Embracing her Louisiana Roots

I’ve traced my ancestors to France in the mid-1700’s. However, we begin in the 1800’s with an account of the lives of a courageous young couple who gave up all they knew for a dream they both shared. Auguste Bertrand and his new wife Louise Fitch (my great-great-great grandparents) set out from their home in Bourdeaux in search of a new life. They gathered what belongings they could carry, sold what little was left and headed out to sea. They spent five months aboard a ship plagued by violent storms and illness until finally coming ashore at a trading post in Arcadia . The Bertrands thanked God they made it safely and eventually migrated south where they settled deep in the bayous of Louisiana and raised many children.

My great-great grandmonther, Emma Isadora Bertrand was born on January 15, 1849. Emma was raised, along with her brothers and sisters, in the home built by her pioneering parents, Auguste and Louise. It was there in the bayou, where Emma met her husband Francois Delatte. They too were blessed with many children, and on February 23, my great-grandmonther Eve Auguste Delatte was born.

Eve married my great-grandfather, Alexis LeBoeuf on December 28, 1893 in a small church in Chacahoula, Lousisiana. Like the Bertrands, the LeBoeufs also migrated from Bordeaux, France in search of a better life. Alexis’ parents were Theophile Etienne LeBouef and Mary Philomene Cauliet. Both Theophile and Eve’s brother fought in the Civil War and were captured in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863.

My grandmother, Marie Monique LeBoeuf was the fifth of seven children born to Eve and Alexis. She was only three years old when her mother died of complications during the birth of her youngest sibling. Grandma remembered asking her daddy, “Is she asleep?” then leaning up to kiss her mother’s cheek. She was too young to remember much else.

Grandma married a merchant seaman in New Orleans (Merrill Busch). They had three children, one of whom they called Te Bug (That’s my mama!)

Grandma passed away in 1996, but while she was with us, she told us all the stories she could remember. Of particular interest is a funny one about a man named Willie Pete who used to run drunk through the bayou (I’m sure there are quite a few of these stories…..) I spent a lot of my childhood in Louisiana and visit my relatives there every chance I get.

My accent is a combination of the people I was raised around. You oughta hear them!

If you’ve got any crazy bayou stories, send them on! I love hearing them. Who knows…. we might be related….. ain’t all the bayou folk related? Logs have mercy!!!