, was born near Washington, St. Landry Parish, in February 1869.  Was Félix a freedman? 

Gilbert Michel, son of Sosthène Michel Comeaux, was born near Washington, St. Landry Parish, in February 1869.  Was Sosthène Michel a freedman? 

Dermas Comeaux married Victorine ____, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Carmesie was born near Youngsville, Lafayette Parish, in July 1870.  Were Dermas and Victorine freed persons also?

Joachim, fils, son of Joachim Comeaux and Victorine Girouard, married Marie, daughter of William Jean Baptiste and Félonise Guidry, at the St. Martinville church, St. Martin Parish, in August 1870.  Judging by the bride's surname, both parties probably were Afro-Creoles. 

CONCLUSION

Comeaus were among the first families of Acadia and among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  Arriving in the colony in ripples and waves over a 20-year period, they came from Halifax in 1765, Maryland in 1767 and 1768, St.-Domingue and Martinique in the late 1760s or early1770s, and from Nantes and St.-Malo, France, in 1785--54 of them in all. 

The first of them--a family of four led by Victor Comeau of Chepoudy--came to the colony in February 1765 with the Broussard dit Beausoleil party from Halifax via St.-Domingue.  They followed the Broussards to the Bayou Teche valley and survived the epidemic that killed dozens of their fellow Teche Acadians that summer and fall.  Victor Comeau settled at La Manque, later called Anse La Butte, between present-day Lafayette and Breaux Bridge, but died in the late 1760s, leaving only one son who created a family of his own; he settled near Carencro, north of present-day Lafayette.  Also coming from Halifax via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, in 1765 and settling on the prairie near present-day Opelousas were two more Comeau families headed by cousins Michel and Charles, the latter a younger brother of Victor Comeau.  They, too, remained on the western prairies, where their family lines thrived, especially that of Charles, whose four sons created families of their own and whose grandsons also were prolific.  By the early antebellum period, most of the Opelousas Comeauxs, including all of Charles's sons, had moved south to Attakapas, settling at Côte Gelée near present-day Lafayette, near Abbeville on the lower Vermilion, and near their cousins at Carencro.  The few Comeauxs who remained in the Opelousas country--mostly Michel's descendants--settled near Grand Coteau, north of Carencro; at Church Point on upper Bayou Plaquemine Brûlé in present-day Acadia Parish; and out on the prairie near Ville Platte in present-day Evangeline Parish.  Comeauxs also settled on upper Bayou Teche near Breaux Bridge, near New Iberia farther down the Teche, and far down the bayou in St. Mary Parish.

Meanwhile, other Comeau exiles, from Halifax, Maryland, France, and even the Caribbean Basin, established lines along the Mississippi River above New Orleans on what became known as the Acadian Coast.  in 1765, two Comeau wives arrived with their families from Halifax via St.-Domingue and settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, present-day St. James Parish.  A few years later, in 1767 and 1768, two Comeau families, one led by a widower, the other by a widow, came to Louisiana from exile in Maryland and went to St.-Gabriel d'Iberville and San Luìs de Natchez on the river above Cabanocé.  In 1769, the Natchez family moved to St.-Gabriel to join their cousins there.  One of the St.-Gabriel settlers, Jean-Charles, had 11 sons, 10 by his second wife, adding substantially to the number of Comeaus on the river.  Sometime in the late 1760s, a Comeau family reached the colony directly from St.-Domingue, today's Haiti, and settled at Cabanocé.  Two more Comeau males, one of them a widower, came to the colony in the late 1760s, married, and settled at Cabanocé, but from whence they came is anyone's guess. 

The largest contingent of Comeaus to reach Louisiana--30 individuals and half a dozen families--came from France on six of the Seven Ships of 1785.  One Comeau wife went to the Attakapas District and another to Opelousas, but most of the 1785 arrivals settled on the river, at Baton Rouge and along Bayou des Écores north of Baton Rouge.  Surprisingly, this influx of new families added only marginally to the number of Comeauxs on the river.  During the antebellum period, Comeauxs were living at Baton Rouge, across the river in West Baton Rouge Parish, on both sides of the river in Iberville Parish, and farther downriver in Ascension and St. James parishes on what was called the Acadian Coast.  They were especially numerous around St. Gabriel, on the east bank of the river in Iberville Parish. 

Many of the Comeaus from France chose to go to upper Bayou Lafourche, where a cousin from the river had settled in the 1780s.  After the Acadians abandoned the Bayou des Écores settlement in the early 1790s, most of them, including Comeauxs, relocated to upper Bayou Lafourche, adding substantially to this third center of family settlement that eventually stretched all the way down into the Terrebonne country.  Few Comeauxs, however, lived in what became Lafourche Parish, at least before the War of 1861-65.  During the late antebellum period, one family from the upper bayou settled near Pierre Part on the north shore of Lake Verret. 

Beginning in the late 1820s, four Comeaux brothers from Assumption Parish moved to lower Bayou Teche, where one of them--Antoine--became a major sugar planter in St. Mary Parish.  Two of the brothers and a nephew returned to Assumption Parish during the late antebellum period, but the others remained on the lower Teche. 

By the end of the antebellum period, there were as many Comeauxs on the western prairies as along the river, with the Lafourche/Terrebonne valley cousins adding substantially to the eastern branch of the family.  The western Comeauxs had come from Chepoudy, the eastern Comeauxs from Minas and Port-Royal.  Although they all were descendants of the same Acadian progenitor, other than along the lower Teche there seems to have been little interaction between the two branches of the family in South Louisiana.  

Very few, if any, non-Acadian Comeaus emigrated to Louisiana.  Church records show no members of the family, other than Acadians, living in colonial Louisiana.  The Comeauxs of South Louisiana, then, are descendants of Pierre the barrel maker of Poitou and Port-Royal.  During the antebellum period, however, there were non-Acadian Comeauxs living in South Louisiana whose membership in the family was a predictable result of what Southerners called their "peculiar institution"--Afro-Creoles who had been owned, and in some cases emancipated, by members of the Comeaux family and who took the family's surname. 

Judging by the number of slaves they held during the late antebellum period, some Comeauxs lived comfortably on their vacharies, farms, and plantations across South Louisiana.  By far the largest slave holder in the family was sugar planter Antoine Comeaux of the Western District of St. Mary Parish, who held 34 slaves in 1850, and who more than doubled that number, to 77, by the summer of 1860.  In 1850, Eugène Comeaux of Assumption Parish owned 17 slaves; a decade later, he held 43 slaves on his plantation along upper Bayou Lafourche.  Eugène's older brother Élie held 13 slaves on his farm in Assumption Parish in 1850; a decade later, Élie's widow still owned 14 slaves.  Along the river, Julien Comeaux's widow held 10 slaves on her farm in Iberville Parish in 1860.  In nearby East Baton Rouge Parish, Gilbert Comeaux, fils owned eight slaves that year.  Family slave holdings on the southwestern prairies tended to be a bit smaller.  Désiré Comeaux of Lafayette Parish owned six slaves in 1850 and nine a decade later.  Julien Comeaux of the same parish owned seven slaves in 1860.  Up in St. Landry Parish, Pierre Comeaux held half a dozen slaves in 1850 and the same number in 1860.  The great majority of their kinsmen, however, on the river, along the Lafourche, and west of the Atchafalaya Basin, owned only a few slaves or no slaves at all, at least none who appeared on the federal slave schedules of 1850 and 1860. 

As befitting the size of the family, dozens of Comeauxs served Louisiana and the Southern Confederacy in uniform during the War of 1861-65. ...

