November 17, 2022 research. Or an adventure in trying to read 18th century French cursive. Or how I ended up spending the greater part of the evening in a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

I’ve been looking into the information available on Ancesty.com about our alleged Tullier (or LeTullier, or Thuillier, or Tuillier,) ancestors.  

According to the majority of the information on the site, Collette Renaud LeTullier came over on the ship L’Amitié at age 45. Her husband, Rene, had died.  She traveled with three of her children: Jean-Charles – carpenter 19 years, Isidore (who is my ancestor) 14 years, and Adélaïde 16 years.

What is strange, is that I found Collette and Rene in Ile St Jean in Quebec in 1767 just four years after their marriage.  Listed in the “Report Concerning Canadians 1767” (yes, it brings up Thuillier the damn name has been misselled so many different ways} are Collette and Rene.  Apparently she petitioned the government for assistance since they did not even have “the subsistence of 6 sols” (according to my poorly translated French) and received 200 sol.  Why did they go in 1767? Were any of their children born there?  Did they use that 200 sol to return to France? 

I think Collette and her family ended up in France after their expulsion.  There she met and married René.  Sometime in 1767 she and René were on Ile St Jean, as evidenced in the listing from the above report.  They ended up back in France, before Collette and the three children headed for Louisiana.  René died on the way to La Rochelle where they were to depart.

Research to do:

• Confirm Collette’s mother: Marie Madeleine Pothier

• Confirm Collette’s father: Jean Baptiste Renaud

• Confirm René’s mother: Joanne (Jeanne) LePigeon

• Confirm René’s father: Marin (Martin) Tullier (LeTullier)

• Confirm Collette and René’s children 

• Sketches and descriptions of life in French Acadia (later British)

Brief Acadian History (as I have summed up.  I am still reading ‘A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland’]

• Settled in the 17th and early 18th centuries 

• French government specified land bordering the atlantic coast roughly between the 40th and 46th parallels

• Population included the various indigenous First Nations that comprised the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Acadian people, and other French settlers

• 1605 Port-Royal was established as the first capital of Acadia.  It was the longest serving French Acadian capital until the British siege of Port-Royal in 1710

• Six colonial wars in a 74 year period in which the British interests tried to capture Acadia, starting with King William’s War in 1689.

• Dude.  There were, like, so many wars.  

• Acadia was conquered in 1710 during Queen Anne’s War in 1710, New Brunswick and most of Maine remained contested territory

• Prince Edward Island (Ile St Jean) and Cape Breton (Ile Royale) remained under French control as agreed under Article XIII of the Treaty of Utrecht. However the Acadians were required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the British government.  

• September 1755 Acadians refused to take the oath.  The British were not interested in tolerating their Catholicism

• 10,000+ Acadians were rounded up and sent to the thirteen colonies in the south. Their homes, shops, buildings, crops, livestock, etc., were burned.  Some Acadians went to England and were arrested.  Others went to France but were treated as outcasts.

• Latter part of the 18th century, 3,000 Acadians traveled to Louisiana.  Most worked as laborers and were treated as outcasts because of their strange French dialect. 

• 
  

Sources:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. “Acadia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Nov. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadia

Cyr, Dennis. “History.” Acadian Genealogy - Historical Acadian-Cajun Resources, 2 Dec. 2018, https://www.acadian.org/history/

“The History of Acadia.” Edited by Histogracial, YouTube, 6 Dec. 2021, https://youtu.be/eHgsKex2edI.

A map I made of the various places I have connected with my Tullier/Jones family.

I am having very little luck finding much about my Porrier family.  Some of it has to do with the fact that the name was spelled a billion different ways: Purrier, Parrier, Poirier, Porier, etc.  Peter’s wife was called Mary Victoria Leteff.  It seemed a good idea to try and follow her family.  Maybe I will uncover something about the Porriers.

Mary Victoria’s father was called Jean Francois Leteff.  He went by the anglicized Frank.  The first click led me to a U.S. Civil War Prisoner of War record.  It seems Frank surrendered to the Union on May 4, 1865 at Citronelle, Alabama.  He was paroled May 12 of the same year in Gainsville, Alabama. According to the widow’s pension application I found online. Frank joined the Confederate army sometime in 1862 and remained with them until their surrender in 1865.  That probably explains the eight day stay as a prisoner of war. 

Pension application Frank's widow submitted in 1900 after he died.  

He was part of Ogden’s Regiment, led by Colonel F.N. Ogden.  The regiment was surrendered by Lieutenant General R. Taylor C.S.A. to Major General E.R.S. Canby U.S.A. in 1865.  

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The earliest census where I can find ol’ Frank is the 1860 census.  He is listed as living in baton rouge with his wife Onorene and their daughter Victorine.  He is 57, his wife 53, and the daughter is 10.  The parents list their place of birth as France.  That leads in a different direction.  Did they immigrate directly to Louisiana?

Frank is in about the middle of the document, with his wife and child listed after.

As it turns out, yes they did.  At least Frank did.  According to the immigration records online Francois Leteff immigrated to West Baton Rouge in 1826.  He naturalized on September 20, 1849. Yet I can not find anything about his wife Onorene (or Honorine).

   

Frank's immigration card listing his date of immigration and naturalization. 

20 Sep 184920 Sep 18  

Damn  Frank is throwing wrenches in at every opportunity.  It seems that Onorene and Victorine died sometime between 1850 and 1866.  In 1866 Frank married Mary Henry.  My ancestor, Victoria, was born before he married the Henry woman.

There are a few family trees created by members of the various genealogy sites. Some list Frank's date of birth sometime in 1844. That does not match any of the other records I have found for Frank. There are a few which list his birth in France. Further inspection of these records prove that while a François Leteff was born that day, it was not our Francois Leteff.

Frank was in his 80s when he died in 1900.

The Tullier/Poirrier Connection Part 1

 

My grandfather Roy’s mother was called Isabella Edalie Poirrier.  According to her death record she died in 1953. She was married to Ezdore Joseph Tullier.  Her parents were Peter Ropheny Poirrier and Mary Victoria Leteff.  

I found Peter in the 1870 US census.  Now I am scanning through the 1860 census to see if I can find his family.  According to the 1870 census, his father Michel, was a prison guard.  Now I’m chasing Michel through the census.  

Peter’s father Michel, seems to have served in the confederate army.  The Porrier I found in the confederate database said that he died on the way home to Louisiana on furlough. I really don’t know if that is the same person.  I need to do more research.  It is VERY frustrating to not be local to the information I am researching.