APPENDICES

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

ROGER/CAISSIE

[row-JHAY, KAY-see]

ACADIA

Roger dit Jean Caissie, also called Caissy, Kuessy, Quessi, or Quessy, born in Ireland in c1648, came to Acadia during the English occupation of 1654-70 probably as a soldier.  After his term of service ended, he married Marie-Françoise, daughter of Jean Poirier and Jeanne Chebrat, at Port-Royal in c1668 and took up farming.  In the late 1670s or early 1680s, Roger dit Jean and Marie-Françoise were among the early settlers at Chignecto.  They followed Marie-Françoise's brother Michel there and settled at Butte-à-Roger on Rivière Missaguash above Pointe-de-Beauséjour.  According to one historian of the Acadian experience, Roger may have introduced fruit trees to the Chignecto settlement.  He and Marie-Françoise had seven children, including four sons who created families of their own.  Two of Roger dit Jean Marie-Françoise's daughters married into the Doucet and Deveau families. 

Oldest son Jean, born at Port-Royal in c1676, married first to Anne, daughter of Charles Bourgeois and Anne Dugas, probably at Chignecto in c1695.  They had three children, including a son who married a Bourgeois cousin.  Their two daughters married into the Mangeant dit Saint-Germain, Boudrot, and Hébert families.  Jean remarried to Cécile, daughter of Étienne Hébert, fils and Jeanne Comeau, probably at Chignecto in c1706.  Cécile gave Jean 14 more children, including three sons who married into the Olivier, Henry, Cyr, Haché, and Cadieux families.  Jean and Cécile's 10 daughters married into the Grossin, Hébert, L'Enfant, Bouchard, Hilairet, Delaune, Le Prieur dit Dubois, Habel dit Duvivier, Le Monnier, Clémeançeau, Tandau, Pothier, Butteau, and Léger dit Sansrémission families.  Some of his daughters and at least one of his sons moved to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, as early as the 1730s.  Jean died probably at Chignecto in the late 1740s, in his early 70s. 

Pierre, born either at Port-Royal or Chignecto in c1678, married Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Emmanuel Mirande and Marguerite Bourgeois, probably at Chignecto in c1704.  They had eight children, including three sons who married into the Poirier, Comeau, Gaudet, Doucet, and LeBlanc families.  Pierre and Marie-Thérèse's five daughters married into the Deveau, Carret, Mouton, and Cosset families.  Pierre died at Chignecto in February 1741, age 62.

Guillaume, born either at Port-Royal or Chignecto in c1680, married Jeanne, daughter of François Pellerin and Andrée Martin, probably at Chignecto in c1703.  They had three children, all daughters, two of whom married into the Malboeuf and Thibault families, one of them in Canada. 

Youngest son Michel dit Roger, born at Chignecto in July 1684, married Madeleine, daughter of Pierre Gaudet l'aîné and Anne Blanchard, probably at Chignecto in c1706.  They had seven children, including two sons who married into the Lapierre and Chiasson families.  Four of Michel dit Roger and Madeleine's daughters married into the Brun, Lapierre, and Poirier families.  In 1714, after the British took control of Acadia, Michel received permission from French authorities to spend a winter at Miré on Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island, to look at land for possible relocation there.  Evidently Michel returned to Chignecto, where he died in December 1733, age 49, a "bon chrétien," the priest recorded.

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

In 1755, descendants of Roger dit Jean Caissie could be found at the family's base at Chignecto and on Île St.-Jean. 

~

French Rogés or Rogers also settled in greater Acadia as early as 1704, but only one small family line came of it.  And none of their descendants emigrated to Louisiana:

Jean Roger, no kin to Roger Caissie of Chignecto, was working as a mason on the fort at Port-Royal in November 1704 when a notation was made on a French expenditure account saying that Jean received a salary of forty livre per month.  Nothing else is known about him. 

.

Gabriel-Louis, son of Guillaume Roger and Marie Lacour, born at Ste.-Famille, Île d'Orléans, below Québec, in April 1672 and no kin to Irishman Roger Caissie of Chignecto, married Élisabeth, daughter of carpenter André Gautron, at St.-Sauveur, La Rochelle, France, in January 1702.  Gabriel-Louis, addressed as Sr., became a merchant in La Rochelle before returning to North America, where he worked as a merchant at Québec in the 1710s and 1720s.  By the 1730s, he was a fisherman at Port-Toulouse on Île Royale.  He died at Port-La-Joye on Île St.-Jean in January 1741, in his late 60s.  His only child, Marie-Élisabeth, born at St.-Sauveur, La Rochelle, in September 1709, married Jean-François, called François, son of Mathieu Douville and Marie Marquier of St.-Denis-le-Gratz, Normandy, at Havre-St.-Pierre, on the north shore of Île St.-Jean, in c1722.  François had come to Île St.-Jean in 1719 and is considered to be the first European settler on the island.  Marie gave him at least 11 children, all born at Havre-St.-Pierre. 

.

Catherine, daughter of Pierre Roger and Marie Quenet of Serran, Bishopric of Coutance, Normandy, and widow of Jean Goupy, married Jacques, son of laboureur Jean Le Tourneur of St.-Jean Des Champs, Coutance, at Louisbourg, Île Royale, in January 1734.  Jacques was called a maitre de graves in his marriage record.  A French official counted them at Havre de la Baleine, Île Royale, in April 1752.  She was age 75, and he was 70. 

.

Marie-Jeanne, daughter of Mathieu Rogé or Roger and Simonne Servant, married André, son of Mathurin Renaud, at St.-Pierre-du-Nord, Île St.-Jean, in October 1740. 

.

In the 1740s, René Roger, probably a Frenchman, not a descendant of Roger Caissie the Irishman, married Ursule Poitevin on Île St.-Jean.  They had at least two children, sons René, fils, born on the island in c1741; and Pierre in c1743.