In Louisiana, the family's name picked up an "x" and became Comeaux, pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable--KOH-mo.  Up in Canada, however, it is still spelled Comeau and pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable--kuh-MOH.  In Louisiana, the family's name also is spelled Caumau, Caumaux, Caumeau, Caumeaux, Caumo, Caumon, Caumot, Comand, Comau, Comaud, Comaut, Comaux, Commau, Commaud, Commault, Commaux, Commeau, Commeaux, Commo, Commot, Como, Comon, Comont, Comot, Comu, Coumeau, Coummeau.  [See Book Ten for the Acadian family's Louisiana "begats"]

Sources:  1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, Assumption, Iberville, Lafayette, St. James, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, & West Baton Rouge parishes; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Mary, Vermilion, & West Baton Rouge parishes; Arsenault, Généalogie, 484-93, 1137-38, 1365-66, 1546-57, 1657, 2220-21, 2296-97, 2460-63; BRDR, vols. 1a(rev.), 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:16, 155-56, 159; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 60, 82-83, 294, 308, 585, 598, 600-01; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, 2-B, 2-C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 25, 66, 204-05, 218, 233-35, 251-52, 268; Menn, Large Slaveholders of LA, 1860, 376, 380-81; NOAR, vols. 2, 4, 6; <porttoulouse.com/html/1717a.html>;  <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Duc_Guillaume.htm>, Family No. 48; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 19-20; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 28-29, 42-43, 560, 749; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 123-24, 206-13, 311, 560; Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana; West, Atlas of LA Surnames, 50-52, 159-60; White, DGFA-1, 369-93; White, DGFA-1 English, 83-88; Wood, Acadians in Maryland, 209-10; Dave Comeau, descendant. 

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day civil parishes that existed in 1861 are 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, 45, calls him Alexandre COMO; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 210-12, Family No. 261, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Alexandre-Simon COMMAUX, gives his parents' names, says his godparents were Alexandre AUCOIN & Marie COMMAUX, & details his family's voyage to LA in 1785; BRDR, 2:97, 196 (ASM-2, 40), his marriage record, calls him Alexo-Simon COMMEAU "of St.-Servan, Diocese of St.-Malo, France," calls his wife Margarita BLANCHARD "of St.-Similiano, Diocese of Nantes, France," gives his & her parents' names, says his mother & her father were deceased at the time of the wedding, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Élias BLANCHARD & Ambrosio HÉBERT; BRDR, 5(rev.):156 (ASM-3, 265), his death/burial record, calls him Alexander [COMEAUX], "age 62 yrs., husband of Marguerite BLANCHARD," but does not give his parents' names.  See also Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 57, 87, 139; Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana.

02.  Wall of Names, 23, calls her Anne COMEAU; White, DGFA-1, 385, calls her Anne [COMEAU] (jumelle [of Élisabeth]), gives her birth/baptismal date & place, her parents' names, says her godparents were Joseph BOURGEOIS & Anne LEBLANC, & details her marriages & her presence at Champflore & Cabahannocer [St.-Jacques].

03.  Not in Wall of Names.  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2460; BRDR, 2:83, 196 (SJA-1, 51a), the record of her first marriage, calls her Anne COUMAU "of Acadia, calls her husband André BERNARD "of des Allemands," gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Isacque LEBLANC & Honoré GIROIR; BRDR, 2:196, 307 (SJA-2, 26), the record of her second marriage, calls her Anna COMO (COMEAU), "a widow," calls her husband Carlos GAUDET, "a widower," gives her & his parents' names, says all parents were "of Port-Royal," gives no first spouses' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Josef GAUDET, Sr., & Josef GAUDET, Jr.; BRDR, 2:196, 502 (SJA-2, 58), the record of her third marriage, calls her Anna COMAUX, "widow of Carlos GODET," calls her husband Joseph LE VERRE, gives her & his parents' names, says her parents were "of New England," that his parents were "of Montréal, Canada," & says the witnesses to his marriage were Juan Bautista DINELLE & Andrés BERNARD; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:157 (Thib.Ch.: v.1, p.72), her death/burial record, which calls her Anne COMEAUX, calls her parents Charles [COMEAUX] & Anne DUGAT, says she died "at age 68 yrs.," but names no husband(s); Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:158 (Thib.Ct.Hse.: Succ.: year-1832), her succession, calls her Anne [COMEAUX] m. (1) d.André BERNARD, m. (2) d.Charles GAUDET, m. (2) Joseph LEVERT, & lists her children & their spouses.  See also De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 15.

Despite his surname, her first husband was a German Creole, not an Acadian. 

Why does the family, or the recording priest, in her burial record call her mother Anne DUGAT?  Were they mixing up her mother & her maternal grandmother's surnames?   

Why is this well-documented Acadian immigrant not on the Acadian Memorial's Wall of Names? 

04.  Wall of Names, 40, calls her Anne-Eléonnor COMMEAU; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 82, recorded at Trés-Ste.-Trinité, Cherbourg, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Anne-Léonor COMEAUX, gives her parents' names, says they were "tous de la Cadie," & says her godparents were Michel BLANCHARD & Marie GRANDGÉ; BRDR, 2:196, 372 (SJA-2, 5), her marriage record, calls her Ana COMO, calls her husband Pedro ÉBER, gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Juan ÉBER & Anastasio COMBO. 

In the succession record of her maternal aunt, Madeleine BLANCHARD, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-B:86 (Opel. Ct.Hse.: Succ. #134), dated Aug 1819, she is called Anne Eleanore COMEAU wid. of Pierre HÉBERT, & is named as her aunt's sole heir.  

05.  Wall of Names, 34 (pl. 8R), calls her Marie COMMEAU, & lists her with her husband & 3 children; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 19-20, Family No. 39, calls her Anne-Marie COMMAUX, says she was born in c1743 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, includes the birth/baptismal record of son Jean-Pierre BOURG, baptized 19 Oct 1774, Archigny, Vienne, godson of Jean-Pierre GUÉRIN & Isabelle COMMAUX, & says the family was residing in the parish of St.-Similien, Nantes, by 18 Jul 1776; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 28-29, Family No. 51, calls her Anne-Marie COMMAUX, says she was born c1745 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, includes the birth/baptismal & death/burial records of son Ambroise BOURG, baptized 18 Jul 1776, St.-Similen, Nantes, son Jacques-Alain BOURG, baptized 27 Jun 1778, St.-Similien, Nantes, died age 7 mos. & buried 30 Jan 1779, St.-Similien, Nantes, son Joseph-André BOURG, baptized 30 Nov 1779, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, son Jean-Marie BOURG, baptized 9 Sep 1781, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, died age 16 mos. & buried 25 Jan 1783, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, daughter Marguerite BOURG, died age 12 & buried 25 Aug 1782, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, & son Louis-Alexis BOURG, baptized 5 Sep 1783, St.-Nicolas, Nantes, & details the family's voyage to LA in 1785; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 38-39, calls her Marie COMMEAU, sa [Allain BOURG's] femme, age 40, on the embarkation list, Maria COUMMEAU, su [Alein BOURG's] muger, on the debarkation list, & Marie COMEAUX, his [Allain BOURG's] wife, age 40, on the complete listing, says she was in the 35th Family on the embarkation list &  the 38th Family on the debarkation list of Le Beaumont with her husband & 3 children, & details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names but gives no place of marriage; BRDR, 5(rev.):159 (ASM-3, 253), her death/burial record, calls her Marie COMMEAUX, "age 90 yrs. widow of Alin BOURG," but does not give her parents' names. 

06.  Wall of Names, 40, calls him Benoît COMMEAU; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2220, calls him Benoît COMEAU, gives his birth year, his parents' names, the place & date of his marriage, his stay on Île Miquelon, & says his children were Pierre, born in 1763, & Jean in 1765; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73.  

He probably was among the Acadians being held at Halifax who, at the end of the French & Indian War, chose to go to Île Miquelon instead of LA.  France retained possession of Miquelon & the nearby island of St.-Pierre after the war, so the COMEAUXs were going to French-held territory.  In the late 1760s, however, so many of them had gone there that the French "deported" many families to France.  Evidently Benoît & his family were among them.  Most of the Acadians from Île Miquelon returned to the island a few years after they reached France & were deported to France again, in the late 1770s, after the British captured the islands during the American Revolution.  Benoît & his family may have remained in France after the first deportation.  Ironically, they ended up in LA after all, 20 years after their Halifax compatriots had gone there. 

His wife was pregnant when they left Paimboeuf in late Aug.  Daughter Claire-Adélaïde was born aboard ship in mid-Sep.  They did not baptize the baby in New Orleans, however, but waited until the early Apr 1786, after they had settled at Ascension.  The girl's godfather, then, was not Spanish Intendant Martin NAVARRO but Ascension commandant Nicolas VERRET.  See BRDR, 2:197 (ASC-5, 5).

