Acadians in Louisiana

 Several years ago when my husband and I were RVing in Canada, we visited Fortress Louisbourg and the Historic Acadian Village in Nova Scotia.

Fortress Louisbourg   and The Historic Acadian Village

Both are fantastic places to visit especially if you have French ancestors. We stayed at a campground nearby. The camp host asked my husband if he spoke French and he said, "No, but my wife does." I said, "Oh, I just speak a little Louisiana French." She hugged me and said, "Louisiana! We love Zachary Richard!"  I was familiar with singer Zachary Richard and even had one of his tapes with me. 

Yesterday I found a link on Zachary Richard's Facebook page to:

 "Alpha List of Seven Ships Passengers, 29 July-17 December 1785" 

This in turn led me to Steven Cormier's site Acadians in Gray  This is an absolutely amazing source with links to much more information.

Click on APPENDICES and then on Alpha List of Seven Ships... Of the nearly 2,900 Acadians who found refuge in Louisiana from 1754  to the 1800s, more than half of them arrived on these seven Spanish ships that sailed from Nantes, France to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1785.

If you have Acadian/Cajun ancestors from Louisiana this is a must-see source.

Irish Ancestors

 We have two Irish ancestors in our family tree...Anne Farnan and Anne McGuire.

Anne McGuire was born in August 1824 in Ireland, according to the 1900 U.S. census. Her first husband was Mr. Dunn. He died sometime before 1850. On 2 April 1850 she married Jean Baptiste Begue (1816-1904), who had come to Louisiana from Ste. Martin in the Haute Pyranees of southern France in 1841. They were living in Biloxi, Mississippi at the time. For many years they operated a grocery store and butcher shop there. Anne died 15 August 1901 at age 77. Their son John Blaise Begue (1851-1889) married Anna Amelia Hasling on 6 May 1882 in Biloxi and their son John Louis Begue (1887-1951) is our ancestor.

Anne Farnan was born in February 1827 in Ireland. She married John Gonzales on 5 August 1854 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born in Northern Spain about 1820 and came to New Orleans in 1842. He died in 1884 at age 64 and Anne died 28 November 19, 1910 at age 83. Their son John Henry Gonzales married Anna Hattaway in 1880 and their daughter Sarah Anne Gonzales (1888-1955) married John Louis Begue (1887-1951), son of John Blaise Begue, in 1907. They are my maternal grandparents and our connection to Ireland.

AZTEC CHILI

I made a big pot of Aztec Chili day before yesterday to get us through this latest cold spell. It's 50 degrees this morning with a cold North wind. It's basically a 3 bean chili recipe with chocolate added. Here's the recipe:

1 pound chili grind beef

1 large onion, chopped

3 or so cloves of garlic, chopped

1 bottle of dark beer

1 large can chopped tomatoes and 1 can chopped green chiles  (or 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chiles. Grandma always used Rotel.)

1 can each: red Kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, and white corn

2 tbsps Masa flour or white corn meal

Unsweetened baker's chocolate to taste, grated or chips 

Shredded Mexican cheese to taste

Sprinkle meat with some of the chili powder. Brown meat, onion and garlic in small amount of olive oil in large cast iron skillet. Transfer to large pot. Deglaze skillet with beer and add to meat. Stir in the rest of the chili powder and tomatotes and green chiles and cook for about an hour or so. Add canned beans and corn and cook for another 30 minutes or so. Mix Masa flour with a little water and add to chili to thicken.

Spoon into bowls and stir in chocolate, grated squares or chips. Add Tabasco to taste. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

52 Ancestors - Week 49 - Family Recipes

Sarah Gonzales Begue and John Louis Begue
with grandchildren Vera Booksh and John Hertz 1941

 

My Grandma Sarah Ann Gonzales was born 26 December 1888 in  New Orleans, Louisiana. She married John Louis Begue on 20 November 1907. They had nine children and 16 grandchildren. She was a terrific cook. She rarely used a recipe.  She just knew by looking and smelling when everything was just right. One of the things she taught me to make was Pecan Pralines. (And that's pronounced PahCAWN PrahLEENS.)

PECAN PRALINES 

(The amounts come from a printed recipe in a New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper clipping.)

3 cups brown sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

2 1/2 cups chopped pecans

2 tablespoons butter

1 or 2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat 2 cups of sugar with the milk over medium heat, stirring often. Add the butter and pecans and stir constantly. Cook slowly until it forms a soft ball when dropped into a cup of cold water. Take off the stove to cool for a little whiile. Then drop by large spoonfuls onto wax paper.  When the pralines have cooled and hardened store in a tin to enjoy for Christmas.

If you don't have the time or patience for that recipe you can make Microwave Pralines using this recipe from a Louisiana friend:

Mix all ingredients except the pecans and microwave on high for 9 minutes. Add pecans and stir until thick. Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper.

52 Ancestors - Week 43 - Dig a Little Deeper

Eliza Leonard Booksh (1819-1895)

October 14 is the birthday of my Great Great Grandmother Eliza Leonard Booksh. She was born 14 October 1819 in Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, and baptised on 25 October 1819 at St. Gabriel Church. Her parents were Honore Leonard (1771-1861) and Elisabeth Kraus (1781-1858).