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

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

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

A descendant of Roger Caissie was among the earliest Acadians to seek refuge in Louisiana.  Catherine Caissie dit Roger of Chignecto, age 29, husband Jean-Baptiste Bergeron of Rivière St.-Jean, age 35, and six of their children, ages 15 to infancy, came to Louisiana in February 1765 with the Broussard dit Beausoleil party from Halifax via Cap-Français, St.-Domingue.  After a brief respite in New Orleans, they followed the Broussards to the Attakapas District, where they helped establish La Nouvelle-Acadie on the banks of Bayou Teche.  Catherine was pregnant when she reached Louisiana, and daughter Marianne was born on the Teche at the end of May.  The New Acadia was not kind to this family, however.  Jean-Baptiste and two of the children, including newborn Marianne, succumbed to an epidemic that struck the Teche valley Acadians that summer and fall.  Catherine gathered up her surviving children and fled with dozens of other Acadians to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans, where her younger brother Joseph had settled.  

~

Not until the late antebellum period did an Acadian Roger return to the western prairies: 

Descendants of François ROGER, fils (1810-1860s; Roger dit Jean, Michel dit Roger, Pierre, Joseph)

François, fils, son of François Roger and Marguerite LeBlanc, born in Assumption Parish in March 1810, married Mélanie, daughter of perhaps fellow Acadian Anselme Thibodeaux, probably in Lafourche Interior Parish in the early 1840s.  They moved to near Breaux Bridge on upper Bayou Teche by 1850, re-establishing the Acadian Roger presence on the western prairies.  Their daughter married a Thibodeaux cousin.  François died by October 1867, when he was listed as deceased in a daughter's marriage record at Abbeville, Vermilion Parish.  He would have been in his 50s. 

1

Oldest son Louis Marcellus was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in May 1843.  During the War of 1861-65, Louis Marcellus served in Company D of the Orleans Guard Battalion Louisiana Infantry, raised in St. Martin Parish, which fought at Shiloh, Tennessee. In May 1862, after the Orleans Guard Battalion was disbanded, he transferred to Company A of the 30th Regiment/Battalion Louisiana Infantry, which fought in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.  He was promoted to corporal, was captured with his unit at Port Hudson, Louisiana, in July 1863, was paroled, and rejoined his company.  He fought in its many battles and campaigns until he was wounded at Spanish Fort, Alabama, in early April 1865.  When the war ended, he was recuperating from his wound in the Confederate hospital at Lauderdale, Mississippi.  He returned home after the Federals paroled him at Meridian, Mississippi, in May 1865.  After the war, he worked in the mercantile trade in Arnaudville, Breaux Bridge, and Abbeville.  He moved to St. Landry Parish in 1875 and engaged in the mercantile business with younger brother Émile.  Louis married Miss D. S. Hinckley in St. Landry Parish in July 1885.  He died in 1903, age 60, and was buried at St. Peter Catholic Cemetery, Carencro, in Lafayette Parish. 

2

Émile was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in November 1845.  He engaged in the mercantile business with older brother Louis Marcellus after the War of 1861-65. 

3

Youngest son Georges was born in St. Martin Parish in May 1856. 

~

After the War of 1861-65, at least four more Rogers from the Bayou Lafourche valley moved to the New Iberia area on lower Bayou Teche. 

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

Three Caissie dit Roger cousins--Joseph, age 19; Jean, age 10; and another Jean, age 8--also reached Louisiana in 1765 from Halifax via Cap-Français.  They did not follow the Broussards and their sister/cousin Catherine to Bayou Teche, however, but settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where 20 Acadians from Georgia had settled the year before.  Each married at Cabanocé, and two of them moved on to upper Bayou Lafourche.

Descendants of Jean CAISSIE dit ROGER (c1755-c1807; Roger dit Jean, Pierre)

Jean, son of Alexis Caissie dit Roger and his second wife Marie-Josèphe LeBlanc, born probably at Chignecto in c1755, followed his family into exile on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore and then to a prison camp in Nova Scotia in the early 1760s.  Jean came to Louisiana probably from Halifax via St.-Domingue in 1765 as a young orphan and settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river.  He was living on the left, or east, bank of the river at St.-Jacques, still a bachelor and probably an engagé, in 1777.  He married Rosalie, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean-Baptiste Richard and Marie-Catherine Cormier, at St.-Jacques in November 1780.  Their daughter married into the Boudreaux family on upper Bayou Lafourche.  He may have been the same Jean Roger who married--in this case, remarried to--Victoire, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Prejean and Marguerite Durel, at St.-Jacques in the early 1780s (the couple's daughter Marie-Céleste was baptized at St.-Jacques de Cabahannocer in December 1782, age unrecorded).  By the mid- or late 1790s, they had left the river and moved to the Bayou Lafourche valley.

~

Catherine Caissie dit Roger and her husband Jean-Baptiste Bergeron originally settled on Bayou Teche with the Broussard dit Beausoleil party from Halifax.  After Jean-Baptiste and two of their children died in a mysterious epidemic that summer and fall, Catherine retreated with her surviving children to Cabanocé, where Spanish officials counted her on the right, or west, bank of the river in 1766. 