07.  Wall of Names, 19, calls her Catherine COMEAU veuve LAFAYE; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 171, & Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 424, the record of her second marriage, calls her Catherine COMMEAUX, calls her husband Joseph/Josephe GUILLEBEAU, but does not mention her widow status or give witnesses to her marriage. 

Where was she in Jan 1777, when a census was taken at St.-Jacques?

08.  Wall of Names, 14, calls him Charles COMEAU; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2461, the LA section, calls him Charles COMEAUX, says he was born in 1745 but gives no birthplace, says his parents were Jean [COMEAUX] & Madeleine AMIRAULT "de Chipoudy, Acadie," says he married Anastasie SAVOIE in c1765 but gives no place of marriage or her parents' names, lists his children as Antoine, born in c1765, Charles-Antoine in 1766, Émilie in c1767, Pierre in c1768, Suzanne-Josette in c1770, Dorothée in 1771, Augustin in 1779, & Jean-Baptiste in 1781 but gives no birthplaces, & says he died at Opelousas in 1805; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:187 (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.80), his death/burial record, calls him Charles COMEAUX, says he died at "age about 60 yrs.," but does not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also Brasseaux, ed., Quest for the Promised Land, 114-15.

His marriage date is from Stephen A. White. 

Despite Arsenault, cited above, family historians, as well as Stephen White, followed here, are convinced that Charles's mother was Brigitte SAVOIE.  Ken Breau of the University of Moncton writes via email to Ester Comeaux Howard:  "According to Stephen White's research pertaining to the family of Jean COMEAU and Brigitte SAVOIE, there is a note on Charles COMEAU married to Anastasie SAVOIE.  The key to identifying Charles as being the son of Jean COMEAN/Brigitte SAVOIE lies with Anne MICHEL.  She was the wife of Victor COMEAU, who we know as a son of Jean COMEAU/Brigitte SAVOIE.  This Anne MICHEL was godmother for at least one of the children of Charles. This close tie between Anne MICHEL and Charles COMEAU (who would have been her brother-in-law) is what Stephen White uses as evidence that Charles had to be son of Jean COMEAU."  Email courtesy of Lee Crockett, family historian.  See the baptismal record of Charles's son Jean-Baptiste, dated 14 Oct 1781, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:199 (Opel. Ch.: v.1-A, p. 28), for Anne MICHEL CORMIER's baptismal sponsorship.  Quote about his ranch is from the brochure that accompanies the Robert Dafford Mural, Acadian Memorial, St. Martinville, which says that he arrived in LA in 1766, but his presence in the Opelousas militia census of 1766, taken in Apr, shows that he arrived in 1765; the shipload of Acadians who came to the colony in 1766 did not reach New Orleans until late Sep.  For the Mar 1768 petition, see Brasseaux, ed., cited above.

The records of daughter Dorothée's second marriage, dated 9 May 1814, in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-A:235-36 (SM Ct.Hse.: OA-v.28-2, #267; SM Ch.: v.5, #335), call her "native of Pointe Coupée/Couppee."  However, this does not mean that the family lived in that French Creole community on the river.  According to Arsenault, cited above, & the Opelousas census of 1777, Dorothée was born in 1770 or 1771.  Opelousas did not have a church of its own until 1776, & there was no resident priest at nearby Atakapas throughout the 1770s.  So the Pointe Coupée priest served as a missionary among the prairie settlers from the late 1760s into the 1770s.  Dorothée would have been baptized by a Pointe Coupée priest, but the ceremony occurred at Opelousas, where her family lived, not on the river. 

Note how many heads of cattle he owned at Bellevue in 1788 & how many slaves he owned there 8 years later.  This would have made him one of the most affluent men in the district, certainly among his fellow Acadians.   

09.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Charles COMEAU 2; White, DGFA-1, 387, calls him Charles [COMEAU], gives his parents' names, says he was born in c1709 but gives no birthplace, details his marriage, including his wife's parents' names, buts gives no place of marriage, & details his presence in MD & his arrival in LA.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies., J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 433; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5. 

His estimated birth year is taken from the age given in the Spanish report of 1767, not the St.-Gabriel census of 1777, which White, cited above, also follows.  His wife's name is from White, cited above, son Jean-Charles's marriage records, dated 23 Sep 1766 & 9 Jul 1781, & son Firmin's burial record, dated 11 Mar 1781, in BRDR, 2:198, 199 (SJA-1, 38; SGA-5, 27, 53).

Why did he & his children come to LA in 1767 instead of in 1768 with the BREAU brothers & most of the other Acadians at Port Tobacco? 

White, DGFA-1, 387-88, shows that younger brother Jean settled at Port-Toulouse, Île Royale; that younger brother Alexis & his family also ended up at Port Tobacco, MD, & Alexis's widow & children emigrated tp LA; that his father & younger sister Hélène & her family ended up in MA, where his father died sometime in early 1758, in his late 70s.  See also White, DGFA-1 English, 87. 

10.  Wall of Names, 15 (pl. 2R), calls him Charles [COMEAU], & lists him with his father; BRDR, 2:197, 518 (SJA-1, 44), probably his marriage record, calls him Charles COMO, calls his wife Marie MARQUISE, gives his & her parents' names, but gives no witnesses to his marriage; BRDR, 2:197 (SJA-1, 67a), probably his death/burial record, calls him Charles COMEAUX, "age 26 years," but does not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also Arceneaux, D. J., Attakapas Post in 1769, 18, 32. 

This is him by process of elimination.  When did he reach the colony?  His father does not appear in LA records until Jan 1768, when he remarried at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques.  Did they come to LA directly from St.-Domingue, like his father's second wife?  How closely was Charles kin to his wife, whose mother was a COMEAUX? 

According to Arceneaux, D. J., 32, Charles's wife is the Marie MARQUIS, age 19, daughter of Jean MARQUIS & Marie COMEAUX, counted with the family of Michel BERNARD at Attakapas in Dec 1769.  What was she doing on the prairies in the late 1760s?  Serving as an engagée?  According to the age given for her in 1769, she was born in c1750, before Le Grand Dérangement, so was her father also Acadian?  If so, when did she come to LA?  From where?  This researcher has found a MARQUIS family on Rivière-du-Moulin-à-Scie, Île St.-Jean, in 1752.  However, Marie matches no member of this family, headed by Jean-Baptiste MARQUIS of St.-Malo, age 50, & his wife Marie-Josèphe VINCENT dit CLÉMENT, age 45, listed in the Maritimes census of that year.  See <islandregister.com/1752.html.>; Book Two.  There were MARQUIS/MARQUISE familes at New Orleans & Pointe Coupée in the 1750s, 1760s, & 1770s.  Pierre MARQUIS of the Swiss Regiment was, in fact, one of the conspirators who helped overthrow Spanish Governor Ulloa in 1768 & paid for it a year later with his life.  See BRDR, vol. 1b; NOAR, vol. 2; Book Four.  BRDR, 2:518 (SJA-2, 15 & 16), is the record of her remarriage to Juan Bautista (Jean-Baptiste), son of Juan (Jean) CASEBON & Catalina DAGUERREGUEN of "San Pedro de Mendi," dated 30 May 1792, at St.-Jacques; the witnesses to the marriage were Pedro MICHEL & Marguarita SULAR.  This marriage record also calls her parents Juan [MARQUIS] & Marie COMO.  One wonders why it took Marie so long to remarry, which begs the question:  was the Charles COMEAUX who died at St.-Jacques, age 26, in Feb 1775 this Charles COMEAUX? 

11.  Wall of Names, 33 (pl. 8L), calls him Charles COMMEAU, & lists him with his wife & no children; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 32-33, calls him Charles COMMEAU, charpentier, age 37, on the embarkation list, Carlos COUMMEAU, on the debarkation list, & Charles COMEAUX, carpenter, age 37, on the complete listing, & says he was in the 9th Family aboard Le Beaumont with his wife & no children.  See also De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:26; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 206, 208, 311.

His estimated birth year is taken from the Feb 1752 counting at Île Madame & Robichaux, 206, which conform to the age given on the passenger lists of Le Beaumont. 

