SIMONEAUX

[SIM-uh-noh]

François Simoneau, born in the Lorraine region of France in c1728, probably emigrated directly from France to Maryland.  In c1759, at age 31, he married Marie-Osite-Anne, daughter of Acadian Martin Corporon, probably in Maryland.  In July 1763, British authorities counted him and his family at Oxford, Maryland, on the colony's Eastern Shore; the British recorder called his wife Anne and listed three sons for the couple--Joseph, who had been born in c1760 probably in Maryland; Jacques, birth date and place unknown; and René dit Simon, born in c1762 in Maryland.  In c1765 the couple, still in Maryland, had a daughter, Marguerite.  

François, Marie-Osite-Anne, and their children were among the first Acadians from Maryland to seek refuge in Louisiana.  They left the British colony in late June 1766 and reached New Orleans in October.  Son Jacques did not go to Louisiana with them, so he probably had died before they departed, or he may have died aboard ship on the long voyage around to Louisiana.  Another son, Alexis, was born to them on the voyage, in August 1766.    

The family settled first at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans where Acadians had been living since early 1764.  Spanish officials counted them there on the left, or east, bank of the river in September 1769.  François and his family occupied lot number 129 in the settlement, held six arpents of frontage on the Mississippi, had no slaves and no horses, which was typical of the petit habitants on the river at that time, but they did have 7 cattle, 18 pigs, and a musket.  At Cabanocé, Marie gave François another son, Maurice, born in early 1769.  In the 1770s, the family drifted upriver to Ascension, where Marie gave François two more daughters--Marie, born c1774; and Françoise-Apolline, born c1776.  François also acquired a slave at Ascension, who was first counted with the family in April 1777.  François died at Ascension in July 1791, age 63.  

Meanwhile, François's second son René, often called by his dit, Simon, married Isabelle-Luce, daughter of Acadian Alexandre Daigre, at Ascension in April 1786.  On the same day and at the same place, René dit Simon's sister Marguerite married Isabelle-Luce's brother Jean-Baptiste.  René dit Simon married twice more, to Isabelle Breaux at Assumption in February 1793, and to widow Rosalie Hébert at Assumption in December 1802.  Five days after his younger brother René dit Simon married for the first time, Joseph married Acadian Madeleine Bourg at Ascension.  Their younger sister Marie married Acadian Joseph-Francois Chiasson at Ascension in July 1789.  Marie died by January 1797, when her husband remarried.

In the early 1790s, Joseph, René dit Simon, Marguerite, Marie, and their families left Ascension and moved to upper Bayou Lafourche into what is now Assumption Parish, where they set down deep roots.  By the early 1800s, a few of their children and grandchildren had moved farther down the valley into present-day Lafourche Parish and probably into the Terrebonne country as well.  In April 1857, Joseph Martin Simoneaux, grandson of René dit Simon, married Seraline Daigle at Brashear City, now Morgan City, on the lower Atchafalaya River.  

Meanwhile, François's son Alexis married a French Creole, Josete, daughter of Antoine Patin of Pointe Coupée, in January 1792.  Alexis and Josete may have remained in Pointe Coupée, a French Creole community upriver from Ascension.  

François's youngest daughter Francoise-Apolline, called Apolline, born at Ascension, also married a non-Acadian.  In October 1793 at Assumption she married Francisco Placencia, a native of La Gomera in the Canary Islands.  In subsequent decades, Francisco's surname was gallicized to Plaisance.  This family, too, remained at Assumption.

François's youngest son, Maurice, born at St.-Jacques, married Hélène-Geneviève, daughter of Acadian François Landry, at Ascension in February 1800.  He remained at Ascension for a time and then followed his siblings to Assumption.  

Maurice's son Simon, called Simonet to distinguish him from uncle René dit Simon and a cousin also named Simon, was born at Ascension in early 1809.  He was the first Simoneaux to leave the Lafourche valley and move west of the Atchafalaya Basin.  In April 1844, he married Acadian Azélie LeBlanc at Grand Coteau in St. Landry Parish.  Seven years later, he remarried to Mélanie, daughter of Pierre Cormier, fils and Céleste Babineaux of Carencro in Lafayette Parish (who are the author's paternal great-great grandparents; Marie Euphémie, Simonet Simoneaux's daughter by his first wife, was my great-grandfather Joachim Cormier's first wife, which means Joachim married his step-niece, who was 16 year old at the time of their marriage in August 1865; he was 33).  But most of the descendants of François Simoneaux remained in the Bayou Lafourche Valley, where they can be found in abundance today.

