♀Agnes Brun

Agnes Brun (died 24 October 1809) was an Acadian woman of the Attakapas District^W in Spanish Louisiana, the widow of Paul Doucet and the second wife of Olivier Thibodeau. She was the fifth great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) by two separate lines of descent, through her sons Cyrille Thibodeaux (1773–1829) and Nicolas Thibodeaux.

Life

Agnes was baptized at Port-Royal, in Acadie, on 2 February 1743, at the family home, by Jean Brun. Her parents were Joseph Brun (born 1719) and Marguerite Pellerin (born 1718). Her burial in 1809 gives her age as about 70, which is four years more than this baptism allows.

A sketch of her husband’s life published in the Attakapas Gazette in 1974 calls her a native of Acadie and the widow of Paul Doucet. It records that the couple signed a civil marriage contract at St. Martin on 30 September 1786, “several years after their marriage”. The date is odd because the couple had a son baptized fourteen years earlier: an abstract of the church register gives the birth of Nicolas, son of Olivier and Agnes Brun, as 15 June 1771 and his baptism as 17 July 1772. Cormier’s synthesis quotes the petition the couple made to the civil authorities at Attakapas: “At the time of their marriage they had between 2, 3 children with no right to inherit”, and they “Now wish to make a marriage contract and last will and wish to … include those of the first marriage as those of the second.” On that account the contract covered the children of both marriages, which suggests it was made to give the earlier children a right to inherit. At Nicolas’s marriage to Éléonore Prejean on 21 October 1793, where his parents were written “Olivier & Ignes Brian, of Attakapas”, his brother Cyrille Thibodeaux was a witness. The 1974 sketch lists five children of the marriage: Nicolas, Cyrille, Olivier, Marguerite and Jean Baptiste.

In August 1808, fourteen months before her death, Agnes made a conditional gift of all her property to her heirs, who were to pay her a yearly pension of 25 piastres each. The act names them as Olivier’s sons Théodore, Jean, Cyrille and Nicolas; Pierre Giroir and Joseph Sonier; and the grandchildren through her daughter Anne Doucet, who had died. These are most likely the Huval children: Célestine and Marguerite, with their husbands Valéry and Michel Martin, and Placide and Cyrille, who stood for their mother. Agnes made her mark on the act.

The same sketch gives the burial of Olivier Thibodeau on 19 November 1803, and records that Agnes died on 24 October 1809 “at the home of her son Cyrille at Grande Pointe”, aged 70 years, and was buried the next day at St. Martin of Tours.

Lines of descent

Agnes reaches Floyd by two separate lines, both on Floyd’s mother’s side through Ida Serrette (1903–1990). The first runs through her son Cyrille Thibodeaux (1773–1829), the second through her son Nicolas, and each son is a fourth great-grandfather of Floyd. The two lines meet again in the family of Floyd’s grandmother, Amelia Pennison Daigle (1869–1906). Her father, Jean Baptiste Daigle (born about 1847), descends from Nicolas through Nicolas’s daughter Anne Doralie Thibodeau (1799–1855) and her daughter Marcelite Ida Melancon. Her mother, Melia Thibodeaux (born about 1850), descends from Cyrille through his son Placide Cyrille Thibodeaux (1802–1838).

Notes

Her age at death puts her birth about 1739. Cormier’s synthesis, quoting the Attakapas censuses, gives her age as 28 in 1771, which fits the 1743 baptism, and as 40 in 1777. A table in the 1975 volume of the same journal gives the marriage contract as 13 September 1786 rather than 30 September. The journal’s 1974 patriot series also names a different Agnes Brun, a native of Acadie buried on 6 November 1798 at the age of 59, as the first wife of Jean-Baptiste Broussard; she is not this Agnes. The 1808 gift is recorded in St. Martin Parish estate no. 28, dated 23 August 1808. The act spells the grandchildren’s surname Duval; the Huval reading rests on the 1786 contract of Jean-Baptiste Huval Jr. and Nanette Doucet, daughter of the late Paul Doucet and Agnes Brun (Attakapas Gazette, vol. 21 (1986), pp. 89-90), with Anne Doucet most likely the same woman as Nanette. The act does not say how Pierre Giroir or Joseph Sonier were related to the family.

Baptism and parents

The Port-Royal register, in An Acadian Parish Remembered (Nova Scotia Archives), records the baptism at home on 2 February 1743 by Jean Brun. On 16 April 1743 the priest Desenclaves supplied the rest of the ceremonies and named the child as the legitimate daughter of Joseph Brun and Marguerite Pellerin. Her godparents were Bernard Pellerin and Marguerite Gaudet, her mother’s parents; the register writes the grandmother’s name as Godet. Her parents married at Port-Royal on 29 July 1743, after the baptism.