She married Charles Booksh on 18 December 1837 and they had ten children, including my Great Grandfather Samuel Walker Booksh (1853-1930).

She died at age 77 on 10 May 1897. This studio portrait was taken in New Orleans about 1895 and is believed to be her.

Marie Eliza Elizabeth Leonard Booksh 1819-1897

All reactions:

    In tracing her ancestors back I had discovered that her paternal grandparents were Louis Leonard, born 1743 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Marie Anne Dardenne, born 13 Sep 1750 in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her maternal grandparents were John Kraus born c1730 in Baltimore, Maryland, and Ana Margarita Shafer born c1737 in Germany. Every one of them had interesting stories of their own, but it was when I got to her paternal great grandparents that it got really interesting.

     Her great grandfather was Jean Baptiste Leonard who was born 17 October 1690 in Liege, Diocese of Luxemburg, Belgium. He and his wife and four children arrived in New Orleans aboard the ship Venus from L'Orient on 7 April 1721.  In  the 1727 census they are "Habitants in the Environs of New Orleans along the River, Right Bank Ascending." But he is listed alone with two sons. His wife, Marie Paullus, and two of their children had died. 

      I was doing research at the Indian River County Library in Vero Beach, looking through the Catholic Church record books, when I found the marriage record of Jean Baptiste Leonard and his second wife, Anne Coudray, Eliza Leonard's great grandmother, on 11 July 1730 in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The marriage record said that Anne from St. Malo in Brittainy, France, was the widow of Julien Chartier who had died in the Natchez Massacre of 1729. He was from Burgundy and had come to Louisiana to work on the concession of Mr. de Koly.

     This led to more research and I learned Anne was one of the few survivors of that massacre. The women and children who survived were kept prisoners by the Natchez Indians for over two months until the French and their Choctaw allies freed them in January of 1730. They were taken to New Orleans and placed in the care of the Ursuline nuns.  Several books have been written that tell the whole horrible story.

     On July 11, 1730 Anne was married to widower Jean Baptiste Leonard at  the St. Louis Cathedral. They went on to have three children of their own including Louis Leonard, Eliza's grandfather, born in 1743. You never know what you'll find when you dig a little deeper.

52 Ancestors - Weeks 40 and 41

 Longevity and Travel

Once again I'm going to combine two weekly hints into one post. 

My Grandfather Wilton Tisdale Booksh is the subject.  He was born 7 February 1886 in Grosse Tete, Louisiana, son of Samuel Walker Booksh (1853-1930) and Arabella Maria Tisdale (1855-1934). He died at age 99 on 9 June 1985 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He was my longest living ancestor.

Wilton Tisdale Booksh Sr. with 
his two sons, Wilton Jr. and William, 1913
     

Vera Booksh with Grandpa Booksh in 1941

He was also my most well-traveled Grandparent. He was a sugar chemist and worked at sugar mills in Louisiana and Florida as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Honduras. He definitely gave me my desire to travel. 

I remember the postcards he would send me with pictures of Aztec and Mayan ruins and the stories he would tell me that made me want to learn more about those cultures.  He taught me how to count in Spanish and my first Spanish sentence, Yo quiero helado - I want ice cream. Many years later I ended up studying Spanish and majoring in Anthropology and Art.

Grandpa continued to work as a sugar chemist into his 80's, in Louisiana in the fall and traveling in the spring "to the tropics" as he always said, for their sugar season. I remember visiting him at the Cedar Grove Sugar Mill. 

I remember Grandpa telling me about the September 1928 Hurricane that struck when he was working at Belle Glade in Florida. He said he weathered the storm in his lab and watched people being blown past the windows. He told me about the snow storm that struck New Orleans in 1895. He had stories about his Great Grandfather Honore Leonard who fought in the Battle of New Orleans and said his mother had told him we were related to Benjamin Franklin. He said he told Louisiana Power and Light about that but they still wouldn't give him free electricity. And when I started doing genealogy I found out the story was true. 

Around 1910 Grandpa built his own roll film camera and he took lots of photos. I remember sitting and looking at his old photo albums and listening to stories about all the photos he took.

I remember going to a Booksh Family Reunion in Grosse Tete with my parents and him and meeting a lot of the people he had told me about. He made my genealogy come to life for me.

William Booksh and Wilton Booksh Jr. with their maid in Cuba, c1917

    One story that Grandpa and my Daddy, Wilton Jr., told me was about when rebels attacked the sugar plantation where Grandpa was working. Daddy remembered the sugar mill and the house where they were living and riding in an ox cart to escape. "The ox wouldn't go, so the driver tied a knot in his tail and jerked on it to make him go. It might have been in Honduras. They were always having revolutions in the tropics. At one place the revolutionaries came and told us to leave because they were going to burn everything down. We got out with the clothes on our backs and watched all the houses burning."  I think of that story whenever I hear someone say "I'm gonna jerk a knot in your tail."