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

In the late 1790s, Spanish officials were counting Acadian Rogers who had come to the colony in 1765 on upper Bayou Lafourche.  During the antebellum period, they and their descendants settled down bayou as far as Terrebonne Parish: 

Descendants of Joseph CAISSIE dit ROGER (c1746-c1818; Roger dit Jean, Pierre)

Joseph, son of Michel Caissie dit Roger and his second wife Rosalie Comeau, born at Chignecto in c1746, followed his family into exile on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore and to a prison camp in Nova Scotia in the early 1760s.  He came to Louisiana from Halifax via St.-Domingue, still a bachelor, in 1765 and settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, where Spanish officials counted him on the right, or west, bank of the river in 1766 and 1769.  He married fellow Acadian Anastasie Dugas, widow of Amable Robichaux, at St.-Jacques or nearby Ascension in c1770.  Spanish officials counted them on the right, or west, bank of the river at Ascension in 1770 and 1777.  They moved to upper Bayou Lafourche probably in the 1790s.  Their daughters married into the Forgeron and Gaudet families.  Joseph, "about 80 yrs. old," of Lafourche Interior Parish, freed a 70-year-old slave named Pierre in one his successions filed at the Thibodauxville courthouse in June 1818.  Most of his descendants settled in Assumption and Lafourche Interior parishes, but a grandson moved to upper Bayou Teche by 1850, followed by a few cousins, who settled lower down the Teche, after the War of 1861-65. 

1

Oldest son Joseph, fils, born probably at Ascension in the early 1770s, married Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Babin and Marie Landry, at St.-Jacques in October 1796.  Their son Joseph III was born at Assumption in December 1799, Louis in October 1801, François le jeune in c1803, Augustin or Auguste in October 1805, and Jean Baptiste in September 1807.  Their daughters married into the Bourg, Labie, and Ledet families.  Joseph, fils's succession inventory was filed at the Thibodauxville courthouse, Lafourche Interior Parish, in May 1820.  He would have been in his late 40s that year.  One of his younger sons settled in Assumption Parish; the others remained in Lafourche Interior. 

1a

Joseph III married Carmelite, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre Alexis Haché and Anne Dantin, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in May 1819.  Their son Joseph Clairville was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in August 1824 but died at age 1 1/2 in April 1826.  Their daughter married into Bourgeois and Crawford families.  Except for its blood, this line of the family probably did not survive. 

1b

Auguste married Modeste, daughter of fellow Acadians Charles Gautreaux and Madeleine Gautreaux, at the Donaldsonville church, Ascension Parish, in May 1824.  Their son Charles Victor, called Victor, was born in Ascension Parish in April 1825, and Joseph le jeune in July 1830 but died in Assumption Parish at age 6 1/2 in May 1837.  Their daughter married into the Thiac family.  Auguste remarried to Marie Eméranthe, called Eméranthe and Caroline, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Bourg and Clarisse Daigle, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in March 1836.  Their son Joseph Augustin, called Augustin, was born near Plattenville in March 1839.  Their daughters married into the Blanchard and Trahan families.  Auguste died in Assumption Parish in September 1839, age 33. 

Victor, by his first wife, married fellow Acadian Judith Bourg. They settled near Paincourtville, Assumption Parish, by the mid-1840s and then near Pierre Part, north of Lake Verret.  Their son Joseph Alcée was born near Pierre Part in July 1862.  Their daughters married into the Gautreaux and Vanne families.

Augustin, by his second wife, married Joséphine, daughter of Auguste Maitrejean and Celina Leonard, at the Pierre Part church, Assumption Parish, in January 1861.  Their son Auguste Dosilva was born near Pierre Part in November 1861.  During the War of 1861-65, Augustin served in Company D of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafourche Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  After the war, Augustin moved to the New Iberia area on lower Bayou Teche.  He was buried in St. John's Catholic Cemetery, Jeanerette. 

1c

François le jeune married Marie Claire, called Claire, daughter of Pierre Menou and his Acadian wife Marie Rose Lejeune, in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in April 1822.  Their son François Bertrand was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in November 1823, and Onésime Alain in November 1825.  François died in Lafourche Interior Parish in December 1827; the Thibodauxville priest who recorded the burial said that François was age 21 when he died.  He was closer to 24. 

2

Georges or Grégoire, born at Ascension in May 1774, died there at age 18 months in July 1775. 

3

Youngest son François, born at Ascension in February 1776, married Adélaïde Marguerite, called Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadians Paul LeBlanc and Anne Boudreaux, at Assumption in January 1802.  Marguerite was a native Chantenay near Nantes, France, and had come to Louisiana in 1785 with her family.  Their son François, fils was born at Assumption in June 1804, Hippolyte in c1805, Louis Onésime, called Onésime, in June 1806, another François, fils in March 1810, and Benjamin Séraphin, called Séraphin, in April 1817.  They also had a son named Joseph Zenon, called Zenon.  Their daughters married into the Breaux, Falgout, and Larose families.  François died in Lafourche Interior Parish in September 1829; the Thibodauxville priest who recorded the burial said that François was age 50 when he died.  He was 53.  One of his sons moved to upper Bayou Teche in the late 1840s, but the others remained on Bayou Lafourche. 

3a

Hippolyte married Marie Geneviève, called Geneviève, 18-year-old daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Foret and his second wife Marie Madeleine Breaux, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in September 1827.  Their son Pierre Valet was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in August 1828, Paul died at age 1 month in June 1831, Joseph Hippolyte was born in August 1835, Pierre Joseph, perhaps called Joseph, in March 1836, Augustin in August 1838, François Adélard in June 1840, and Amédée David in March 1844.  Their daughters married into the Part and Weber families. 

During the War of 1861-65, Joseph may have served in Company D of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafourche Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Joseph, at age 34, married Alice, daughter of fellow Acadians Léon Arceneaux and Azélie Dubois, at the Lockport church, Lafourche Parish, in April 1870.

3b

Louis Onésime married Marie Phelonise, 22-year-old daughter of Joseph Larose and Marie Louise Denys of St. James Parish, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in April 1834.  Their son Louis Onésime, fils was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in April 1835, Joseph Amédée in November 1836, Charles in October 1842, Pierre in June 1845, and François le jeune in October 1846. 

Louis Onésime, fils married Félicité, daughter of Jean Baptiste Jeandron and Hélène Picou, in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Parish in March 1858.  Their son Louis, fils was born near Lockport in December 1861.  