The family's name also is spelled Simonaux, Simoneau, Simoneaud, Simonet, Simonneau, Simonos.  

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 800-02, 2592-93; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 4; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 406; Hébert, D., South LA Records, vol. 1; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols. 1-A, 4, 5, 6, 7; White, DGFA-1, 1469-72; White, DGFA-1 English, 309.  

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day parishes that existed during the War Between the States in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

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

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

NOTES

01.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls him Alexis [SIMON], & lists him as though he was son of René SIMON, probably an error in indentation, so he was probably meant to be listed with his father, mother, & 3 siblings; NOAR, 2:256 (SLC, B5, 146), his baptismal record, calls him Alexis SIMONEAU, gives his parents' names, says his father was Acadian, & that his godparents were Joseph BABIN & Marguerite BIJEAU; BRDR, 2:582, 674 (PCP-19, 42), his marriage record, calls him Alexis SIMONEAU of Lafourche, gives his & his wife's parents' names, says his wife was "of this Parish" [Pointe Coupée), that her father was deceased at the time of the marriage, & the witnesses to his marriage were Paulet VINCENT & Maurice SIMONEAU (his brother).  

02.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls him François SIMON dit SIMONEAU, & lists him with his second wife & 4 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2592-93, calls him Francois SIMON dit SIMONEAUX, says he was born in c1728, gives his parents' names but only dits for his father, details his marriage to Anne DOUCET, including her parents' names, calls his second wife Marie CORPORON, does not give her parents' names, says he married her in c1759 but gives no place of marriage, says that he married a third time to Geneviève HÉBERT in c1772 but gives no place of marriage nor her parents' names, lists his children as none by his first marriage, by his second marriage, Joseph, born in c1760 but gives no birthplace, Simon-René, born in c1762 but gives no birthplace, Marguerite, born in c1764 but gives no birthplace, Alexis, born in c1766 but gives no birthplace, & Maurice, born in c1769 but gives no birthplace, by his third marriage, Marie, born in c1774 but gives no birthplace, Marguerite, born in c1775 but gives no birthplace, & Francoise, born in c1776 but gives no birthplace, gives his lot number & the side of the river he was on at St.-Jacques in 1769, details his burial at L'Ascension (Donaldsonville), & says he was called Francois SIMONEAUX at the time of his death; White, DGFA-1, 1471, profiles a Francois SIMON without a dit, says he was born between 1724 & 1726 but gives no birthplace, says he was son of Pierre dit Pierrot SIMON dit Boucher & Marie PINET, says he married Anne DOUCET, daughter of Charles DOUCET & Madeleine PRÉJEAN, with whom he shared "disp 4-4cons," at Port-Royal on 31 Jan 1752, but does not include a second marriage to Marie CORPORON nor a third marriage to Geneviève HÉBERT; White, p. 415, profile for Marie (Osite) (Anne) [CORPORON], calls her husband Francois SIMONEAU, says they were married c1759 but gives no place of marriage, & does not give his parents' names; BRDR, 2:674(ASC-4, 8), his death/burial record, calls him Francisco SIMONEAUX of Bayou Lafourche, & does not give his parents' names or his wife's name.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 157; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 177; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 477; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 13, 23, 154.

He was called "Francisco of La Lorena" in his daughter Francoise-Apolline's marriage record in BRDR, 2:596, 674 (ASM-2, 4), dated 10 Oct 1793.  This is a compelling clue to his origins.  A descendant of Francois SIMONEAU, Lonnie Raffray, believes that "La Lorena" means Lorraine, the region in northeastern France.  Mr. Raffray writes in an e-message to the author, dated 13 Dec 2007:  "The name SIMONEAU can be found in this region [Lorraine] going back to the seventeenth century, but I have not seen it used in Acadia.  I have come to the conclusion that Francois SIMONEAUX was from Lorraine, France, and was not the Francois SIMON, son of Pierre SIMON."  This would explain why White in his DGFA-1 seems to be talking about two different men--Francois SIMON without a dit, son of Pierre dit Pierrot SIMON dit Boucher & husband of Anne DOUCET, on p. 1471, & Francois SIMONEAU, not a SIMON, husband of Marie CORPORON, on p. 415.  Mr. Raffray's logic is convincing:  Francois SIMONEAU was not an Acadian SIMON but rather a SIMONEAU born in France.  Answering a query made by Lonnie Raffray concerning Francois SIMONEAU'S origins, Stephen A. White writes in an e-message, dated 17 Dec 2007:  "Mr. Raffray:  You already have the answer to your question.  As you state, Francois SIMONEAU came from the province of Lorraine, a fact which is attested in his daughter Francoise-Apollonie's marriage record.  Given that this was the case, it makes no sense whatsoever, as you point out, to try to identify Francois SIMONEAU with anyone who lived in Acadia."