His crossing to St.-Malo aboard Duc Guillaume is from Robichaux, 206, who says he "disembarked with the family of Jean DUPONT at St. Malo on November 1, 1758 from the ship, Le Duc Guillaume" & notes that Charles was "brother of Marguerite COMMAUX, wife of Jean DUPONT."  Robichaux, 208, also notes that Charles's older brother David crossed with him & sister Marguerite's family on Duc Guillaume & survived.  <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Duc_Guillaume.htm>, Family No. 48, however, does not include either Charles or David COMEAU with that family in the crossing, unless the "sons" Charles & David DUPOINT on the listing are actually Charles & David, Jean DUPONT's young brothers-in-law (David was only a year older than Charles).  The list notes that both Charles & David, along with Jean, survived the crossing, but that Marguerite died in a St.-Malo hospital on 2 Dec 1758.  The list also makes an odd notation--"à l'hôpital le 21/11/1758"--next to Charles DUPONT's name without including the fatal "+."  Does this mean that French records show Charles DUPONT in the St.-Malo hospital on that date--12 Nov 1758--but that he did not die there on that date? 

If Charles went to Guiane in the spring of 1764, why is he not in the 1 Mar 1765 census "of the inhabitants of Senamary (Sinnamary), in French Guyane," if he left France for that colony aboard the ship Le Fort in Apr 1764?  See Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 584-90. 

His & his wife going to Baton Rouge in 1785 is a hunch based on the fact that the majority of the passengers from his ship went to that settlement.  

See the footnote to his wife's profile for speculation on who she might have been. 

12.  Wall of Names, 15 (pl. 2R), calls him Charles COMEAU 3, & lists him singly; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2460, says he was born in 1725; White, DGFA-1, 382, calls him Charles [COMEAU] (posthume), details his birth/baptism, gives his parents' names, says his godparents were Joseph DOUCET son of Claude & Marguerite MICHEL daughter of Jacques, details his marriage, calls his wife Marguerite BABINEAUX dit DES LAURIERS, gives her parents'  names, says their marriage was réhab at Le Mirebalais on 23 Sep 1764, says he was in CN in 1763 & at Cabahannocer in 1777, age 55.  See also De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 15.  

Their being in CN in 1763 hints that they were among the Acadians in that colony who went to Haiti in the early 1760s, so they probably were among those few Acadian families who emigrated to LA directly from Haiti, not from Haiti via Halifax like the 1765 arrivals.  

See Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 83, for the baptismal record of son Joseph, dated 30 Nov 1766, at Mirebalais, showing that they were still there.

Why does the burial record of daughter Anne, dated 7 Jan 1832, in Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:157 (Thib.Ch.: v.1, p.72), call her parents Charles [COMEAUX] & Anne DUGAT?  Did the family, or the priest, mix up the mother's & the maternal grandmother's surnames?

13.  Wall of Names, 43, calls him Élie COMO; BRDR, 2:197, 706 (SJO-3, 8 & 9), his marriage record, calls him Éli COMO, calls his wife Marie Reine TRAHAN, gives his & her parents' names, says his parents were "of St.-Malo" & hers "of Belle-Isle-en-Mer," & says the witnesses to his marriage were Josef LELONG & Mariane TRAHAN.  See also Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile, 88-89; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 208, Family No. 257; Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana.   

Oddly, he is called Charles in at least 2 LA church records.  See, e.g., the baptismal record of Maria Adélaïde, dated 27 Oct 1808, in BRDR, 3:221 (SJO-6, 53), which calls the parents Chas [COMEAUX] & Maria Reyna TRAHAN; & the baptismal record of daughter Reyna Bellony, dated 19 Mar 1812, in BRDR, 3:222 (SJO-6, 128), which calls the parents Charles [COMEAUX] & Maria Reyna TRAHAN.  Yet his marriage record, cited above, calls him Élie, & his birth/baptismal information in Robichaux, cited above, calls him Élie-Marie, neither record containing a reference to the name Charles.  The same holds true for the passenger record of La Ville d'Archangel in D. Hébert, cited above, which calls him simply Élie. 

14.  Wall of Names, 15, calls her Élisabeth COMEAU; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 171, Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 424, her marriage record, calls her Élizabeth COMMEAUX, calls her husband Joseph GUÉDRIE, but does not give any witnesses to her marriage or any parents' names; BRDR, 4:133 (SMI-8, 43), her death/burial record, calls her Isabelle COMMEAUX, "wid. Joseph GUIDRY," but gives no parents' names.

When exactly did she reach the colony?  And from where?  Was it in 1765 from Halifax via St.-Domingue?  In 1766 from MD?  The Acadians from MD who reached LA in 1767 reached New Orleans in Jul, & they went to St.-Gabriel, not Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, so she came in either 1765 or 1766.  She is not in the Cabanocé census of Apr 1766, & the Acadians who came from MD reached the colony in Oct, so, if I had to guess, I would say she came from MD in 1766.  There is also the possibility that she came to LA in 1766 directly from St.-Domingue, having hooked up with the contingent from MD who transshipped thru Cap-Français on their way to New Orleans. 

15.  Wall of Names, 15, calls her Élisabeth, no surname given, orpheline.  See also Voorhies., J., Some Late Eighteenth- Century Louisianians, 433.

Who were her parents?  Judging by her age in 1767, she doubtlessly was born in MD.  The Spanish report of 1767 does not include her surname, but it probably was COMEAUX.  She was not with Charles COMEAUX's family at Port Tobacco, MD, in Jul 1763, so one wonders when she was orphaned.  What happened to her in LA?

16.  Wall of Names, 14, calls him Étienne COMEAU; BRDR, 2:97, 197 (SGA-14, 18, #16), his marriage record, calls him Esteban COMAU, calls his wife Margarita BLANCHARD, gives his & her parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Miguel GARIVEL, Juan LEBLANC, & Olibero BRASET.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 435; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5.

His estimated birth year is taken from the age given in the Spanish report of Feb 1768, which does not agree with the St.-Gabriel census of 1777. 

17.  Wall of Names, 45, calls her Félicité COMO; BRDR, 2:197, 605 (ASM-2, 82 & 83), her marriage record, calls her Félicitas-Agustina COMAUX "of St.-Malo, France," calls her husband Juan POULOSKY "of City of Verfeau in Poland," gives her & his parents' names, says the witnesses to her marriage were Juan Bautista TRAHAN & Bill LAMBERT, & on 2:605, includes the note "Their little girl named Agustina was born 2 Nov. 1802."  For the girl's baptismal record, dated 2 Nov 1802, see BRDR, 2:196 (ASM-1, 254), which calls the girl Augustina, gives only her mother's name, & says the girl's godparents were Alexandre & Elisabet COMMAUX, "Uncle & Aunt."  See also Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana. 

18.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Firmin COMEAU; BRDR, 2:198 (SGA-5, 53), his death/burial record, calls him Firman COMEAUX, gives his parents' names, mentions no wife, & does not give his age at the time of his death.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies., J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 433; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5.

His estimated birth year is taken from the age given in the Spanish report of 1767, not the St.-Gabriel census of 1777.  Did he marry?  If not, why not?