François le jeune married Marie, daughter of fellow Acadian Eugène Bourgeois and his Creole wife Angélique Barrios, at the Lockport church, Lafourche Parish, in June 1865.  Their son Louis Albert was born near Lockport in April 1866, and Romain Clebert in April 1870. 

Charles married Theresa, daughter of fellow Acadians Léon Arceneaux and Azélie Dubois, at the Lockport church, Lafourche Parish, in April 1866.  Their son Charles Joseph was born near Lockport in October 1866.

Pierre married Virginie, daughter of Étienne Bossuet and his Acadian wife Adèle Doucet, at the Lockport church, Lafourche Parish, in October 1869.

3c

Zénon married Rosalie, daughter of fellow Acadians Nicolas Arceneaux and Carmélite Breaux of St. James Parish, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in June 1835.  Their son Joseph Léon, called Léon, was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in April 1836, Richard died 5 days after his birth in April 1850, Louis Félix was born near Lockport in May 1856, and Silvestre near Labadieville, Assumption Parish, in January 1868.  They also had a son named Joachim. 

Léon married Marguerite, daughter of fellow Acadians Étienne Bourgeois and Marie Osite Babin, at the Raceland church, Lafourche Parish, in February 1855.  Their son Joseph Damas was born near Lockport in December 1855, Césaire in August 1857, Joseph Adam in Terrebonne Parish in October 1861, and Étienne Magloire in October 1864. 

Joachim married Eulalie Rosalie, called Rosalie, daughter of Pierre Elie, Helie, or Lee and Rosalie Albarado, at the Raceland church in May 1857.  Their son Marcel Désiré was born in Terrebonne Parish in November 1859, and Louis Vileor in May 1864.  They were living near Lockport, Lafourche Parish, a few years later. 

3d

Séraphin married Elvine, 15-year-old daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Baptiste Guidry and Marguerite Comeaux of St. James Parish, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in August 1837.  Their son Benjamin Félix was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in July 1838, and François le jeune in April 1840. 

François le jeune married Aglonie, daughter of Florentin Moutardier and Florence Dupré of Terrebonne Parish, at the Houma church, Terrebonne Parish, in April 1864.

3e

François, fils married fellow Acadian Mélanie, daughter of perhaps Anselme Thibodeaux, probably in Lafourche Interior Parish in the early 1840s.  They moved to near Breaux Bridge, on upper Bayou Teche, by 1850, re-establishing the Acadian Roger presence west of the Atchafalaya Basin. 

Descendants of Jean CAISSIE dit ROGER (c1755-c1807; Roger dit Jean, Pierre)

The Jean Roger, age 20, living with the family of Simon LeBlanc on the right, or west, bank of the river at St.-Jacques, may have been the same Jean Roger counted on the left bank of the river that year, living with the family of Pierre Breaux.  He also may have been the Jean Roger who married Rosalie, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean-Baptiste Richard and Marie-Catherine Cormier, at St.-Jacques de Cabanocé in November 1780 and fathered a daughter.  If so, he remarried to Marie Victoire, called Victoire, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Prejean and Marguerite Durel, probably at St.-Jacques in the early 1780s.  She gave him more children.  By the mid-or late 1790s, he and Victoire were living on upper Bayou Lafourche, but by the early antebellum period they had moved down bayou into what became Lafourche Interior and Terrebonne parishes.  Their daughters married into the Adam and Bernard (German Creole, not Acadian) families.  A succession for Jean Baptiste Roger was filed at what became the Houma courthouse, Terrebonne Parish, in September 1807, and a succession inventory for Jean Roger was filed at the Thibodauxville courthouse, Interior Parish, that November, when Jean Caissie dit Roger of Chignecto would have been in his early 50s. 

1

Oldest son Jean-Baptiste, born probably at St.-Jacques in c1786, married Marie Émilie, called Émilie, daughter of fellow Acadians Étienne Boudreaux and Marguerite Thibodeaux, at Assumption in May 1805.  Their son Jean Célestin was born in October 1806, Hermogène in August 1818, and Jean Baptiste, fils in Lafourche Interior Parish in January 1822.  Their daughters married into the Bernard (German Creole, not Acadian) and Delatte families.  Jean Baptiste died in Lafourche Interior Parish in June 1833, age 47. 

1a

Hermogène married Pauline Adèle, 13-year-old daughter of Maximilien Adam and his Acadian wife Marguerite Madeleine Constance Bourg, at the Thibodaux church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in February 1841.  Their daughters married into the Boudreaux and Hank or Hawk families.  Hermogène remarried to Marie Elisa or Lisa Martin, perhaps a fellow Acadian, in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Parish in July 1856.   Their son Ulysse Auguste was born in Terrebonne Parish in January 1865 but died 5 months later.  They moved to Lydia, Iberia Parish, near New Iberia, by October 1869.

1b

Jean Baptiste, fils married cousin Marie Eulalie, called Eulalie, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Bourg and Rosalie Adélaïde Boudreaux, at the Thibodaux church in February 1846.  Their son Cletus Jean Baptiste was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in December 1846, and Joseph Xavier died at age 9 months in February 1850.  Less than nine months after Eulalie's death, Jean Baptiste, fils remarried to cousin Azéma, Eulalie's sister, in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Interior Parish in February 1851, and sanctified the marriage at the Thibodaux church in May 1853.  Their child, name unrecorded, perhaps a son, died in Lafourche Parish, age 2 months, in December 1851, Théophile Adam was born in February 1853, Sosthène Alfred November 1854, Xavier Joseph in December 1856, Félicien Adrien in December 1858, Émile in September 1860, Joseph Venton in September 1862, and Norbert near Lydia, Iberia Parish, in January 1869.

