I am seeking sources before merging Louise Fontenot and would like a second (third ... fourth) opinion

Question

I am working on one of my mystery branches, and found a likely match. Both profiles have similar names, same parents, were married twice, children from both marriages. The profile I want to merge with has many relatives attached, but no hard sources as far as I can tell, and the birthdays are way different. My only source so far (aside from existing profiles) is Find A Grave. The death certificate lists no birthday, but the site says 1726. No photo of the headstone. On the other profile, the date is 1741. The death dates are also off, but the death certificate at Find a Grave is dated 1814.

I don't have a solid source for a DOB, and after having to untangle a couple of rookie merges (I was so confident back then), I need an assist!

Fontenot-643 - Marie Louise Fontenot (1741 - 1809) - needs sourcing

Fontenot-913 - Louise Fontenot (1726 - 1814) - Find a Grave

 

Comments

For a certain price, this is now available. I have purchased many publications from this site and have never had any problem. http://www.claitors.com/veach/cajunsv3n33.htm

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Thanks! I'll check it out.

Answer 1

I don't believe they represent the same person, although, this does not appear to be the first time the two are confused.

Louise Fontenot is definitely the spouse of Jean Desnoyers based on the death record and a transcription of a marriage contract between the two I found on Ancestry. Her birth year does seem off (54 when one of her children is born and 12 years her second husband's senior), but that could be either a mistake when transcribing the church records or a mistake when originally recording her age at the time of her death.

The telling piece of evidence for me is the name(s) of her 1st husband in both documents. In the death document, it appears to be Louis Bertelot, in the marriage contract transcription, it is given as Louis Hubin. Either way, her first husband's name was definitely not Simon Pierre Brignac. So Louise Fontenot (Fontenot-913) needs to be detached from Brignac-30 as a spouse.

Comments

 

There is a notation on one ancestry tree as follows:

At the wedding of her nephew, Henry Berthelot, son of Urbain Berthelot and Louise Fontenot, April 23, 1778, Marie Louise Fontenot Brignac signed the marriage document as the aunt of the groom. p. 10 

Louise Fontenot, born in Alabama 1726, married Louis Urbain Berthelot, a French soldier. Louis was probably a son of Urbain Berthelot and Marie LeMire. He was discharged January 1, 1754 and the couple continued to Live near Fort Toulose ... "  p. 47

(Source:  The Brignac Family and Their Relatives in Louisiana by Janice Deitch Young, http://books.google.com)

So it appears they were indeed two different women. It would seem they are sisters despite the similarity of names (Marie Louise vs Louise). It is no wonder researchers are getting confused.

First husband's full name is given as Jean Louis Urbain Berthelot by one Ancestry researcher.

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Thank you! I got to this a little late in my day (or early in the morning?), so this is on my to-do list now. Glad I waited.

Answer 2

Title: Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records; Author: Catholic Church; Vol 3, 1804-1819; Contains Baptismal, marriage and burial entries taken from some 46 registers housed in the Archives of the Diocese of Baton Rouge; copy in possession of  [[Girouard-4019| Jacqueline Girouard]]; p. 328

:Text: Marie Louise Fonteneau, age 80 yrs., wid of Simon Brignac, bur. 6 May 1809 (SJA-4,32)

I am continuing to look for other records.

Comments

Thanks so much for all your help, Jacqueline! I'll jump in on this trail soon - I checked my email really late today.

Answer 3

Here are some sources for info on this family and hints within them for additional sources

http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/fontenot/581/

https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=52&p=surnames.fontenot

http://www.claitors.com/veach/cajunsv3n33.pdf

https://www.geni.com/people/Jean-Louis-Dit-Colin-Fontenot/6000000006817742086

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/645335?availability=Family%20History%20Library

https://www.familytreenow.com/records/genealogy/fontenot

http://www.oocities.org/fontenotfamily/history.htm

http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/i/n/g/Stephanie-E-Inge/GENE1-0001.html

Comments

Y'all have given me so much help - thank you so much!

Answer 4

If anyone has access to the Rev Donald Hebert Southwest Louisiana Records they can verify it.  
If you  have not gotten a satisfactory answer when I go to the library I will look this up. The genealogy library is about 30 min drive for me.  I will try to go there sometime this week.