46 (D-16) Jane's St. Martinville

St. Martinville is my mother's hometown.  Her maiden name was Thomas.   Many of my ancestors come from St. Martinville.  It will be a very special place for me to visit and to share with the UIAD students I am taking to Louisiana.

Some of the names of these ancestors are: Bienvenu, Fontenette, Tertrou, Beauvais, Guidry, Peignon, Latille de Thimecourt. Philippe Bienvenu and Françoise Claire Allari were married in Ploemeur in Brittany in France in 1699!  (What do you know about St. Martinville and Ploemeur if you read yesterday's post?)

There was also Marguerite Decuir who died in St. Martinville in 1815.  In 1766 in Point Coupée, Louisiana, she married François Jacques Ozenne from New Orleans, who died in 1819 in St. Martinville.  Their daughter Suzanne Ozenne married Jean Baptiste Beauvais and one of the daughters of this couple is Laurent Tertrou's wife!!!!  Laurent Tertrou died in St. Martinville on October 14, 1847 and he is buried in St. Martin de Tours Church cemetery.  

STOP, this is too complicated!!
  
Laurent Tertrou, my great-great-great-grandfather originated from Nantes and his father, Michel Charles Tertrou, born in 1763, was from Chaudron in Maine-et-Loire. 

I will stop here, I promise!

Thanks go to my father who did all this genealogy research in the 1970s and even published a book in 1976, which I will always cherish.  Thank you so much, Dad.

Jane

An old postcard of St. Martinville

An ancestor's death certificate; he is buried in the Church Cemetery of St. Martinville.

After the time when St. Martinville was called "Petit Paris" came The Civil War (1861-65). Adolphe Bienvenu and Emma Fontinot's marriage certificate.  This Bienvenu died on March 13, 1869...the last years of his life saw St. Martinville in decline (The Terrible Years).

My great-grandfather's brother is also buried in the cemetery of St. Martin de Tours Church.

Dad doing his genealogy research at St. Martin Cemetery in St. Martinville in the 1970s.