Cletus, by his father's first wife, married cousin Floriska, daughter of Célestin Adam and Adèle Delatte, at the Thibodaux church in January 1867.  Their son Robert Hector was born in Lafourche Parish in February 1869. 

2

Augustin or Auguste, born at St.-Jacques in January 1789, married Marie Françoise, daughter of fellow Acadians Joseph Ignace Hébert and Anne Dugas, at Marie's home in Ascension Parish in October 1808; the marriage also was recorded in Interior Parish.  Their son Jean or Auguste Valéry, called Valéry, was born in Assumption Parish in September 1809, and Auguste Evariste in May 1815.  Their daughter married into the Exnicios and Portier families.  Auguste remarried to Théotiste, daughter of Mathurin Daunis and his Acadian wife Anne Bourg of Lafourche, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in August 1817.  Their son Éloi Victor was born in Assumption Parish in June 1817 but died at age 11 in December 1828, and Fulgence Trasimond, called Trasimond, was born in December 1819.  Auguste died in Lafourche Interior Parish in April 1835; Thibodaux the priest who recorded the burial said that Auguste was age 48 when he died.  He was 46. 

2a

Valéry, by his father's first wife, married Marie Celamire or Célanie, 18-year-old daughter of Jean Webre and Dorothée Delatte of St. John the Baptist Parish, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in January 1837.  Their son Jean Ernest, called Ernest, was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in November 1837, and Jean Baptiste in February 1842.  They also had a son named Adrien.  Their daughter married into the Breaux family.  Valéry died in Lafourche Interior Parish in May or June 1842, age 32.  His succession inventory was filed at the Thibodaux courthouse in June.  His probate sale was held in Terrebonne Parish in October 1845. 

Ernest married Ezilda Marie, daughter of Leufroy Trosclair and Euphrosine Haydel, at the Thibodaux church in January 1859.  Their son Ernest, fils was born in Lafourche Parish in October 1860, Thomas Henri near Labadieville, Assumption Parish, in September 1864, and Léopold Caliste in October 1867.  During the War of 1861-65, Ernest served as an officer in Company H of the 30th Regiment/Battalion Louisiana Infantry, called the Richard Musketeers, raised in Lafourche Parish.  The company fought in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.  Ernest enlisted in March 1862 and was elected first lieutenant the following month, but his service with the unit was short-lived; he resigned his commission in August and went home sick.  He did not return to his company.  As the birth of sons Thomas and Léopold reveal, Ernest survived his illness as well as the war. 

During the War of 1861-65, Adrien served in Company E of the 4th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafourche Parish, which fought in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia.  Adrien enlisted in May 1861 and remained with his unit until he was sent on detached service at Port Hudson, Louisiana, from late 1862 to the fall of 1863.  He was captured with his unit at Port Hudson in July 1863, paroled, and exchanged, but he did not return to his regiment.  Confederate authorities reported him absent without leave from May 1864 to early 1865 and declared him a deserter in April 1865.  The Federals paroled him as an end-of-war prisoner at New Iberia in June 1865.  He married Octavie, daughter of fellow Acadians Marcellin Breaux and Azélie Dugas, at the Thibodaux church in May 1869.   Their son Ernest Colden was born in Lafourche Parish in February 1870. 

2b

Auguste Evariste, by his father's first wife, married Marie Doralise, called Doralise, 18-year-old daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Hébert and Azélie Prejean, at the Thibodaux church in July 1838.  Their son Augustave, called Gustave, was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in November 1838.  Gustave moved to lower Bayou Teche after the War of 1861-65. 

During the War of 1861-65, Gustave, called G. A. in Confederate records, served in Company I of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Lafourche Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Gustave married cousin Justilia, daughter of Octave Elfert and his Acadian wife Marie Céline Hébert, at the Thibodaux church in September 1864.  Their son Auguste Joseph was born in Lafourche Parish in October 1865, Jean Arthur in February 1867, and Henry George near Lydia, Iberia Parish, on lower Bayou Teche, in April 1869.  Gustave died in Iberia Parish in April 1902, age 63, and was buried in St. John's Catholic Cemetery, Jeanerette. 

2c

Trasimond, by his father's second wife, married fellow Acadian Antoinette Comeaux in the early 1840s, place unrecorded.  Their son Stephen Elphége was born in Assumption Parish in May 1846.  Their daughter married into the Bergeron family. 

Stephen married Félicie, daughter of fellow Acadians Zephyr Boudreaux and Azéline Dugas, at the Attakapas Canal church, Assumption Parish, in January 1868.  Their son Elphége Mederique was born near Attakapas Canal in July 1869. 

3

Youngest son Maximilien, also called Alexis, born at Assumption in October 1797, married Marie Mélite, daughter of Joseph Michel Morvant and his Acadian wife Marie Éloise Bernard, at the Thibodauxville church in February 1823.  Their daughter married into the Webre family.  Alexis died in Lafourche Parish in April 1864; the Thibodaux priest who recorded the burial said that Alexis died "at age 70 yrs."; he was 66.  His line of the family, except for its blood, probably died with him. 

Other ROGERs in the Lafourche/Terrebonne Valley

Area church and civil records make it difficult to link some Rogers in the Bayou Lafourche/Bayou Terrebonne valley with known Acadian lines of the family there:

Louis Oligince Roger married Marie Catherine Savage, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Marie Mathilde was born in Lafourche Interior Parish in January 1839.  Was Louis an Acadian Roger?

Joseph Fulford Roger was baptized at the Thibodaux church, Lafourche Interior Parish, age 37, in February 1844.  The priest who recorded the baptism did not give any parents' names or mention a wife.  Was Joseph Fulford Acadian?

Elisa Roger married Anglo American Burton Madison in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Interior Parish in November 1846.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Was Elisa an Acadian Roger or an Anglo-American Rogers?