19.  Wall of Names, 37 (pl. 9R), calls him Honnoré COMMAU, & lists him with his second wife & 2 stepsons; Arsenault, Généalogie, 1365, the Pigiguit section, calls him Honoré COMEAU, says he was born in 1715, gives his parents' names, details his first marriage, including his wife's parents' names, but does not mention his second marriage, says he was at Malpèque, Île St.-Jean, in 1741, & at Miquelon in 1767, & that his children by his first wife were Marie, born in 1737 but gives no birthplace, Rose in 1739 but gives no birthplace, Anne in 1741 but gives no birthplace, Pierre in 1744 but gives no birthplace, Monique in 1746 but gives no birthplace, Joseph in 1749 but gives no birthplace, & Margueritein 1751 but gives no birthplace; White, DGFA-1, 391, calls him Honoré [COMEAU], says he was born c1714 at Ste.-Famille, Pigiguit, details his first & second marriages, including his wives' parents' names, says he & his second wife were granted "disp 3-3 cons, 3-3 aff," that he was on Île St.-Jean in 1752, age 37, at Miquelon in 1767, age 55, & at Cherbourg in 1772, age 60; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 42, Family No. 81, calls him Honoré COMMAUX, says he was born in 1715 "in the Parish of Sainte-Famille of Pisiguit in Acadie," gives his parents' names, says he was a carpenter, details his first marriage, says he & his first wife were married at "Sainte-Anne of Beaubassin," which actually was nearby Tintamarre, gives his first wife's parents' names, does not say when or where his first wife died, details his second marriage, calls his second wife Anastasie BELLEMER, says she was born in 1738 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names & her first husband's name, details his first family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s, says that only he & his son Joseph were in the convoy to Nantes [so his first wife must have died before Dec 1775], & details his second family's voyage to LA in 1785; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 205, the record of his second marriage, calls him Honoré COUMEAU, calls his wife Anastasie BELLE MER, gives his & her parents' names, says that all of their parents were deceased at the time of the marriage, gives his & his second wife's first spouses' names, says he & his second wife were granted "dispensation ... of a double impediment of consanguinity and of affinity of third to third," & that the witnesses to his marriage were Joseph SEMER, Acadian, Jean BROUSSARD, Acadian, Francois HÉBERT, Acadian, Blaise TIBODEAU, Acadian, Jean-Baptiste LEGENDRE, Acadian, Jean LEJEUNE (who signed), & Jan-Baptiste DE LA HAYE (who signed); Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 52-53, calls him Honnoré COMMAU, charpentier, age 67, on the embarkation list, & Honoré COMEAUX, carpenter, age 67, on the complete listing, says he was in the 45th Family with his second wife & 2 stepsons, &, calling him Honoré COMMAUX, details his second marriage, including his & his wife's parents' names, says they were married in 1784 but gives no place of marriage.  See also De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives, 2A:155; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 29; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth Century Louisianians, 495.

Does his presence on Île Miquelon in 1767 indicate that he escaped the deportation of the Acadians from Île St.-Jean in 1758?  When was he deported to France?  

He was the only one of his 4 siblings to emigrate to LA.  See White, DGFA-1, 391.  None of his children by his first marriage made it to LA either.  At 71, he also was one of the oldest Acadians to go to the Spanish colony.  

20.  Wall of Names, 9, calls her Isabelle COMEAU.

21.  Wall of Names, 45, calls her Isabelle COMO; BRDR, 2:197, 518 (PCP-19, 40), the record of her first marriage, calls her Élisabeth-Madelaine COMMAU "of Bayou des Écors," calls her husband François MARION "of Bayou des Écors," gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Antoine BARBÉ & Antoine RODRIGUE; BRDR, 3:723 (ASM-2, 99), the record of her second marriage, calls her Ysabel COMAUX "of St.-Malo, France, wid. Francisco MAGNON," calls her husband Antonio RENAUD "of Bordeaux, France, widower of Magdalena PITRE," gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Simon COMAUX & Ambroise HÉBERT. 

Her first marriage was recorded at Pointe Coupée because Bayou des Écors never had a church of its own.  The priest from Pointe Coupée, across the river from the bayou settlement, administered the sacraments there. 

22.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Jean COMEAU; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:199, 498 (SM Ch.: v.3, #91), his marriage record, calls him Jean COMO "du Cap-François, Isle St.-Domingue," calls his wife Ester LEBLANC, gives his & her parents' names, says his father was "des Opelousas," but gives no witnesses to his marriage; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C: 187 (Laf. Ch.: v.2, p.53, #153), his burial record, calls him Jean [COMEAUX], "spouse of dec. Ester LEBLANC," says he died "at 6:00 a.m at age 68 years," & that he was "buried ... in the church cemetery"; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C: 187 (Laf.Ct.Hse.: Succ. #126), calls him Jean [COMEAUX]; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 2-C: 187 (Laf.Ct.Hse.:  Succ. #430), calls him Jean [COMEAUX], & says, "Heirs with to emancipate a faithful slave, Jacques."  See also Arceneaux, D. J., Attakapas Post in 1769, 18.

His marriage record reveals that he was born on the long, roundabout voyage from Halifax to New Orleans via Haiti.  It was on the north shore of Haiti at Cap-Français, now Cap-Haitian, then the "capital" of the colony of St.-Domingue, where the BROUSSARD party changed ships for LA, in late 1764 or early 1765 before reaching New Orleans in early Feb. 

His burial record says he died at age 68, but he was "only" 64. 

23.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Jean COMEAU.

24.  Wall of Names, 40, calls him Jean COMMEAU; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73.

What happened to him in LA?  Did he survive the crossing from France?  He was his parents' only son, so if he did not marry & have sons of his own, his line of the family died with him. 

25.  Wall of Names, 29 (pl. 7L), calls him Jean-Baptiste [COMMEAU], & lists him with his mother; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 14-15, calls him Jean-Baptiste COMMEAU, son [Marie-Magdelaine LANDRY, femme de Jean-Baptiste COMMEAU's] fils, age 2, on the embarkation list, does not include him on the debarkation list, calls him Jean-Baptiste COMEAUX, her [Marie-Magdelaine LANDRY, wife of Jean-Baptiste COMEAUX's] son, age 2, says he was in the 16th Family aboard La Bergère with his mother, & says he was baptized in 1783 but gives no place of baptism.  

What happened to him in LA?  Did he survive the crossing from France or die in New Orleans soon after his family reached the colony?

26.  Wall of Names, 45, calls him Jean-Baptiste COMO; BRDR, 2:126, 198 (PCP-19, 42), the record of his first marriage, calls him Jean COMO, calls his wife Marie BOURG, gives his & her parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Élie COMO, Simon COMO, & Jean-Baptiste AUCOIN.

His first marriage was recorded at Pointe Coupée because Bayou des Écores never had a church of its own, so priests from Pointe Coupée crossed the river to administer the sacraments to the residents along the bayou.  Baton Rouge did not have a church of its own until 1793.  The record for his second marriage cannot be found, but evidence of the second marriage can be found in the baptismal records of son Simon-Pierre, dated 26 Sep 1798, which gives a birth date of 13 Dec 1797, & calls the parents Juan Bautista & Julia Teresa BOURKE of Baton Rouge, in BRDR, 2:201 (SJO-1, 89); son Jean, dated 15 Aug 1801, which calls the parents Juan & Juliana BURKE & gives the boy's grandparents' names, in BRDR, 2:199 (SJO-1, 151); daughter Julia, dated 6 Jan 1806, which gives a birth date of 18 May 1805, & gives her parents' & grandparents' names, in BRDR, 3:220 (SJO-1, 263); daughter Constance Caroline, dated 29 Jan 1812, & gives her parents' and grandparents' names, in BRDR, 3:219 (SJO-6, 122); & son Thomas, dated 20 Sep 1812, gives a birthdate of 18 ___ 1808, & includes his parents' & grandparents' names, in BRDR, 3:222 (SJO-6, 147). 

In the early 1790s, his widowed father and siblings moved to Bayou Lafourche, not Baton Rouge.  One wonders why Jean-Baptiste did not follow them there. 

27.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Charles COMEAU; BRDR, 2:198, 254-55 (SJA-1, 38), the record of his first marriage, calls him Jean-Charles COUMOS, calls his wife Coecille DUGAS, gives his & her parents' names, says her father was deceased at the time of the wedding, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Jean-Baptiste DOUSSAIN, Joseph CUMOS, & Jean-Baptiste HÉBER; BRDR, 2:166, 199 (SGA-5, 27), the record of his second marriage, calls him Juan Carlos COMAUX, calls his wife Catalina BUCH, gives his & her parents' names, says her parents were "of Virginia & Protestants," does not mention his first wife, & gives no witnesses to his marriage; BRDR, 4:133 (SGA-8, 112), his death/burial record, calls him Jean Charles COMMEAUX, age 79, but does not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also See also De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 433. 

Since the records that give his age vary so widely, the earliest record, that of the Spanish report of 1768, is used here to calculate his estimated birth year.  

He fathered at least 11 sons with his 2 wives, 10 of them with his second wife!  

28.  Wall of Names, 43, calls her Jeanne COMO; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 88-89.

What happened to her after the Bayou des Écores census of 1793?  

