Philippe Auguste (abt. 1761 - abt. 1809)

Descendants

Died about 1809 at about age 48 in Guadaloupe, West Indies

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Biography

Philippe was born about 1761. He passed away about 1809. No records show he used the middle name Francois or the middle initial F.

Research Notes

Philippe Auguste may have been of German ancestry as noted below. The origins and ancestry of Philippe August will not likely ever be known because there are so many possibilities to consider and so much time has elapsed since he was alive without additional family documents surfacing. However, future DNA matches to descendants of his other possible children besides our ancestor his son Philippe II could bring more clarity to the lineage.

Only two family documents mention the name of the father of Philippe II born in 1789, and the two documents disagree. Philippe II's undated family bible produced by Kimber and Sharpless of New York, who apparently published the bible in 1823, is the oldest family document accessible. The bible states "Philip(pe added later) Auguste, Son of Philippe and Celeste Auguste, was born Point Petre; Island of Guadaloupe (West Indies) on 20th June 1879." Adding the "pe" to the father's given name later may have been to make the name more French, like Philippe's own name because the son was born in a French region. This bible entry and twelve other entries on the birth page were most likely written by Philippe II or his wife Catherine Pearson in their bible because their children were too young to have made these entries. Therefore, this bible record most likely provides the accurate name of Philippe's father as being Philippe because it was written is his own son's bible.

The other document entitled "The Auguste (August) Family from Pe'tre Francois and Celeste Auguste of Guadeloupe Island, West Indies to their descendants of 1907" was written or copied by Eva Lee August Henley, the great granddaughter of Philippe II. By 1907 Eva's entire Auguste lineage was desceased with the exception of her father James Armistead August, who was very interested in family history. Eva's account could have been prepared as late as 1921, a date established by checking the advertisement date for The Washington Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC from which stationary was used to write the family tradition.

In contrast to the bible record, Eva Lee August Henley stated four times that the parents of Philippe II were Pe'tre Francois August and Celeste. Celeste's last name was noted as unknown. Pe'tre was written with an accent over the letter e. This family history has a number of issues associated with the information about these two generations, but the most problematic is the father's name. Pe'tre was not used as a given French name and was a variant of Peter in England, Sweden, Slovenia and Germany, among other locales.

So how could Eva August Henley or someone before her have gotten our ancestor's name wrong? Several things could have led to this error. First is use of the words "Point Petre" in the bible record for the actual name Point-a-Pitre, which possibly resulted in Petre being turned into part of the father's name. Further, we do not know the occupation of Philippe II's father, but pe'tre was an occupational name for an apothecary or grocer from the Old French word pestle, and his son Philippe II did become a grocer. Additionally the name of Pierre Francois, known as Peter Francis, who was born in 1820 and was the son of Philippe II, may have contributed somehow to the name confusion in this document.

However, even the surname Auguste is problematic as being French from the mainland in Europe. Auguste was very uncommon as a French surname, whereas Auguste and Augustin were frequently used as first and middle French names. The surname August/e was used in Germany and Holland, and a Pieter Auguste and a Francois Auguste departed Holland for the Dutch West Indies in 1758 and 1786 respectively, so there were Augustes in the Dutch West Indies who were not from France. Francois Auguste even arrived around the time Philippe Auguste's father would have been getting married. An immigrant subsequently arriving in Guadaloupe, if the islands were held by France at the time of the children's births, would have had children considered French-born, as Philippe II stated he was when he came to America. Based on his surname, this researcher believes it unlikely Philippe's father was born in France and notes that Philipp August was a common German name.

Some specific information in Eva August Henley's family account about Philippe's ancestors was proven inaccurate. The family story stated incorrectly an Auguste bearing the title Duke of Maine was sent as a government representative to Guadeloupe, West Indies after the island became a French dependency and from him descended our ancestor. Louis Auguste (1670-1736), Duke of Maine, was the son of King Louis XIV and was named Louis after his father and Auguste after the Roman Emperor Augustus, thus Auguste was not a surname for the Duke of Maine. This Louis Auguste, favored by his father the king, was much too busy enjoying the good court life to leave France and his patrilineal line died when his two mature sons died childless. Thus our Auguste family is not descended from the Duke of Maine. This connection was likely added to the family tradition based on the popular twentieth century hobby of aligning American families to European noble families without regard to accuracy. Eva August Henley stated the Auguste family was from Maine-et-loire in northwest France, and this statement may be connected to the untruth that our family descended from the Duke of Maine.

Eva August Henley noted Petre Francois Auguste, in other words Philippe's father regardless of his given name, was born "in (sic) the island of Guadeloupe." Eva August's account specifically stated Philippe's parents lived on an island near the port of Point-a-Pitre and a short distance from the mainland; in this context the mainland was assumed by this researcher to be Grand Terre, the largest island of Guadeloupe and where the port was. If this data from Eva was accurate, the actual name of the island where Philippe's family lived is unknown. Exhaustive record searches of records from many cities and islands did not show any Augustes of the correct era born or married in Guadeloupe. Pointe-a-Pitre records were researched without finding any Auguste children births or marriages. In 1787 a Masin August (no further data) died and that same year two children were baptized as Jean Baptiste Pierre Louis Augustine (free mulatto) and Jean Augustin (free quadroon) on 21 Feb and 28 Aug respectively. However, there were also numerous other smaller islands, even including one named les Augustins. At this time there is no evidence Philippe's father was born in Guadeloupe or even in France.

Eva reported the unnamed island where Philippe's parents lived was engulfed about 1809 or 1810 by a submarine volcano or earthquake and the Auguste family was killed and their home was destroyed.

Sources

• Sources are included in research notes discussed above.