François Roger died "during [a] yellow fever epidemic" in Lafourche Parish in September 1853.  The Thibodaux priest who recorded the burial did not give François's parents' names or his age at the time of his death. 

Augustin A., also called Élie, Elique, and Ellick, Roger married Acadian Sylvanie Trahan in a civil ceremony in Terrebonne Parish in March 1860.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.  Their daughter Marie Alicia was born Terrebonne Parish in October 1862; son Pierre Andressi in February 1867, daughter Marie Eva in May 1868, and Joseph Clet in October 1869.  During the War of 1861-65, Augustin A., whose middle name might have been Alexandre, may have served in Company F of the 26th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in Terrebonne Parish, which fought at Vicksburg, Mississippi. 

Sarah Julia, daughter of Élise Roger, was born in Lafourche Parish in July 1861.  The Thibodaux priest who recorded the girl's baptism did not give the father's name or the mother's parents' names. 

Pierre Roger married Adèle Guillon or Guillou, place and date unrecorded.  Their daughter Adèle married into the Bertrand family in April 1863 and died soon after. 

Julienne Roger married German Creole Louis Toups in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Parish in August 1865.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give the couple's parents' names.

Célina, daughter of Augestine Roger, died at age 2 near Labadieville, Assumption Parish, in September 1865.  The priest who recorded the girl's burial did not give her father's name or the names of her mother's parents.  

Louis Roger married Marie Anne Breard, place and date unrecorded.  Their daughter Emelina married into the Bardel and Gamand or Garmand families, the latter in Lafourche Parish in May 1867. 

Charles, daughter of Lise Roger, was born in Lafourche Parish in May 1868.  The Thibodaux priest who recorded the boy's baptism did not give the father's name. 

Phrosine, probably Euphrosine, Roger died near Montegut, Terrebonne Parish, in November 1868.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give her age at the time of her death, name her parents, or mention a husband. 

Gracy Roger married James Wineberry in a civil ceremony in Lafourche Parish in September 1870.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage did not give any parents' names. 

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Roger is a fairly common surname in France and French Canada, so it should be no surprise that not all of the Rogers of South Louisiana are descendants of Roger Caissie of Ireland and Chignecto.  French-Creole Rogers lived in colonial Louisiana as early as the 1720s.  One of  them, in fact, a native of Paris, was a high colonial official:

Mathurin, son of Pierre Roger and Jeanne Hersane, "was," according to a recent history of French colonial New Orleans and its people, "among the large number of salt smugglers sent to Louisiana.  He had embarked on one of the five ships loaded with forçats [deported criminals], arriving on the Neptune in 1717," a year before New Orleans was founded.  "By June 1721 he had a wife and child living with him at Mobile, where he worked as a shoemaker."  He had married Catherine, daughter of Pierre Blanchard or Blanchart, at "Old Biloxi," now in the state of Mississippi but then part of the Louisiana colony, the previous April.  Mathurin, his wife, and son "relocated to New Orleans soon after it became the capital in 1722."  Their son Jean-François died at New Orleans, age unrecorded, in January 1724. 

Michel Roger of Riom, Auvergne, France, died at New Orleans in September 1729.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give Michel's age at the time of his death. 

Charles Roger of Paris, magazine-intendant of the colony, died at New Orleans in November 1729.  The priest who recorded the burial did not give Charles's age at the time of his death. 

Jean Roger of Ireland, husband of Marie Roger of Ireland, died in New Orleans in January 1803, age 37.

.

During the late colonial period, a Roger from Canada, no kin to the Caissie dit Rogers of Chignecto, lived in a predominantly-Acadian community on the river, remarried to an Acadian, and then crossed the Atchafalaya Basin to the Attakapas District, where he and his descendants settled at Carencro, at the northern edge of the district.  The area was heavily populated by Acadians, so these Canadians tended to choose Acadian spouses:

Descendants of Louis ROGER dit Brisbois (c1754-1804)

Louis Roger dit Brisbois, born in Canada in c1754, married Marie-Louise LeBlanc perhaps in Canada.  Their daughter married into the Servantes family at the Spanish post of San Luìs de Natchez north of Baton Rouge.  Louis, while living at San Gabriel de Manchac, south of Baton Rouge, remarried to Susanne-Marie, called Marie, daughter of Acadians Basile Landry and his first wife Brigitte Boudrot, at Ascension in October 1774.  They moved to the western prairies in the 1780s and settled at Carencro.  Their daughters married into the Benoit, Casanova, and Perry families.  Louis died a widower in St. Landry Parish in February 1804, "age about 50 yrs."  One of his sons and both of his grandsons also married Acadians. 

1

Oldest son Béloni, baptized at St.-Gabriel, age unrecorded, in October 1779, died later in the month. 

2

Jean-Louis, born probably near Carencro in January 1786, married Marie Josèphe dite Josette, daughter of Acadian Pierre Richard of Manchac and Carencro, at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, in January 1816.  They settled near Carencro.  Their son Edmond was born in November 1816, and Louis in April 1820.  Jean Louis died near Carencro in December 1820, age 34. 

2a

Edmond married Marie Eurasie, called Eurasie, daughter of Acadian Joseph Prejean, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in December 1837.  They settled near Carencro.  Their son Joseph Olivier, called Olivier, was born in September 1841 but died at age 3 in November 1844, Edmond, fils died at age 5 months in July 1843, Jean Aristide was born in March 1845, and another Edmond, fils in September 1852.  Their daughters married into the Cormier family. 

2b

Louis le jeune married Marie Azélima, Célina, or Zélima, daughter of Acadian Jean Prejean, at the Vermilionville church, Lafayette Parish, in December 1840.  They also settled near Carencro.  Son Jean was born in November 1853, Eustache in September 1857, Marius in January 1861, and Louis, fils in August 1863.  Their daughters married into the Babineaux, Comeaux, and Hébert families. 