29.  Wall of Names, 14, calls him Joseph COMEAU; BRDR, 2:198, 418 (SJA-1, 48), the record of his first marriage, calls him Joseph COUMEAU "of Acadia," calls his wife Anne LANDRY "of Acadia," gives his & her parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Herman BREAU, Joseph LANDRY, & Maturin BENOIT; BRDR, 2:97, 198 (ASM-2, 38), the record of his second marriage, calls him Joseph COMMAU, "widower of Ana LANDRY," calls his wife Maria BLANCHARD, "widow of Mathurino TRAHAN," gives his & her parents' names, says all parents were Acadians, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Lorenzo BLANCHARD, Luis BLANCHARD, Éllie BLANCHARD, & Pierre BLANCHARD; BRDR, 3:220 (ASM-3, 124), his death/burial record, calls him Josef COMEAUX, "age 64 years, married to Maria BLANCHARD," but does not give his parents' names.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 435; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 24, 108, 113.

His birth year is calculated from the age given in the Spanish report of Feb 1768, which agrees with the Valenzuéla census of 1788 but not the St.-Gabriel census of 1777. 

Did he go from the river to upper Bayou Lafourche before the Acadians from France got there in late 1785?  If so, he would have been the first COMEAUX to settle on Bayou Lafourche. 

Through his daughter Rosalie COMEAUX, wife of Jean George MALBROUGH, Joseph is a paternal ancestor of alligator hunter Troy Landry of The History Channel's popular series, "Swamp People."  Joseph's wife Anne-Isabelle, in fact, was a sister of Troy's paternal ancestor Pierre-Alexis LANDRY. 

30.  Wall of Names, 15 (pl. 2R), calls him Joseph COMEAU, & lists him with son Charles & no wife; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2463, the LA section, calls him Joseph COMEAUX, does not give an estimated birth year or his parents' names, says he married Marie BABIN[sic] in 1768 but gives no place of marriage, says he lived at St.-Jacques, "sur le Mississipi," & lists his children as Louis, born in 1773, but gives no birthplace; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 171, & Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 424, the record of his second marriage, calls him Joseph COMMEAUX, calls his wife Marie BABIN (in Bourgeois) & Marie BABINOS (in Voorhies, J.), but does not mention his widower status or give a witness to his marriage. 

Arsenault, cited above, is little help in identifying this mysterious Acadian immigrant (for instance, Arsenault does not mention Joseph's older son Charles, with whom he came to LA, only Joseph's second son by his second wife).  Who were Joseph's parents?  When, & where, was he born?  We likely will have to wait for the second installment of Stephen A. White's DGFA to find out.  Joseph's first wife's name is from son Charles's marriage record, dated 12 Jan 1773, in BRDR, 2:518 (SJA-1, 44), which calls the groom's parents Joseph [COMO] & Anne BOURGUES, probably BOURGEOIS.  When did he & his son come to LA?  Did they come directly from St.-Domingue like his second wife did?  Or did they come from Halifax via Cap-Français, Haiti, in 1765, or even from MD via Cap-Français in 1766?  Since neither Joseph nor Charles appear in the Cabanocé census of Apr 1766, my guess would be they came to LA directly from St.-Domingue in Sep 1766, Jul 1767, or even Feb 1768 with a contingent of MD exiles who transshipped at Cap-Français.  Or they may have booked passage from Cap-Français to New Orleans on their own.  If he did settle in St.-Domingue before going to LA, chances are good he may have known his future second wife there. 

Joseph does not appear in the St.-Jacques censuses of 1777 & 1779, so he probably died by then.  See De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, index; De Ville, Acadian Coast, 1779, index. 

31.  Wall of Names, 43, calls him Joseph COMO. See also Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 88-89; Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana. 

What happened to him in LA?  Did he survive the crossing from France?  His widowed mother had only "one middle male child" in her household in the New Feliciana census of 1793--probably brother Élie--so Joseph, as well as younger brother Simon, probably had died by then. 

32.  Wall of Names, 45, calls him Joseph-Marie COMO; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 210-12, Family No. 261, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Joseph-Marie COMMAUX, gives his parents' names, says his godparents were Joseph COMMAUX, "his cousin," & Marie-Madeleine COMMAUX, "his sister"; BRDR, 4:133, 266 (ASM-7, 98), his marriage record, calls him Joseph CAUMAU (COMAUX), calls his wife Célesie HÉBER, gives his & her parents' names, says his parents were "both decd. of San Malo, France," & that the witnesses to his marriage were Augusto CAMPAU, Alexandre COMAU, & Louis GUILLOT; BRDR, 7:131 (ASM-10, 106), his death/burial record, calls him Joseph COMMAUX, "age 66 years," but does not give his parents' names or mention a wife.  See also Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana. 

His was his parents' 11th & youngest child.  His father was from Rivière-aux-Canards in the Minas Basin, his mother probably from Minas as well.  Before they married, they had been exiled to VA in 1755 & deported to England in 1756.  They married in England in c1763, just before being repatriated to St.-Malo, France, aboard La Dorothée that May.  They lived at Plouër, near St.-Malo, from 1763-65, & at St.-Servan-sur-Mer from 1766.  Judging by the birth dates & places of their children, they were not among the St.-Malo area Acadians who went to Poitou in the early 1770s & then retreated to Nantes a few years later.  Joseph-Marie's birth shows that they were still at St.-Servan when the Spanish offered to transport the Acadians in France to LA in the early 1780s. 

Why did Joseph-Marie wait so long to marry?  His mother died in the late 1780s or early 1790s, but his father, who never remarried, lived until Jun 1818, when he died at age 77.  Did Joseph Marie defer marriage to take care of his elderly father?  Such filial devotion was common in the Acadian community.  Was he a widower when Joseph-Marie died?  He was one of the last of the Acadian immigrants in LA to join our ancestors. 

33.  Wall of Names, 33 (pl. 8L), calls her Magdelaine COMMEAU, & lists her with her husband & 4 children; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 46-47, Family No. 91, calls her Magdelaine COMMAUX, says she was born c1751 "in the parish of St. Charles-des-Mines in Acadie," which was Grand-Pré, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, including her husband's parents' names, provides the birth/baptismal record of daughter Anne-Rosalie-Marguerite GUÉDRY, baptized 20 Dec 1774, Monthoiron, Vienne, France, goddaughter of Vincent AMIRAULT & Marie LEBLANC, & details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 32-33, calls her Magdelaine COMMEAU, sa [Joseph GUÉDRY's] femme, age 34, on the embarkation list, Magdalena CAUMMEAU, su [Josef GUÉDRY's] muger, on the debarkation list, & Magdelaine COMEAUX, his [Joseph GUÉDRY's] wife, age 34, on the complete listing, says she was in the 8th Family aboard Le Beaumont with her husband & 4 children, & details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, but does not give a place of marriage.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 497; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1779-98, 25, 57, 156.

Her husband died at Atakapas in Feb 1799, so she probably went there with him. 

34.  Wall of Names, 45, calls her Magdelaine COMO; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 210-12, Family No. 261, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marie-Madeleine COMMAUX, gives her parents' names, says her godparents were Simon MAZEROLLE & Madeleine AUCOIN, that her family resided at St.-Servan from 1766-72, & details their voyage to LA in 1785; BRDR, 2:121-22, 199 (PCP-19, 42), the record of her first marriage, calls her Madeleine COMO, calls her husband François BOURG, gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Élie COMO, Simon COMO, & Jean-Baptiste AUCOIN; BRDR, 2:34-35, 199 (ASM-2, 54), the record of her second marriage, calls her Magdalena COMMAUX, "native of St.-Malo, widow of François BOURQUE," calls her husband Francisco AUCOIN, gives her & his parents' names, says all parents were Acadians," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Simon COMMAUX, Grégorio Ambroise HÉBERT, & Pierre LABAT; BRDR, 5(rev.):160 (ASM-3, 254), her death/burial record, calls her Marie Madeleine COMMEAUX, "age 60 yrs., wife of François AUCOIN," but does not give her parents' names.  

Her first marriage was recorded at Pointe Coupée because Bayou des Écores never had a church of its own, so priests from Pointe Coupée crossed the river to administer the sacraments to the residents along the bayou.  Her first husband, whose full name was François-Marie, also was a native of the suburbs of St.-Malo & had come to LA aboard La Ville d'Archangel; he must have died soon after they were married.  Her second husband, like the first, was a native of the St.-Malo area, had crossed on La Ville d'Archangel, & lived at Bayou des Écores. 

