Welcome to the swamps! The Louisiana branches (most, but not all, from New Orleans) have not historically been as well researched as the families on this website from Maryland and New England. Asahel McLellan, whose family moved from the northeast to New Orleans, has a fairly well documented family. But research on the other families here--the Pitards, Gamards, Courets, Maupays, DeGranges, and the rest--has required some fairly difficult, but also rewarding, research. As you can see by the number of queries below, help would be appreciated!
There are two parts to this page: Walls (that is, research is up against one), some of which are specifically about unknown parents, and others which are more general questions; and Unknown Photos. They are in (approximate) date order.
WALLS
1. Post-immigration ancestors.
All of these problems are about parentage. I would really like to push back all the major branches on the site to immigration, but it's just not that easy. These people's parents (it seems) lived in America, but can't be found. . . :
Ann ___?, the wife of Daniel Maupay, Sr. Women's names are often just lost, and so far this is a good example. She apparently married him in Philadelphia after he immigrated. She only seems to be on the 1850 Philadelphia census.
Gustave Pitard Sr.'s family owned
Pitard's Hardware on Canal Street
until the Depression wiped them out.
Who was the father of Joseph Pitard? All that I know about him is compiled on his personal page. This is, perhaps, the biggest stumper on the website, because it would push back the history of the patronymic the site is named after.
The history of Aurora Fouque and her husband, Joseph Fernandez is complex puzzle which seems to involve the issue of race. The 1850 census records her clearly as "M," for "mulatto." But no census after that does, nor does her Death Certificate, which says "white." I can find no record of her marriage to Daniel Maupay Jr. Her daughter's death certificate spells her last name "Fauque." Perhaps the 1850 census was just wrong? Perhaps her husband Joseph was black, not her? Perhaps the family was light enough to "pass"? Perhaps none of this has to do with chasing them down at all? Who were her parents' families?
John McMillan, the second husband of Barbara Klipfel. Her first husband (Charles Fields) was apparently a drunk who died young. And then John McMillan died relatively young as well. He was from "State of New York," according to several vital records, But, who was his New York family?
Amelie Hacker, the wife of Joseph Pitard. There is a Hacker family from Iberia Parish. In 1836 Dr. Jean Baptiste Hacker (abt. 1810-1854) married Emelie Leocade Mayer (bef. 1809 to 1889) and had a daughter named Amelie. Though she is too young to be Joseph Pitard's wife, the coincidence is impressive. Could the wife of Joseph Pitard have been Dr. Hacker's sister, or some other relative?
Caroline Rebecca Simmons. It was hard just to find her maiden name: the only place it seems to occur is on the death certificate for her son Alfonse Gamard Jr.. Her own death certificate says that she was from Charleston, South Carolina. Did her family move to New Orleans when she was young, or did she move there after being married?
Lucie Maurice. There only seems to be a name and a death record (where her name is "Morris"). Who was her family?
This problem is from a different branch of the tree altogether:
Who were the parents of William Chisholm Tomlinson? According to a history of his son the Civil War veteran Augustus A. Tomlinson (who moved over to Texas), he "came from Georgia." His son, however, was born in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.
2. Other Puzzles.
Names and dates are mere data. Turning them into stories is how they become interesting. Here are some problems I've come across:
One overall goal of this "Pitard Family" website is to track down Pitard relatives from New Orleans, especially including the descendants of Joseph Pitard and Gustave Pitard, Sr. Here are two specific questions about Gustave's descendants:
How is Barsilla Bemiss's family related to the rest of the Bemiss family in New Orleans? She is the wife of Gustave Sr.'s oldest son Daniel. I've come across quite a few other Bemiss (or Bermiss, etc.) family references, but can't tie her in. Her parents are on her marriage certificate. She is a curious story because she and her siblings may have been given up by her mother to an orphanage. Her father died in 1878, possibly during the yellow fever epidemic that year. And in the 1880 census, a "Barsilla Bermiss" is indexed in the Poydras Female Orphan Asylum along with an Alice and a Clowdsley "Bermiss." Could her mother have been unable to raise them?
What is the story behind George Dunbar Pitard? It seems he had more than one wife. His first, Grace Feahney, is recorded as having died in 1944, but George is also recorded on the 1930 census as living in Chicago with a wife named Beatrice?
Here are a set of other stumpers about New Orleans families:
There are two different Couret families on the tree: how are they related? One, the family of Jean Bernard Couret, is traceable back to France (thanks to the work of a Couret relative). But there is a second group, the family of Jean Louis Couret, who was also born in France; his daughter Marie Octavie Couret married into the Gelpi family, who are related to the DeGranges.Were Jean Louis and Jean Bernard at all related?
In letters between Joseph DeGrange and his wife, Ellen McMillan, they several times mention a "Mrs. Tormey" who lives in New Orleans. She is clearly older, and they always respectfully call her "Mrs." They named their third child "Joseph Tormey DeGrange." Who was Mrs. Tormey? Was she a relative? Download my edition of the letters to read more . . .
In 1870, Joseph DeGrange travelled north on a trip to Boston. During the trip he write home to his family and addressed his "children": "Henry, Eddy, Josey, Beney, Bella, Nellie, and Cousin Sarah." Actually, only the first five are his children, those born before 1870. The last two are not: Nellie's full name is "Ellen McMillan," and Cousin Sarah (no last name is given for her) seems to be just visiting. Joseph signs "your Uncle" on a personal note to Nellie. So, just who the heck are Nellie and "Cousin Sarah"? Download my edition of the letters to read more . . .
Orris McLellan is a biographer's dream. For starters: what was his involvement in the French Foreign Legion? His obituary mentions that he gained some notoriety when he signed up to serve in WWI in his 60s, and his grave mentions that he was a "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur."
UNKNOWN PHOTOS
The photo of this lovely young woman is labelled "Beatrice DeGrange??"
Can anyone confirm or deny this?
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