3

Youngest son Joseph, born in May 1788 and baptized at Baton Rouge in April 1794, probably died young. 

~

During the antebellum period, Rogers, who native Louisianians would have called Foreign French, settled in South Louisiana.   Anglo-American Rogerss, whose name sometimes appeared in church records as Roger, lived in predominantly-Acadian communities on the river, along the Lafourche, and on the western prairies throughout the period:

Arvill or Atwell Roger, perhaps an Anglo-American Rogers, married Lucy Perkins, an Anglo American, in St. Martin Parish in June 1810. 

François, son of Nicolas Rogé, Roze, or Roger and Madeleine Penar of St.-Nicolas, La Rochelle, France, married Euphrosine, daughter of French Creole Michel Janis, at the Opelousas church, St. Landry Parish, in October 1818.   François died "at the home of Michel Lacase at la Prerie Faketaik [Prairie Fauquetaique]" in September 1819, age 24. 

Susannah Roger, probably Rogers, is mentioned in the succession of Caleb LeBerge, perhaps her husband, filed at the Opelousas courthouse, St. Landry Parish, in August 1849. 

Elisabeth Roger, perhaps Rogers, is mentioned in the succession of Thomas Keller, probably her husband, filed at the Opelousas courthouse in April 1851. 

William, son of John Roger, perhaps Rogers, and Elizabeth Keithcart, married Sarah S., daughter of John Yates and Eulianna Phipps, and widow of J. C. Yates, at the Thibodaux Episcopal Church in October 1851. 

Elijah May Rogers died "at 2:00 on board the Steamboat New World going to Camden, Arkansas," age 48, in May 1852.  The St. James priest who recorded the burial noted that Elijah May "left [a] wife and three children." 

George dit Genge, son of Robert Roger, probably Rogers, and Elizabeth Hudson, married Irma, daughter of Louis Félix Lastrapes and Irma Garrigue, at the Opelousas church in May 1852. 

Marie Célanie Roger is mentioned in the succession of Robert H. Smith, probably her husband, filed at the Opelousas courthouse in August 1852. 

Matthew Roger, perhaps Rogers, married Mary Bell, place and date unrecorded.  Her succession, naming her husband, was filed at the Franklin courthouse, St. Mary Parish, in October 1853.  His succession was filed there in May 1854.  

Ada Augusta Roger, perhaps Rogers, married Thomas J. Rice in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish in January 1854.  The parish clerk who recorded the marriage gave no parents' names. 

Samuel P. Roger, probably Rogers, married Mary Lydia E. Gordon, widow of James Robbins, in a civil ceremony in St. Landry Parish in September 1854. 

James Roger, probably Rogers, married Sarah B. Rogers, place and date unrecorded.  Son Charles Gillis was born in Lafourche Parish in January 1865 and whose birth was recorded at the First Presbyterian Church in Thibodaux. 

Martin Roger married Joséphine Landry, place and date unrecorded.  Daughter Latitia Marie was born near New Iberia, Iberia Parish, in August 1870. 

CONCLUSION

Roger dit Jean Caissie of Ireland settled early in Acadia, and some of his descendants were among the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana.  In 1765, calling themselves Caissie dit Roger, four of the Irishman's descendants came to Louisiana from Halifax.  A granddaughter followed the Broussard dit  Beausoleil party to Bayou Teche, but the death of her husband and two of their children that autumn sent her fleeing with the surviving children to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river.  This ended the family's presence on the western prairies, at least during the colonial period.  Meanwhile, two of the Irishman's great-grandsons settled at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques, but no family lines survived on the river.  During the late colonial period, two Caissies moved from the Cabanocé/St.-Jacques to Bayou Lafourche, where they used their ancestor's dit, Roger, as their surname and created a center of family settlement that stretched all the way down to Bayou Terrebonne.  Some of them settled near Pierre Part, north of Lake Verret in Assumption Parish.  Meanwhile, by 1850, a Roger from Bayou Lafourche moved to the Breaux Bridge area of upper Bayou Teche, re-establishing the families presence west of the Atchafalaya Basin.  After the War of 1861-65, several of his cousins settled down bayou near New Iberia. 

Church records reveal that non-Acadian Rogers lived in colonial Louisiana as early as the 1720s, decades before their Acadian namesakes arrived.  Most of them lived at New Orleans, and one of them, a native of Paris, was the colony's "magazine-intendant."  During the late colonial period, Louis Roger dit Brisbois of Canada lived at Manchac on the river, remarried to an Acadian, and then moved to the western prairies, which the Acadian Rogers had abandoned in the 1760s.  One of Louis's sons also married an Acadian and created a small family line at Carencro, at the northern edge of the Attakapas District.  Meanwhile, Anglo-American Rogerss, sometimes called Roger in the church and civil records, settled along the river and on the western prairies, but few married Acadians.  ...

A dozen or so Rogers served Louisiana in uniform during the War of 1861-65, most of them Acadians.  Several of them, including an Acadian, served as officers. ...

In French Acadia/British Nova Scotia and during Le Grand Dérangement, the family's name also was spelled Caisse, Caissey, Caissy, Casey, Kessy, Kuessy, Kuessey, Quaisy, Quaissy, Quiaiscy.  The few family members who came to Louisiana preferred as their surname the family's dit, Roger, and the name Caissie and its variants disappear from Louisiana records by the 1770s.  In Louisiana, the family's name also is spelled Rocher, Rogée, Rogere, Rogeres, Rogerre, Rogers, Rogert, Roget, Rogues, Rojer.  In Canada, the many descendants of Roger the Irishman favor the surname Caissie.  In France, they favor Quessy.  [For the Acadian family's Louisiana "begats," see Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 481, 886-95, 2087, 2138, 2583-84; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Clark, A. H., Acadia, 144; Dawdy, Devil's Empire, 167, source of quotation about Mathurin Roger; De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:69, 79, 101, 144-45; "Fort Cumberland, 24 Aug 1763"; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 63, 389, 584, 587-88, 620, 627; 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; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 26, 154, 217, 233, 273, 281, 308, 319; Milling, Exile Without End, 21, 41, 45; NOAR, vols. 1, 7; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family Nos. 82, 90, 95, 158, 176; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 83-84, 182-85, 199-200, 374-76; 449-50, 591-92; White, DGFA-1, 305-12, 1115-16, 1418-19; White, DGFA-1 English, 68-69, 297; Wood, Acadians in Maryland, 25, 166.  

