♂Cyrille Thibodeaux

Cyrille Thibodeaux (8 October 1773 – 25 October 1829) was a man of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, the husband of Scholastique Breaux and the father of at least six children. He was the fourth great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through his son Placide Cyrille Thibodeaux (1802–1838).

Marriage and children

A Thibodeaux genealogy published in the Attakapas Gazette in 1985, citing the St. Martin church registers, gives his marriage to Scholastique Breaux at St. Martin on 10 November 1799. The same article gives the births of their sons Placide on 4 October 1802, Achille on 16 June 1806 and Olivier on 8 July 1819, and indexes of St. Martin baptisms add a daughter, Josephine, in 1803 and a son, Joseph, in 1809. The sixth child, Belzire, has no recorded birth date. A compiled Acadian genealogy adds a son, Édouard, in 1801 and a daughter, Isabelle, in 1808; a baptism index also gives an Isabelle born to this couple on 25 June 1808, who may be the same daughter as Belzire. The record for Placide writes his mother’s surname as “Bro”. The 1985 genealogy records that Placide married Mathilde Valentine Landry on 20 November 1820, that Achille married Euphrosine Landry in 1825, and that Olivier married Apolline Arthemise Melancon in 1840.

Land and enslaved people

About 1810 a list of the landowners and slaveowners of the Attakapas^W, probably the tax list of that year, places Cyrille in St. Martin Parish. He is entered with seven enslaved people and six arpents of frontage, with a valuation of 1000, next to Jean Thibodeau and the Guedris.

Guardian of his brother’s children

On 5 December 1817, after the death of his brother Nicolas Thibodeaux, the parish judge at St. Martin named Cyrille subrogé tuteur (under-tutor) of Nicolas’s five minor children, and described him as their paternal uncle (oncle paternel). Cyrille accepted the office, swore to it and signed the act.

His death and estate

Cyrille died on 25 October 1829. On 13 November Scholastique petitioned the St. Martin probate court as his widow and as guardian of their minor son Olivier, and named as his heirs Olivier, Placide, Achille, Josephine, the wife of Pierre Guidry, and Belzire, the wife of Olivier Guidry junior. Joseph, born in 1809, is not among them. The family is the same one that appears in 1854, when Achille’s estate was inventoried and named as his heirs his brother Olivier, his sisters Josephine and Belzire, and the sons of his deceased brother Placide.

His mother and his mother-in-law

A compilation printed in the Attakapas Gazette in 1974 says that his mother, Agnes Brun, died on 24 October 1809 at her son Cyrille’s house at Grande Pointe. The widow of Olivier Thibodeau had her goods sold at auction on 20 November 1809, and Cyrille bought a horse and some household goods there along with other members of the family; the sale is most likely hers. Cormier’s compilation of Acadian families adds that Marguerite Breaux, the wife of Firmin Breaux and so Scholastique’s mother, died on 1 September 1815 “at Cyrille THIBAUDOT at la grand pointe”, aged 68. If both accounts are right, the house at Grande Pointe sheltered both of the older women in their last days.

Parents

The 1974 compilation gives his parents as Olivier Thibodeau (born 1732, buried 1803) and Agnes Brun, a native of Acadia and the widow of Paul Doucet, and lists Cyrille among their five children, born 8 October 1773. An index of Louisiana baptisms has a Cirille Thibodeaux born on that day to Olivier Thibodeaux and Agnes, her surname written “Bran”. The 1985 article also lists Cyrille as Olivier’s son, though it gives Olivier’s birth as 1745, which his baptism in 1732 rules out. A register abstract names Olivier and Agnes Brun as the parents of his brother Nicolas, born in 1771, and shows Cyrille Thibodeaux as a witness when Nicolas married Eleonor Prejean on 21 October 1793. No St. Martin register entry for Cyrille’s baptism, marriage or death is known. He is said to have been born at Attakapas, in Louisiane, New France.

Notes

The 1974 compilation gives Olivier’s birth as about 1728; his baptism, recorded at Beaubassin, gives his birth as 4 January 1732. A different Cyrille Thibodeau, born in 1765 to Pierre Thibodeau and Francoise Saunier, married at Opelousas in 1790 and is not this man.

Birth

The birth date, 8 October 1773, is given in compiled sources. It is cited to the 1985 Attakapas Gazette genealogy and to Hebert’s Southwest Louisiana Records, and it matches the 1974 compilation and the baptism index named in the Parents section.

Birthplace

The birthplace is given as Attakapas, Louisiane, New France, in compiled sources. The 1985 Attakapas Gazette genealogy and Hebert’s Southwest Louisiana Records are cited for it, and Cormier’s compiled appendix of Acadian families reads “born at Attakapas in October 1773”.

The 1810 list

The list is an undated list of the landowners and slaveowners of the Attakapas, printed in the Attakapas Gazette in 1976 (volume 11, pages 84–88). Its editor took it to be the tax list of 1810, so that year is an estimate. The entry for Cyrille gives seven slaves, six arpents of frontage and a valuation of 1000. No names of the enslaved people are recorded here.

The 1817 act

The act is dated 5 December 1817 and is part of the succession file for Nicolas Thibodeaux, St. Martin Parish Estate No. 282, in the Louisiana probate records on Ancestry. It names the five minor children as legitimate children of Nicolas and Éléonore Prejean, and it calls Cyrille oncle paternel of the children. He signed it “Cyrille Thibodeau”.