35.  Wall of Names, 14, calls her Marguerite COMEAU; BRDR, 2:199, 467 (ASC-1, 132), her marriage record, calls her Margarita COMO, calls her husband Jean-Baptiste LE BLANC, gives hers but not his parents' names, says her parents were "Acadians, res. in St.-Gabriel at Manchac," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Anselme BELLILE & Maturin LANDRY; BRDR, 3:221 (SGA-8, 83), her death/burial record, calls her Marguerite COMMEAUX, age 60, spouse Jean Baptiste LEBLANC, but does not give her parents' names.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 435; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5.

36.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Margueritte COMMEAU, & lists him with her husband & a son; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 25, Family No. 53, calls her Marguerite COMMAUX, says she was born in c1753 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, says her mother was deceased at the time of the marriage, give her husband's parents' names & says both were deceased at the time of the marriage, includes the birth/baptismal records of son Jean-Baptiste BROUSSARD, baptized 11 May 1774, Monthoiron, godson of Honoré COMMAUX & Bonne-Jacquette-Francois CATEL, & son Joseph BROUSSARD, baptized 21 Nov 1775, Monthoiron, godson of Charles BROUSSARD & Agnés BROUSSARD, & says his family resided in the parish of St.-Martin-de-Chantenay, near Nantes, on 2 Oct 1777; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 66-67, calls her Margueritte COMMEAU, sa [Jean BROUSSARD's] femme, age 32, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, & calls her Marguerite COMEAUX, his [Jean BROUSSARD's] wife, age 32, on the complete listing, says she was in the 2nd Family aboard L'Amitié with her husband & a son, details her marriage, calling her Marguerite COMMAUX, gives her husband's but not her parents' names, & says son Jean-Baptiste [BROUSSARD] was born in 1774 but gives no birthplace; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:199 (SM Ch.: v.4, #53), her death/burial record, calls her Marguerite COMEAUX of Acadia m. Jean BROUSSARD, but does not give her parents' names.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth Century Louisianians, 495.

Monthoiron is in the Poitou region of France, near Châtellerault, so she & her family evidently were part of the Leigne-les-bois settlement in that  region in the early 1770s.  

What happened to son Joseph & daughter Florence-Adélaïde BROUSSARD, who would have been 10 & 8, respectively, in 1785?  They did not go to LA with the rest of the family, so they must have died in France.  Note that neither of them was in the Spanish census of Acadians in France, taken in Sep 1784, so they must have died before then.  

It would have been unusual for a BROUSSARD not to go to the Atakapas District, where so many of his kinfolks lived.  Note that she died in the Atakapas District 6 years after they reached the colony, evidence that they went there from New Orleans.  

37.  Wall of Names, 40, calls her Margueritte COMMEAU; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 83, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marguerite-Anastasie COMEAUX, & gives her parents' but not her godparents' names; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73; BRDR, 2:199, 466 (ASM-2, 8), her marriage record, calls her Margarita-Anastasia COMAUX, calls her husband Glodio-Maria LE BLANC, gives her & his parents' names, says her parents were "of Cherbourg Trinity Parish in France," his were "of Morlais in Britany," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Joseph LEBLANC & Pedro LANDRY; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 2:108 (Thib.Ch.: v.1, #245), her death/burial record, calls her Marguerite Anastasie COMEAUX m. Claude M. LEBLANC, says she died on 12 Dec 1845, "at age 72 yrs.," but does not give her parents' names or say if she was a widow; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 2:108 (Thib.Ct.Hse.: Succ.: Year 1846), her probate sale record, calls her Marguerite Anastasie COMEAUX m. Claude LEBLANC, says she died on 11 Dec 1845, & lists her children.  See also Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 33, 165.

Her husband's succession was filed at the Thibodauxville courthouse in Feb 1816, so she probably did not remarry & was still a widow when she died.

38.  Wall of Names, 15, calls her Marianne COMEAU; BRDR, 2:196, 247 (SGA-4a, 5), her marriage record, calls her Anne COMO, calls her husband Jean-Baptiste DOUSSÉ, gives her & his parents' names, says his parents were Acadians, & that the witnesses to her marriage were François HEBERT & Jean-Charles COMO [her brother]; BRDR, 2:196 (SGA-8, 9, #39), her death/burial record, calls her Anna COMEAUX, "age 43 years of Canada, spouse of Juan Baraiza DUCET," but does not give her parents' names.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies., J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 433. 

39.  Not in Wall of Names.  Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 325-26, Family No. 395, calls her Marguerite COMMAUX, does not give her parents' names, says she was born in c1735 but gives no birthplace, says she married Jacques FOREST in c1759 but gives no place of marriage ... , says she, her husband, & son Benjamin FOREST "disembarked at St.-Malo from England on May 23, 1763 from the ship, La Dorothée, & that they resided at St.-Servan ...; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 90-91, calls her Marie COMO, sa [Jacques FORET's] femme, age 50, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation, calls her Marie COMEAUX, his [Jacques FOREST's] wife, age 50, on the complete listing, details their marriage, calling her Marguerite COMMAUX, says they married in c1760 but gives no place of marriage, & that son Pierre [FOREST] was born in 1769 but gives no birthplace.  

Her middle name, preceded by Marguerite, is from various church records pertaining to her son Pierre FORET in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A & 1-C.  

Despite the confusion in given names, why is this thoroughly documented Acadian immigrant not listed with her family in Wall of Names, 43?  She is on the embarkation list for La Ville d'Archangel but not on the debarkation list; however, only heads of families were on that ship's debarkation list, so this source is no help in answering the question--did she survive the crossing from France?  If she did go to Bayou des Écores, did she die there?  If not, did she & her husband go with their son to the Opelousas District? 

40.  Wall of Names, 45, calls her Marie COMO; BRDR, 3:221 (ASM-3, 84), her death/burial record, calls her Maria COMMEAUX, age 50 yrs., bt. at Pluart [Plouër], diocese of San Malo, France, & gives her parent's names but says nothing about her being anyone's wife or a widow.

Why did she never marry?  Did she remained unmarried to take care of her widowed father, who never remarried & who outlived her by 5 years?  Such devotion was not unheard of among Acadians. 

41.  Wall of Names, 43, calls her Marie COMO; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 88-89.  See also Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana. 

What happened to her after the Bayou des Écores census of 1793? 

42.  Wall of Names, 40, calls her Marie-Anne-Victoire COMMEAU; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73; BRDR, 2:200, 621 (ASC-2, 13), her marriage record, calls her Marie COMO, calls her husband Basile RICHARD, does not give any parents' names but says all of them "were Acadians," & that the witnesses to her marriage were Jean BOURQUE, Jan CHEZ, & Louis ____; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:158 (Thib. Ch.: v. 1, p. 12), her death record, calls her Marie [COMEAUX] m. Basile RICHARD, but does not give her parents' names; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:158 (Thib.Ct.Hse.: Succ.: year-1824), petition for succession inventory in her name, calls her Marie [COMEAUX] m. Basile RICHARD, gives her death date but not her parents' names, & lists their children, including their spouses. 

43.   Wall of Names, 37 (pl. 9R), calls him Mathurin COMMAU, & lists him singly; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 212-13, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Mathurin COMMAUX, does not give his specific birthplace in England, gives his parents' names, does not give his godparents' names, says his mother remarried to Olivier TÉRRIOT, says he & his widowed mother "disembarked at St. Malo from England on May 23, 1763 from the ship, La Dorothée, & that, until his mother remarried, he & she resided at Plouër in 1763 & at St.-Servan from 1764-65; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 54-55, calls him Mathurin COMMAU, marin, age 25, on the embarkation list, & Mathurin COMEAUX, sailor, age 25, on the complete listing, & says he was in the 51st "Family" aboard Le St.-Rémi with no one else; NOAR, 4:63, 113 (SLC, M5, 41), his marriage record, calls him Maturino COMO, "native of Bristol in England," calls his wife Sofia ÉBER, "native of St.-Malo," gives his & her parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Josef MARTINEZ & Vicente LLORCA.  See also Robicahux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 79.