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day civil parishes that existed in 1861 in parentheses; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

NOTES

01.  Wall of Names, 11, calls her Catherine CAISSY.  

02.  Wall of Names, 14 (pl. 2R), calls him Jean CAISSY dit ROGER, & lists him with Louis CAISSY dit ROGER, with the notation that Louis was "Not Acadian, Not of the CAISSY dit ROGER line, Not related to Jean or Joseph CAISSY dit ROGER"; Arsenault, Généalogie, 889, the Beaubassin section, calls him Jean, says he was born in 1755, son of Alexis CAISSY dit ROGER & his second wife Marie-Josèphe LEBLANC; Arsenault, 2584, the LA section, calls him Jean ROGER, says he was born in 1755, calls his parents Alexis CAISSY dit ROGER & his second wife Marie-Josèphe LEBLANC of Beaubassin, details his marriage to Rosalie RICHARD, including her parents' names, but says nothing of a second marriage to Victoire PREJEAN; BRDR, 2:629, 645 (SJA-1, 51), the record of his first marriage, calls him Jean ROGER, calls his wife Rosalie RICHARD, says "both parties of Acadia," gives his & her parents' names, calls his parents Alexis [ROGER] & Marie LEBLANC, says his parents & her mother were deceased at the time of the wedding, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Jean POIRIER & Baptiste BOURGOIS; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:465 (Houma Ct.Hse.: Succ. #4), his succession, calls him Jean Baptiste ROGER m. Victoire PREJEAN; Hébert, D., South LA Records, 1:465 (Thib.Ct.Hse.: Succ.: Year 1807), his succession inventory, calls him Jean ROGER m. Victoire PREJEAN.  See also De Ville, St. James Census, 1777, 7, 11; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 81, 118. 

His estimated birth year, and probably the birth year found in Arsenault, is from the age given in the St.-Jacques census of 1777.  Why does he appear on the roll of VERRET's Company of Kabakan [Cabahannocer] militia, dated 8 Apr [no year given] as Juan QUESY with a boy in his household, found in Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 114, but nowhere in Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 161-70, which includes the same militia list, dated 8 Apr 1766, as well as the Cabahannocer census of that same month?  If Arsenault's birth year is correct, Jean ROGER would have been only age 11 in 1766, too young to have served in the militia but not too young to have appeared in a general census. 

There is more mystery surrounding this fellow.  Wall of Names lists only one Jean CAISSIE dit ROGER, but there may have been two of them on the river, both Acadians, during the late colonial period.  Note that two Jean ROGERs are listed in the St.-Jacques census of 1777, living on both sides of the river at the same time.  Note, also, that the baptismal record of Jean ROGER's son Maximilien by Victoire PREJEAN, dated 17 Jul 1798, in BRDR, 2:645 (ASM-1, 114), says the boy's paternal grandparents were Jean ROGER & Magdalena LEBLANC "of Acadia," not Alexis ROGER & Marie LEBLANC, the parents given for Jean ROGER who married Rosalie RICHARD in the marriage record cited above.  So the questions must be asked:  Are we dealing with two Jean CAISSIE dit ROGERs here, and Wall of Names missed one?  Or is this Jean and the Jean, son of Jean ROGER & Magdalena LEBLANC, the same fellow?  Neither White in DGFA-1, 305-12, nor Arsenault, Généalogie, list a couple named Jean CAISSIE dit ROGER & Madeleine LEBLANC in French Acadia/NS.  I need a CAISSIE dit ROGER family historian to help me here. 

03.   Wall of Names, 14 (pl. 2R), calls him Joseph CAISSY dit ROGER, & lists him singly; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2583-84, calls him Joseph CAISSY dit ROGER, says he was born in 1744, gives his parents' names, says they were from Beaubassin in Acadia, details his marriage but does not give his wife's parents' names, says he married her in c1765, that he occupied lot number 52 on the west side of the Mississippi at St.-Jacques in 1769, that he was the brother of Catherine CAISSY, wife of Jean-Baptiste BERGERON, & lists his children as Marie, born in 1771, but gives no birthplace.  See also Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 166, 175; De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:79; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 2.

Despite what Arsenault says, the censuses at Cabanocé in 1766 & 1769, & even the Ascension census of 1770, show that he did not marry until after 1770. 

When did he & his wife & her ROBICHAUX sons move from the river to upper Bayou Lafourche?

04.  Not in Wall of Names.  See note 02, above, for an explanation of why there may have 2 Acadian Jean ROGERs in LA. 

His estimated birth year is from the age given in the St.-Jacques census of 1777.  Since he was so young & evidently an orphan, who did he accompany to LA?  Was he a younger brother of Joseph, son of Michel dit ROGER, who was 19 & unmarried in 1765?  The other CAISSIE dit ROGERs who came to LA did so in 1765, so one can expect this Jean to have arrived then, too, from Halifax via St.-Domingue.  Since only the descendants of Pierre CAISSIE used the dit ROGER as their surname, I suspect that this Jean, if he existed, was descended from Pierre as well.  The question is, which one of Pierre's sons--Michel dit ROGER, Joseph, or Alexis dit ROGER--was this Jean's grandfather.  We will have to await Stephen A. White's DGFA-2 to find out. 

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