APPENDICES

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

RASSICOT

[RASS-ih-coh]

ACADIA

René, son of Jean Racicot or Rassicot and Marguerite Crosnier of St.-Jean-Ursin, bishopric of Coutances, France, born in c1705, reached Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in the late 1720s.  In October 1729, René married Marie, daughter of Michel Haché dit Gallant and Anne Cormier of Chignecto and widow of François Poirier, at Port-La-Joye on the island.  He and Marie had at least six children, all born on the island:  Jean-Baptiste dit Ratier, in c1730; Louise-Geneviève in c1731; René, fils in October 1733; Dominique in c1735; Henri in c1737; and Louis in c1739.  They also had a daughter named Marie, birth date unrecorded.  Wife Marie died on Île St.-Jean in September 1749, age 55.  In August 1752, a French official noted that René also was deceased and that his brother-in-law, Charles Haché, living on upper Rivière-du-Nord-Est in the interior of the island, was providing for the Rassicot children, "minor and major."  At least two of René's sons created families of their own:

Jean-Baptiste dit Ratier, age 23, married Marie-Henriette, daughter of Louis Pothier and Cécile Nuirat, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, Île St.-Jean, in January 1754.  Jean-Baptiste became a sailor. 

René, fils, age 24, married Marie, daughter of Charles Benoit and Marie-Madeleine Thériot of Pigiguit, at Port-La-Joye in October 1757. 

[See also Book Four]

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

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

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Henriette Pothier, age 46, widow of Jean-Baptiste dit Ratier Rassicot, and three of her children--Jean-François, age 20; Anne-Marguerite, age 17; and Marie-Henriette, age 15--sailed to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in November.  They followed their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche, where Marie-Henriette Pothier died in January 1787.  

Older daughter Anne-Marguerite married Tranquille-François, son of fellow Acadians Pierre Arcement and Marie Hébert, at St.-Jacques on the river, in July 1788.  They settled on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Anne Marguerite died in Lafourche Interior Parish in July 1834, in her mid-60s. 

Younger daughter Marie-Henriette married twice, first to French Creole Pierre Lecompte at Lafourche in July 1791.  A few years later, she was a young widow and caught the eye of one of the most influential men in the colony.  Louis Judice, born at New Orleans in October1731, had married Marie-Jeanne, daughter of Jacques Cantrelle, founder of the Cabanocé/St.-Jacques settlement.  By 1765, Louis Judice and his family were living on a large holding at Cabanocé granted to him by the French authorities in New Orleans.  After the Spanish took over the colony in March 1766, Louis became co-commandant of the Cabanocé district with his brother-in-law, Nicolas Verret.  In 1769, Spanish General Alejandro O'Reilly appointed Louis as commandant of the Lafourche des Chitimachas District, which the Acadians called Ascension.  Louis and Marie-Jeanne Cantrelle had a number of children, including Michel, born in c1759, who became a lieutenant of militia and another shaker and mover in the colony; he also commanded at Ascension.  By the 1790s, the aging Louis was a widower, but he was determined to take another wife.  In June 1795, 64-year-old Louis Judice, captain of the German Coast militia and commandant of the Ascension District, married 25-year-old Marie-Henriette Rassicot, the widow Lecompte, at Ascension.  Marie-Henriette died a widow in Ascension Parish in February 1826, age 56. 

Marie-Henriette Pothier's son Jean-François was the only Acadian male Rassicot to make it to Louisiana.  He also settled on upper Bayou Lafourche. 

Descendants of Jean-François RASSICOT (1765-c1797; René)

Jean-François, called François, son of Jean-Baptiste dit Ratier Rassicot and Marie-Henriette Pothier of Île St.-Jean, born at Cherbourg, France, in June 1765, followed his family to the St.-Malo area, back to Cherbourg, and then to the interior of Poitou in the early 1770s.  He came to Louisiana with his widowed mother and two sisters aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships, in 1785, which reached New Orleans in early November.  François followed them to upper Bayou Lafourche, where he married Marie-Madeleine, daughter of fellow Acadians Antoine Boudreaux and Brigitte Apart, in January 1787.  A native of Trigavou, near St.-Malo, Marie-Madeleine also had crossed to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, so she and François may have met aboard ship.  She died within days of their wedding, so she gave him no children.  François remarried to Marie-Josèphe, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre Robichaux and his second wife Anne Hébert, at Lafourche in June 1788.  Marie-Josèphe was a native of St.-Suliac, near St.-Malo, and had crossed to Louisiana aboard Le St.-Rémi, the fourth of the Seven Ships.  She and François settled on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Their daughters married into the Bergeron, Bertrand, Gaubert, Guillon or Guillou, Richard, and Robichaux families and remained on Bayou Lafourche.  François died at Assumption in c1797, age 32.  He fathered no sons. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

A Foreign Frenchman with a similar name married an Acadian and settled on Bayou Lafourche after the War of 1861-65: 

Joseph Rossicot, probably no kin to the Acadian Rassicots of the Bayou Lafourche valley, married Acadian Camilla Guidry and settled near Lockport, Lafourche Parish, where a daughter was baptized in November 1867. 

CONCLUSION

Jean-François Rassicot, the only male member of his family to emigrate to Louisiana, fathered no sons.  As a result, the Acadian branch of the family did not take root in the Bayou State.  Its blood, however, did survive in a number of South Louisiana families. 