I found a newspaper article from June 4, 1923 that may have been about that experience. Titled HONDURAS REVOLT REPORTED BREWING, it said:

     "The arrival today from Honduras of persons fleeing because they believe a revolution is impending again, is attracting attention in the Central American republic. On the same steamer with the family of Wilton Booksh, a sugar engineer in Honduras, who sent his wife and children here for safety, were several Hondurans reported interested in the election of a successor to President Lopez Guiterrez. Booksh advised his father here ten days ago that the country was on the brink of civil war with the factions only awaiting the command fro m their leaders, and that he would send his family to New Orleans util the trouble blew over. His wife and children debarked today..."

Another article I found later was about their earlier escape from Jobabo Plantation in Cuba in March 1917:

AMERICANS FLEE CUBA

Tell of Destruction of Much Property at Jobabo

NEW ORLEANS, March 26 - There arrived today on the Turrialba of the United Fruit Line a sorry company of refugees from the Jobabo sugar plantation, situated on the border line of Camaguey and the Oriente Provinces in Cuba. They had a story of maltreatment and devastion to tell at the hands of the rebel bands roaming through that country. The losses to the property in question are already $1,000,000 in burned cane alone, while the losses in buildings burned, houses sacked and burned, and property of Americans carried off by the bandits total at least $55,000.

   The event they described occurred between Feb. 3 and March 18. They had been cut off for thirty-three days from all communication with the outside world.

   The party on the Turrialba consisted of Hunting Raynor Sayre, factory superintendent of the Jobabo mill, and his wife; Joseph Steinberg, chief chemist, a Russian; Wilton Booksh, American, assistant chemist; his wife, and three little children...

Another longer article in the Times-Picayune the next day, titled REFUGEES RELATE STORY OF RAPINE, had more details:

  "...Two ox carts were at last allowed them for the women and children, the men following on foot. They set out in the morning but it was night before they could make the ten miles to the nearest plantation, where they received shelter. The Americans lost all their possessions except what they stored up. Mrs. Sayers says that the nervous strain on the women was awful. As for herself, she was not afraid to die. Her husband and herself each had secreted a pistol and they were determined some of the scoundrels should suffer if they themsleves weere to be killed like dogs..."

52 Ancestors - Week 39 - Surprise!

    Yesterday I posted two photos for my birthday and my mother's birthday. One was of Mama standing on her front steps taken in 1918. The other was of Mama and me taken in 1941. The Surprise! today is that I'm going to tell you what Mama remembered about that first photo.

Vera Mary Begue, about 1918

     I made a lot of tape recordings of Mama talking about her memories as we looked through photo albums and through her genealogy papers. She is listed at several different addresses on the U.S. censuses. The family in 1910 was listed at the home of Mama's grandmother, Anna Hathaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street in Algiers. On Mama's birth certificate in September 1912 her family is living at 617 Newton Street. In 1920 the John L. Begue family is listed at 814 Nunez Street, about three blocks away from her grandmother, Anna Hattaway Gonzales, at 936 Vallette Street. "She lived there all of my childhood that I can remember." In 1930 the family is listed at 820 Slidell Avenue.

     Mama said, "I was the third child. Robert was born first. He was born in November 1908. He was named for his godfather and Daddy's best friend, Robert Crombie. Florence was born in October 1910. She was named for Mama's cousin, Florence Schaef, who was her godmother, and Anna Amelia for her two grandmothers. I wasn't named after anybody, just a name Mama liked. I had blonde hair when I was little and hazel eyes."

     "When Mama told the nurse she was going to name me Vera Mary, the nurse said, 'Oh, very merry, be-gay!' A lot of people pronounce it BE-gay, but Daddy always said BAY-gue. I was a blue baby. John was also a blue baby. He was born when I was two in 1914. He was named for Daddy, John Louis Begue Jr."

      One day we talked about the houses she remembered living in. Grandpa Begue was a shipfitter and a plumber. Mama said, "Daddy put indoor plumbing in half the houses in Algiers." He may have been trading plumbing work for rent.

     Mama said, "The first house I remember was on Vallette Street, when I was about four years old, between Newton and Homer. That's where the picture of me and Florence standing in front of the picket fence was taken. Mama made all our clothes. She even made our underwear. She always called them step-ins and crocheted lace around the legs. Then she washed and starched and ironed them, and the crocheted lace was stiff and scratchy. You can see Mama's African violets. She could grow anything."

Vera and Florence Begue, about 1916

     "Leotha was born on Belleville Street in January, 1917, on January second, one day before Little Grandma's birthday. She was named for Mama's friend, Leotha Gautreaux, and for Aunt Mamie's daughter, Mildred. Leotha Mildred Begue."

     "We were living on Atlantic Avenue when the picture of me standing on the steps with the cabbage bouquet was taken. I was about four or five years old. There was some kind of benevolent association that Daddy was president of, and they were having a parade. Florence was supposed to present the bouquet to Daddy when the parade stopped at our house, but she refused. She said it was stupid, so I got to do it. The bouquet was a big head of cabbage with cigars stuck in it. I remember looking down when they were going to take the picture and thinking, 'At least they could have swept up the cigarette butts first!' " 

[I used a digital broom to clean up the cigarette butts just for you, Mama.]