Jean Baptiste Trahan (1761 - 1840)

Born 3 Apr 1761 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Marie Francoise Marguerite Trahan — married 3 Jan 1785 in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana, New Spain

Husband of Francoise Pitre — married 14 Nov 1832 in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States

Descendants

Died 13 Jun 1840 at age 79 in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, United States

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Jean Baptiste Trahan is an Acadian. Join: Acadians Project Discuss: ACADIA

Jean Baptiste Trahan lived in Louisiana. Join: Louisiana Families Project Discuss: louisiana

Biography

NOTE: It isn't clear how Jean Baptiste Trahan got to Louisiana. He hasn't been identified as a passenger of one of the seven ships that brought Acadians to Louisiana in 1785. He married in Louisiana 3 Jan 1785, which is before any of "the seven ships" had yet arrived from France. He isn't listed with his family on le Saint Remi. His wife Marie Francoise arrived in Louisiana as an infant in 1765. A birth record for a child named Marguerite Trahan has parents Jean Baptiste - of Liverpool & Marie TRAHAN - of Acadia, and names the grandparents: Pat[ernal]s: Jean TRAHAN & Magdeleine HEBERT; Mat[ernal]s: Michel TRAHAN & Euphroisine VINCENT - all of Acadia, so we can be sure this is the same couple. ^[1]

Jean Baptiste Trahan is probably on the Wall of Names at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville, Louisiana but his plaque has yet to be identified. ^[2]

Jean-Baptiste Trahan, fils, eldest son of Acadians Jean-Baptiste Trahan and Madeleine Modeste Hébert of Minas, born in exile at Liverpool, England, on 3 April 1761, ^[3] would have been repatriated from England to France with his family in the spring of 1763.

Perhaps as a sailor or a stowaway, he came to Louisiana by January 1785, when he married cousin Marie Françoise Trahan, daughter of Michel Trahan, at Attakapas.^[4]

His wife, Marie Françoise, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her family had been imprisoned by the British until the end of the war. When the war ended, she came to Louisiana with her family (and the Beausoleil party) in 1765. They settled on the Vermilion River and had five known children. Their daughters married into the Duhon and Simon families. Marie's succession record was filed at the Vermilionville courthouse, present-day Lafayette Parish, in June 1832; she would have been in her late 60s that year. ^[5]

Jean-Baptiste, fils remarried to Françoise Pitre, daughter of fellow Acadian Modeste Pitre, and thrice-widowed (of Joseph Trahan, fils, Jean-Joachim Desormeaux, and Pierre Labombarde, fils), in a civil ceremony in Lafayette Parish in November 1832; he was 71 years old and she was 68 at the time of the wedding. Needless to say, she gave him no more children.^[6]

Jean-Baptiste Trahan died in Lafayette Parish in June 1840; he was 80 years old.^[7] His was the only line of his father's family to survive in Louisiana; his younger brothers, who came to Louisiana from France in 1785 and married and settled in the Attakapas District, produced no sons who had sons of their own. Though Jean Baptiste had at least five sons, only two of them seem to have created families of their own, so the survival of his line was precarious. ^[8]

Residence-England, France & Louisiana

Census: 7 Jun 1763 Liverpool, England ^[9]

Census: Sep 1784 Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France. He is one of the 3 sons on the list, but he didn't sail with the family on Le Saint Remi. ^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ "Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900": compact disk #101 - Donald J. Hébert - Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001

   TRAHAN, Marguerite a twin (Jean Baptiste - of Liverpool & Marie TRAHAN - of Acadia) b. 25 Dec. 1798, bt. 7 May 1800 Pats: Jean TRAHAN & Magdeleine HEBERT; Mats: Michel TRAHAN & Euphroisine VINCENT - all of Acadia; Spons: Pierre TRAHAN & Augustine AUCOIN. "A una salida en" [during a mission at] Vermillon at the home of Joseph DUON. Fr. Michel Bernard BARRIERE (SM Ch.: v.5, #259)