The family's name also is spelled Raciacaud, Racico, Racicot, Racio, Raciquo, Rascicaux, Rasicau, Rasicaud, Rasique, Rassecaut, Rassicau, Rassicault, Rassicaux, Raucot, Razicot, Rosiaot, Rosicau, Rosico, Rossico, Rossicot.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2136; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4; De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:94, source of quotation; Hébert, Acadians in Exile, 326, 375; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Tamerlan.htm>, Family No. 2; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 463, 687-89; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 49, 187; White, DGFA-1, 791; Appendix.  

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, 42, calls her Anne-Margueritte RASICAUD; Robichaux, Acadian in St.-Malo, 687-88, Family No. 801; BRDR, 2:32, 616 (SJA-2, 5), her marriage record, calls her Ana RASICO, calls her husband Tranquil ARSEMAT, gives her & his parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Josef ÉBER & Maria RASICO; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:468 (Thib.Ch.: v.1, #647), her death/burial record, calls her Anne ROSSICOT m. d.Tranquille ARCEMENT, but does not give her parents' names.      

02.  Wall of Names, 42, calls him Jean-François RASICAUD; Robichaux, Acadian in St.-Malo, 687-88, Family No. 801, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Jean-Francois RASSICOT, gives his parents' names, says his godparents were Francois MAZIERER & Véronique RENON, & that he & his family "arrived at St.-Malo from Cherbourg on June 1, 1771 on the ship, La Jeanne from Cherbourg & lived at Plouër in 1771; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 375, his birth/baptismal record, calls him Jean-Franéois ROSICO, calls his father a "mariner," & says his godparents were François MAZIERE & Véronique RENON; BRDR, 2:109, 616 (ASC-2, 6), the record of his first marriage, calls him François ROSICO, calls his wife Anne Magdalina BOUDREAU, does not give any parents' names but says he was "an Acadian," & that the witnesses to his marriage were Michel DUGAS & Étienne BUDRO; BRDR, 2:616, 638 (ASC-2, 14), the record of his second marriage, calls him François RACICOT, calls his wife Maria ROBICHEAU, does not give any parents' names or mention his first wife, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Pierre-Olivier PITRE & Jean-Batiste HÉBERT.  

Judging from the notations for him in the Valenzuéla census of 1788, taken in Jan, his first wife must have died soon after their marriage.  Notice how quickly he remarried.  Who were her parents?  Was she an Acadian immigrant, or was she born in LA?  My guess is that she was Marie-Madeleine, not Anne-Madeleine, daughter of Antoine BOUDREAUX & Brigitte APART/PART, who came to LA with her widowed mother & siblings aboard L'Amitié also & had a younger brother named Étienne.  An odd burial record for "widow" RASSICOT, dated 25 Jan 1787 at Ascension, is probably her.  If it is, she died only 2 days after their wedding!  See BRDR, 2:616 (ASC-1, 201b).  Needless to say, she gave him no children.  All of his daughters were from his second wife. 

He was only in his early 30s when he died.  His wife remarried to fellow Acadian Jean-Baptiste DE LA MAZIÈRE, who also died in his 30s.  See Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:445 (Thib.Ct.Hse.: Succ.: 1813), a succession auction for Jean François's widow Marie ROBICHAUX after her remarriage. 

03.  Wall of Names, 42, calls her Marie-Henriette RASICAUD; Robichaux, Acadian in St.-Malo, 687-88, Family No. 801; BRDR, 2:488, 616 (ASC-2, 40), the record of her first marriage, calls her Maria Henrietta RASSICOT, calls her husband Pedro LECOMPTE, does not give any parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were François RACICOT [her brother] & Amant HÉBERT; BRDR, 2:395, 616 (ASC-2, 64), the record of her second marriage, calls her Maria Ennrica RASCICAUX (RASSICOT), "recent widow of Pierre LECOMPTE," calls her husband Luis JUDICE, "widower of Maria Juana CANTRELL & Captain of German Coast Militia, Commandant of this District," gives her but not his parents' names, & says the witnesses to their marriage were Pedro SABAT & Pedro LANDRY; BRDR, 4:468 (ASC-4, 183), her death/burial record, calls her Marie RASSICOT, "age 56 yrs., wid. of Louis JUDICE," but does not give her parents' names. 

Her husband's parents' names can be found in daughter Marguerite JUDICE's baptismal record, dated 7 May 1799, in NOAR, 6:157 (SLC, B14, 88).  Her husband was the Louis JUDICE, full name Louis-Jacques, who commanded the Ascension District from 1769 & was old enough to be Marie-Henriette's grandfather, having been born at New Orleans in Oct 1731--nearly 40 years her senior.  See his baptismal record, dated 21 Oct 1731, in NOAR, 1:138 (SLC, B1, 13), which says that his father was "resident upstream of the river."   Louis's father Jacques, a native of Thianeour, Diocese of Besançon, France, son of Barthélémy JUDIS & Jeanne LEMAIRE, had married his mother at New Orleans in Apr 1730.  She was a native of Theree, Diocese of La Rochelle, France, & was the widow of Antoine GABINION, "surnamed FRAPPE," who had been killed in the Natchez massacre of 1729.  She probably was one of the few survivors of the massacre, along with her son Louis's future father-in-law, Jacques CANTRELLE.  Louis died at Ascension in Jun 1806, age 74.  See the burial record of Louis JUDICE, dated 20 Jun 1806, in BRDR, 3:456 (ASC-4, 65); it does not give his parents' names or mention a wife, but this probably is him. 

Not bad for an Acadian girl!  She evidently did not remarry. 

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