Where were his children in 1795? 

44.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Michel COMEAU.  Quote is from his burial record in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:189.  See also Brasseaux, ed., Quest for the Promised Land, 114-15.

45.  Wall of Names, 47, calls her Monique COMMEAU.

46.  Wall of Names, 14, calls him Pierre COMEAU; BRDR, 2:144, 201 (SGA-5, 31), his marriage record, calls him Pierre COMO, calls his wife Claire BRAUX, gives his & her parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Étienne COMO [his brother], Joseph-Marie BRAUX [her brother], & Simon BABIN.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 435; De Ville, St. Gabriel Census, 1777, 5. 

His estimated birth year is from the age given in the Spanish report of Feb 1768, which does not agree with the St.-Gabriel census of 1777.  Where is his burial record?

His wife also had come to LA from MD in 1768.  She was, in fact, a niece of the BREAU brothers who stood up to Spanish Gov. Antonio ULLOA in 1768. 

47.  Wall of Names, 45, calls him Pierre COMO; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 210-12, Family No. 261, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Pierre-Paul COMMAUX, gives his parents' names, & says his godparents were Hely COMMAUX & Marie TERRIOT.  See also Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana. 

See the footnote to his brother Joseph-Marie's profile, above, for details of his family's movements from Minas to France.  Pierre-Paul's was his parents' eighth child of 11. 

I have not found his marriage record, but his marriage to Clémence SIMONEAUX can, by process of elimination, be inferred from church records in BRDR, vols. 3 & 4.  See, for example, the baptismal record of Eustache COMEAUX, dated 19 Feb 1808, in BRDR, 3:219 (ASM-6, 117), which calls the boy's parents Pierre [COMMEAUX] & Clémence SIMONEAU & was witnessed by Simon COMMEAUX, probably the paternal grandfather, & Marie COMMEAUX, probably Pierre Paul's spinster sister Marie Luce; the baptism record of Rosalia Felina COMEAUX, dated 6 May 1810, in BRDR, 3:222 (ASM-6, 176), which calls the parents Pedro [COMMEAUX] & Clemencia SIMONAUX; the baptismal record of Simon Rosemundo COMEAUX, dated 27 May 1813, in BRDR, 3:222 (ASM-6, 292), which calls the parents Pedro [COMMEAUX] & Clemencia SIMONAUX; the baptismal and burial records of Alexandro Jacinto COMEAUX, dated Jun 1814 & Aug 1815, in BRDR, 3:217 (ASM-3, 102 & ASM-6, 323), which call the parents Pedro [COMMEAUX] & Clemencia SIMONAUX; the baptismal record of Maria Eurasia COMEAUX, dated 7 Jan 1816, in BRDR, 3:221 (ASM-8, 12), which calls the parents Pedro [COMMEAUX] & Clemencia SIMONAUX; & the baptismal record of Louis Ulisse COMEAUX, dated 31 Mar 1821, in BRDR, 4:134 (ASM-8, 192), which calls the parents Pierre [COMMEAUX], "decd.," & Clémence SIMONEAUX.  Unfortunately, none of these baptismal records gives the children's grandparents' names, but the inference is still a solid one.  A clue to Pierre Paul's wife's parents' names is a witness in daughter Marie Eurasie's baptismal record--Alexandro SIMONAUX, the baby's "uncle."  Alexandre SIMONEAUX's parents were René dit Simon SIMONEAUX & Isabelle-Luce DAIGLE, who had a daughter named ... Marie-Clémence, baptized at Ascension, age unrecorded, in Nov 1788.  See BRDR, 2:675(ASC-5, 20).  Pierre & his wife also appear in their children's marriage records in BRDR, vols. 5 & 7; & Hébert, D., South LA Records, vol. 2.  None of these records call him Pierre Paul, only Pierre.  His oldest son Eustache was the first COMEAUX to move down bayou from Assumption into Terrebonne Parish. 

The notation "decd." in son Louis Ulysse's baptismal record hints that Pierre Paul died between the boy's birth in Mar 1818 & baptism in Mar 1821.  In c1820, Pierre Paul would have been in his early to mid-40s. 

48.  Wall of Names, 40, calls her Rose COMMEAU; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73; BRDR, 2:201, 349 (ASM-2, 40), her marriage record, calls her Rosa COMMAUX "of Nantes, France," calls her husband Simon GUILLOT "of St.-Malo & widower of Anastasia-Céleste-Maria DUGAT," gives her but not his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Juan GUILLOT & Paul-Dominique BOUDRAUX.

49.  Wall of Names, 45, calls him Simon COMO.

50.  Wall of Names, 43, calls him Simon COMO.  See also Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 88-89; Tate & De Ville, Baton Rouge & New Feliciana.

What happened to him in LA?  Did he survive the crossing from France?  His widowed mother had only "one middle male child" in her household in the New Feliciana census of 1793--probably brother Élie--so Simon, as well as older brother Joseph, probably had died by then. 

51.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Thomas COMEAU.  See also Arceneaux, D. J., Attakapas Post in 1769, 18. 

What happened to him in LA after his teenage years?

52.  Wall of Names, 15, calls him Victor COMEAU.  See also <thecajuns.com/cardmoney.htm>.

His son Jean was born at Cap-Français, Haiti, probably when the BROUSSARD party changed ships there on their long journey from Halifax to New Orleans in late 1764-early 1765.  There is the possibility, of course, that Victor & Anne had already been in Haiti when the BROUSSARD party came thru.  That is unlikely, however, because the Acadians who went to Haiti in the early 1760s were from the British seaboard colonies of New England, NY, PA, MD, SC, & GA, not from the prison compounds in Nova Scotia. 

Victor's appearance on the card money exchange list places him in the BROUSSARD party, not in the party from Halifax that arrived a month or so later & went to the Opelousas District.  Why did his brother Charles go to Opelousas with cousin Michel & not follow Victor upper Bayou Teche?  These questions also should be asked:  Why were Victor & younger brother Charles in different parties out of Halifax?  Was Charles's marriage to a SAVOIE a reason for his being in a different party & going to Opelousas instead of Attakapas? 

53.  Not in Wall of Names because of the circumstance of his birth.  NOAR, 2:59 (SLC, B5, 92), his birth/baptismal record, calls him Louis COMAND, gives his parents names, & says his godparents were ____ [Louis]  PELLERIN, "officer on half-pay, commandant at Opelousas," & Marie-Marthe BELAIR, "his wife."  

Louis's baptism in New Orleans shows that the Acadians who went to the Opelousas District had reached the city by mid-May 1765.  The BROUSSARD dit Beausoleil party, which went to Attakapas, arrived in early Feb & left for Bayou Teche by late Apr.  

Why was he not listed in the 1766 census at Opelousas?  What happened to Louis in LA? 

54.  Not in Wall of Names.  See BRDR, 2:197 (ASC-5, 5), her birth/baptismal record, calls her Clara-Adeleida COMEAUX, gives her parents' names, & says her godparents were Nicolas VERRET [commandant at Ascension] & Ana COMO [probably her teenage sister Anne-Eléonore]; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 4:184 (Thib.Ch.: v.2, p.233, #27), her death/burial record, calls her Clarisse Adélaïde COMEAUX m. François CHIASSON, says she died "at age 83 yrs.," but does not give her parents' names. 

She is not on the embarkation list of L'Amitié because of the circumstance of her birth, & the ship's debarkation list includes only heads of family & the implements the Spanish gave them.  See Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 72-73.   Her family's ship reached New Orleans in early Nov 1785.  They already had named her, so she is not one of the 1785 infants named after LA Intendant Martin NAVARRO.  They could have baptized her at New Orleans, but they waited until they reached Ascension, & not till early spring, so it's no wonder that the Acadian Memorial's researchers "missed" her.  Sadly, she is not on the Memorial's Wall of Names with the rest of her family. 

I have not found her marriage record, but evidence of the union can be found in her burial record & in the baptismal & marriage records of her CHIASSON children in Hébert, D., South LA Records, vol. 1.  Was she a widow when she died?  I have not found the burial record for her husband, & her burial record does not say. 

She was one of the last Acadian immigrants in LA to join our ancestors. 

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