2. ↑ "The Wall of Names at the Acadian Memorial"; Wall of Names Committee; Jane G. Bulliard, Chair; second edition, 2015; Bodemuller The Printer, USA.
3. ↑ Gérard-Marc Braud. Acadiens en France; Nantes et Paimboeuf, 1775-1785, (Nantes, France: Ouest Éditions, 1999) p. 247.
4. ↑ Donald J. Hébert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900, compact disk #101 ("SWLR CD"), (Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; reprints by Claitor's Publications);

   TRAHAN, Jean Baptiste "la vieille Angleterre" [old England - Britain] (min. son of Jean & Magdelaine HEBERT) m. 3 Jan. 1785 Marie Francoise TRAHAN, d'Acadie (min. daughter of dec.Michel & Frozine VINCENT) No witnesses are listed. Fr. GEFFROTIN (SM Ch.: v.3, #36)

5. ↑ "Acadians in Gray"; Steve Cormier 2000-2016
6. ↑ Hébert, SWLR CD:
   • TRAHAN, Jean Baptiste widr.of Marie TRAHAN m. 14 Nov. 1832 Francoise PITRE, wid. of Joseph TRAHAN (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Mar. # 81)
   • PITRE, Francoise wid. of Joseph TRAHAN m. 14 Nov. 1832 Jean Baptiste TRAHAN (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Mar. #81)
   • TRAHAN, Jean Baptiste m. Francoise PITRE In Succ. of Francoise PITRE dated 28 Aug. 1840 (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Succ. # 420 1/2)
   • PITRE, Francoise m. Jean Baptiste TRAHAN Succ. lists all her children, including with her two other husbands. Succ. dated 28 Aug. 1840 (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Succ. #420 1/2)
7. ↑ "Southwest Louisiana Records", Rev. Donald Joseph Hebert, Volumes 1-30 digitized on CD; Claitor’s Publishing Division, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

   TRAHAN, Jean Baptiste d. 13 June 1840 at age 80 yrs. (Laf. Ch.: v. 3, p. 145)

   TRAHAN, Jean Baptiste m. Francoise PITRE In Succ. of Francoise PITRE dated 28 Aug. 1840 (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Succ. # 420 1/2)

   PITRE, Francoise m. Jean Baptiste TRAHAN Succ. lists all her children, including with her two other husbands. Succ. dated 28 Aug. 1840 (Laf. Ct. Hse.: Succ. #420 1/2)

8. ↑ "Acadians in Gray"; Steve Cormier 2000-2016
9. ↑ Karen Theriot Reader, Geneanet.org, citing: Milton P. and Norma Gaudet Rieder, Acadians in France, vol. II: Belle Isle en Mer Register & La Rochette Papers, (Metairie, LA: Authors, 1972) pp. 114, 120.

   Note: He is listed with his father Jean, and five aunts and uncles.

   Text: On the list taken by agent George Langton at Liverpool on 7 Jun 1763, with 40 numbered family groups, who were delivered to the Sieur De La Rochette, and embarked on board "L' Esturgeon," commanded by Captain Belon, and bound for France, Family # 31.

   Margt. TREHAN, 29;

   Jean TREHAN, 27;

   Fras. TREHAN, 24;

   Paul TREHAN, 20;

   Fras. TREHAN, 22;

   Isabel TREHAN, 17;

   Jean Batiste [no surname], 1.

   Text: On the [English] roll of the 53 Acadian families detained at Liverpool, and embarked on board the royal sailing barge L'Esturgeon commanded by Sieur Louis BELON, dated 7 Jun 1763:

   42.

   Jean Baptiste TRAHAN;

   Madeleine [HEBERT] TRAHAN;

   Jean TRAHAN;

   Isabelle TRAHAN.

10. ↑ Jacqueline K. Voorhies, Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians: Census Records of the Colony, 1758-1796, (Lafayette, LA: University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1973) p. 499.

    Text: On the list of the Acadian families "who want to go to Louisiana to establish themselves at the expense of His Catholic Majesty, dated Sep 1784 (cited as A.D.S. Legajo 2575).

    On list from NANTES:

    Jean TRAHAN, with wife Magdeleine HÉBERT, 3 sons, 2 daughters, for a total of 7 in family.