Stephen White's comment raises this question:  If François SIMONEAU was from Lorraine & not one of the Acadian SIMONs, did he ever live in greater Acadia?  If he moved directly from France to MD, which was Britain's "Catholic" colony, & then married an Acadian there, he would not be an Acadian by any definition of the term used here.  In a follow up e-message to Lonnie Raffray, dated 18 Nov 2007, Stephen A. White says:  "I know of no evidence that would show that François SIMONEAU ever lived in Acadia."  As further affirmation of this, one looks in vain for François SIMONEAU on COL Winslow's long list of Acadian heads of families retained at Grand-Pré in Sep 1755, many of whom were transported to MD.  See Winslow, "French Inhabitants."  

Was François SIMONEAU ever called an Acadian?  Yes, he was, a number of times.  In the birth/baptismal record of Constancia Eloisa Margarita DAIGLE, daughter of Marguerite SIMONEAUX, in BRDR, 2:213 (ASM-1, 77), dated 27 Nov 1796, 5 years after François's death, the Spanish priest at Assumption called the baby's maternal grandparents Simon SIMONAUX & Maria CORPERON, Acadians.  Plural.  The birth/baptismal record of Maria Concepcion Constancia PLASENCIA, daughter of Françoise-Apolline SIMONEAUX, in BRDR, 2:596 (ASM-1, 79), dated 15 Jan 1797, calls the child's maternal grandparents Francisco SIMONAUX & Maria CORPERON, Acadians.  In the birth/baptismal record of Alexos Francisco SIMONEAUX, son of René dit Simon, in BRDR, 2:674 (ASM-1, 86), dated 16 Apr 1797, probably the same priest recorded that Francisco SIMONAUX & Maria CORPERON, paternal grandparents, were Acadians.  Again, in the birth/baptismal record of grandson Narciso Eugènio SIMONEAUX, son of Joseph, in BRDR 2:675 (ASM-1, 97), dated 27 Nov 1797, the priest called Francois & Marie Acadians.  So, even though he never lived in Acadia, he certainly was known as an Acadian in LA, probably because his wife was clearly Acadian. 

I am now convinced that François had only one wife, Marie-Osite-Anne CORPORON, & that they were married in c1759, but I still cannot say exactly where.  If the date is correct, MD is the only logical choice for their place of marriage.  Arsenault & White no doubt chose 1759 as the year of marriage because the couple's oldest child, son Joseph, was born in c1760.  As to François's putative third wife, Geneviève HEBERT, who Arsenault says he married in c1772 in LA, the Ascension censuses of 1777, 1788, & 1791, the latter taken only months before his death, show François still married to Marie CORPORON, who did not die until 1802.  So he never married a third time; not even a second time.  See the death/burial record of Marie-Osite-Anne CORPORON, dated 27 Sep 1802, in BRDR, 2:204 (ASM-3, 33).

What happened to François SIMONEAU's son Jacques, who was counted at Oxford, MD, in Jul 1763?  Judging from the marriage date of his parents, he could not have been very old in 1763, which means he probably died in MD between 1763-66 while still a youngster.

03.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls him Joseph [SIMON], & lists him as though he were François's brother, probably an error in indentation, so he was probably meant to be listed with his father, mother, & 3 siblings; BRDR, 2:124, 675 (ASC-2, 2), his marriage record, calls him Joseph SIMONEAU, does not give his or his wife's parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Alexis DAIGLE & Théodore BOURGE (his wife's brother); BRDR, 3:795 (ASM-3, 110), his death/burial record, calls him Josef SIMONEAUX, age 57 yrs., married to Magdalena BOURQUE, & gives his parents' names, calling his mother Maria Ana CORPERON.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 157; Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 177; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 477; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 13, 23, 67, 106, 114, 154.

