APPENDICES

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

DUREL

[doo-REL]

ACADIA

Charles Lacroix dit Durel, born in c1705, son of Pierre Lacroix and Jeanne Deville of St.-Denis-Le-Gast, Coutances, France, came to greater Acadia by September 1730, when he married Judith, daughter of Acadians Gabriel dit Pierre Chiasson and Marie Savoie of Chignecto, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island.  Judith gave him a son and five daughters, all born on the island:  twins Marie-Élisabeth and Marguerite, born in September 1731; Anne-Marie or Marie-Anne in January 1734; Marie-Judith, called Judith, in August 1736; Charles, fils in February 1739; and Charlotte-Anne in November 1741.  At least three of their daughters married.  Anne-Marie married Charles dit Pinel, son of fellow Acadians Noël Pinet and Rose Henry of Minas, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in April 1753.  Marguerite, married Joseph, fils, son of fellow Acadians Joseph Préjean and Marie-Louise Comeau, probably at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in c1758.   Daughter Judith married Jean, son perhaps of fellow Acadians Abraham Daigle and Marie Boudrot, in c1759 perhaps at Cherbourg, France.  Charles's descendants tended to use as their surname their father's dit. 

[See also Book Four]

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

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

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Marguerite Durel, her husband, Joseph Préjean, and two of their children--Victoire, age 4, and Jean-Baptiste, fils, in utero--were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  They came to the colony with other prisoners from Nova Scotia, reaching New Orleans in 1765 via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue.  They settled at the Acadian community of Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  In the early 1770s, Joseph died, and Marguerite remarried to fellow Acadian Joseph Bourg.  They remained at St.-Jacques.

LOUISIANA: LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Twenty years after Marguerite came to Louisiana, younger sister Anne-Marie Durel, her husband, Charles Pinet dit Pinel, and three of their children--Louis, age 22, Marie-Madeleine, age 14, and Marie-Modeste, age 20, who came with her husband and his family--sailed to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships of 1785, which reached New Orleans in November.  After a brief respite in the city, they followed the majority of the passengers from their ship to upper Bayou Lafourche, not far from St.-Jacques.  

After 27 years of separation, the Lacroix dit Durel sisters of Île St.-Jean were finally reunited.  

CONCLUSION

Since only female members of the Acadian branch of this family came to Louisiana, and since they used their father's dit, not his surname, the Durel families in the Bayou State are not Acadians but French Creoles or Foreign French.  The blood of Charles Lacroix dit Durel has survived, however, in the Prejean, Pinet, and Daigle families. 

The family's name also is spelled Dourel, Durell.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2119-20; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:127; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 93-94, 131-32; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 82; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 78-79; White, DGFA-1, 351, 1075.

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, 24 (pl. 5R), calls her Marguerite DUREL, & lists her with her first husband & 2 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2120, her father's profile in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Marguerite [LACROIX dit DUREL], says she was born in 1730 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, & lists her siblings, including sister Anne-Marie, born in 1734; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 132, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Marguerite DUREL, gives her parents' names, says her godparents were Michel DU JAUT & Marguerite CHIESSON, & shows that she was twin of sister Marie-Élisabeth; BRDR, 3:309 (SJA-4, 46a), her death/burial record, calls her Marguerite DURELLE, "about 82 yrs., native of Acadia, wife of Joseph BOURGH, but does not give her parents' names.  See also Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 164, 174; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:127; De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 19; De Ville, Acadian Coast, 1779, 25; Marchand, Old Settlers of Ascension, 17; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 1.

Who knows why the census takers at St.-Jacques & Ascension mixed up her name & her ages so thoroughly.  Note that the age given in her burial record is also way off.  She actually was age 87 at the time of her death. 

For evidence of her marriage to Joseph BOURG, see her burial record; Marchand, cited above, which gives the date but no parents' names; the baptismal record of daughter Céleste BOURG, dated 28 Dec 1782, in BRDR, 2:120-21 (SJA-1, 64); & the baptismal & marriage records of daughter Pélagie BOURG, dated 16 Jan 1774 & 17 Nov 1801, in BRDR, 2:128 (SJA-1, 21a; SJA-2, 56), which call the mother Marguerite DUREL & Margarita DURELL.  Note that Pélagie's godmother was Victoire PREGAN [PRÉJEAN], Marguerite's daughter by her first husband.  For speculation on which Joseph BOURG of St.-Jacques was Marguerite DUREL's second husband, follow this link. 

02.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Anne DUREL, & lists her with her husband & 2 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2120, her father's profile in the Île St.-Jean section, calls her Anne-Marie [LACROIX dit DUREL], says she was born in c1734 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, & lists her siblings, including sister Marguerite; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 313, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Anne-Marie DUREL, gives her parents' names, & says she was the goddaughter of Miquel DE LOYAL & Anne POITIER, epouse de CHAINAY [CHENET?]; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 82, Family No. 161, calls her Anne DUVAL, says she was born in c1735 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, calls her father Charles DUVAL & says he was deceased at the time of her marriage, details her marriage, calls her husband Charles PINET, says he was born in c1732 but gives no birthplace, gives his parents' names, & includes the baptismal record of son Marti-Charles PINET, baptized 1 Feb 1775, La Chapelle-Roux; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 70-71, calls her Anne DUREL, sa [Charles PINEL's] femme, age 50, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Anne DUREL, his [Charles PINET's] wife, age 50, on the complete listing, says she was in the 21st Family aboard L'Amitié with her husband & 2 children, &, calling her Anne DUVAL, details her marriage, including her & her husband's parents' names, & says they were married in 1753 but gives no place of marriage.  See also De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:127; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 31, 55, 84, 161; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 509.

Her estimated birth year based on the passenger list of L'Amitié is close to the age of the Anne-Marie LACROIX dit DUREL, born to Charles LACROIX dit DUREL & Judith CHIASSON in Jan 1734, found in Arsenault, 2120, & Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, cited above, which would make her Marguerite's older sister.  Her first name comes not only from Arsenault but also from her daughter Marie-Madeleine PINEL's marriage record, dated 6 Jan 1789, in BRDR, 2:591 (ASC-2, 15), which calls her Marion DURELL, & the Ascension census of 1791, which calls her Marie PINET.  So why does Robichaux, in his study of the Acadians in Poitou, a generally sterling source, call her Anne DUVAL, daughter of Charles DUVAL & Judith CHIASSON?  Was her father a DUREL or a DUVAL?  I am reluctant to place information from Arsenault over that from Robichaux, but she is called DUREL, not DUVAL, in the marriage record previously cited, on the embarkation list of L'Amitié, & in several LA censuses, so DUREL it is.  

The ages given for her in the LA censuses in which she is found seem to be those of another person, but this was no doubt the widow of Charles PINET dit PINEL.   

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Copyright (c) 2007-21  Steven A. Cormier