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.