If one takes the age given in his burial record--57--& does a little math, one comes up with an estimated birth year of ... c1758, a year before his parents supposedly were married.  But ages given in burial records are notoriously inaccurate.  The ages given for him in the various censuses in which he was found are used here to calculate his estimated birth year.  

04.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls her Marguerite [SIMON], & lists her as though she was daughter of René SIMON, probably an error in indentation, so she was probably meant to be listed with her father, mother, & 3 brothers; BRDR, 2:214, 675 (ASC-2, 1), her marriage record, calls her Marguerite SIMONEAUX, does not give her or her husband's parents' names, & says the witnesses to her marriage were Simon SIMONEAUX (her brother) & Isabel DEGLE (the wife of brother René dit Simon).

05.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls him René SIMON, & lists him as though he were François's brother, probably an error in indentation, so he was probably meant to be listed with his father, mother, & 3 siblings; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2593, his father's profile, calls him Simon-René [SIMON dit SIMONEAUX], says he was from his father's second marriage [to Marie CORPORON], & that he was born in 1762 but gives no birthplace; BRDR, 2:214, 675 (ASC-2, 1), the record of his first marriage, calls him Simon SIMONEAUX, does not give his or his wife's parents' names, & says the witness to his marriage was Citang SIMONAUX, also spelled SIMONEAUX; BRDR, 2:146-47, 675 (ASC-2, 54), the record of his second marriage, calls him Simon SIMONEAU, does not give his or his wife's parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Francisco Lopez MACHADO, Francisco PLASENCIA (his sister Francoise-Apolline's husband), & Juan Bautista TRAHAN; BRDR, 2:373, 676 (ASM-2, 73), the record of his third marriage, calls him Simon SIMONAUX of Maryland & widower of Ysabel BRAUX, does not give his or his wife's parents' names but does give the name of her first husband, says she was from Iberville Parish, & that the witnesses to his marriage were Josef SIMONAUX (his brother) & Alexo HÉBERT; BRDR, 3:796 (ASM-3, 103), his death/burial record, calls him Simon SIMONEAUX, age 45 yrs., married to Rosalia  HÉBERT, but does not give his parents' names.  See also Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 157.

There is no Isabelle DAIGLE in Wall of Names, but I would guess that she is the Luce DAIGLE who is listed in Wall of Names & whose estimated birth year, c1761, fits nicely.  Her death/burial record in BRDR 2:214 (ASC-4, 12), dated 26 Sep 1792, calls her Isabel DAIGLE, 31 1/2 years, spouse of Petit René SIMONEAUX, & unfortunately does not give her parents' names, nor do any of the birth/baptismal records of their children in BRDR, 2:674-75 thanks to the neglect of the priest at Ascension.  Another clue to her identity can be found in the Ascension census of 1788, in which one finds her siblings Marguerite (age 21, so born c1767) & Joseph (age 18, so born c1770), who came to LA as orphans on separate ships, Marguerite with Luce aboard the second ship, La Bergère, with the family of uncle Joseph BOURG, husband of Marie-Madeleine GRANGER, & Joseph aboard the third ship, Le Beaumont, with uncle Charles DAIGLE.  Joseph's parents were Alexis DAIGLE & Isabelle GRANGER.  So these were the parents of Luce/Isabelle & Maguerite as well.  

Which Élisabeth/Isabelle BREAUX did he marry?  It was typical of the priest at Ascension at this time not to bother to put parents' names in marriage records.  However, the birth/baptismal record of son Alexos Francisco in BRDR, 2:674 (ASM-1, 86), dated 16 Apr 1797, says the boy's maternal grandparents were Honorio BRAUX & Magdalena TRAHAN, Acadians.  The same goes for the birth/baptismal record of son Uberto Valerio in BRDR, 2:676 (ASM-1, 148), dated 7 Nov 1799.

His son Abad-Renato's birth/baptismal record in BRDR, 3:794, dated 19 Dec 1809, calls him Simon-Renato, probably the source for Arsenault's Simon-René.  

Why does his burial record miss his actual age so badly?  It is not unusual for a burial record back then to exaggerate the age of the deceased, but this one seems to be off by 8 years.

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Copyright (c) 2007-17  Steven A. Cormier