♀Ludivine Guillebaut

Ludivine Guillebaut was the wife of Michel Cormier (born 1772) and the mother of Michel Cormier, born on 11 March 1799. She was the fourth great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through her son Michel Cormier (1799–1853).

In the records she is known only as a name in published abstracts of the St. Martinville church register. An index of those abstracts records her son’s birth on 11 March 1799 and names his parents as Michel Cormier and Ludivine Guillebaut. Other index entries record the births at Saint Martinville of a daughter, Susanne, on 2 August 1795, and of a son, Eloy, on 5 September 1810, both naming her as mother. The abstract of the 1828 baptism of her granddaughter Madeleine Ordalie Cormier, as quoted on a memorial page, names the child’s paternal grandparents as Michel Cormier and Ludivine Guilbeaud. Both come from the same published series, and the register itself has not been seen.

Early life

Her parents were Charles Guilbeau (1736–1809) and his first wife Anne, called Nanette, Trahan. The published abstract of her own marriage in the St. Martinville register names her as Divine, daughter of Charles and Nanette Trahan, and a Charles Guilbeau stood among the witnesses. The abstract of her son Michel’s baptism in 1799 names his maternal grandparents as Charles Guilbeau and Anne Trahan, and Bona Arsenault’s compiled genealogy and Cormier’s compilation of the Acadians of Louisiana give the same parents. No record of her own birth is known; her age at death puts it about 1770. When the Attakapas post was counted in 1771, Charles’s household held his wife and one unnamed girl aged one, who fits her age at death.

A compiled family history of the Guilbeau line says her mother died in the early 1770s, and that her father married again at Attakapas in November 1775, to Marguerite Bourg. Two full siblings from the first marriage are on record: a brother, Jean Charles, born on 15 December 1771 and baptized at Pointe Coupée on 15 July 1772, and a sister, Emilie, born at Saint Martinville on 20 December 1773. The brother’s baptism is in a published abstract of the Pointe Coupée register; the sister’s birth is in an index of Saint Martinville births.

Marriage and death

She married Michel Cormier. The marriage took place at Attakapas on 9 January 1793, and the St. Martinville church register holds the entry. The entry names his parents as Michel Cormier and Anne Saunier of Opelousas, written Nanette Sonier in the register, and her parents as Charles Guilbeau and Anne Trahan, written Nanette Trahan. Jean and Charles Guilbeau and Amand Cormier were the witnesses. The couple settled at Grande Pointe on the Bayou Teche. She died at her home on the bayou on 22 January 1815, aged 45, and was buried the next day in the parish cemetery at Saint Martinville. Her succession was opened in January 1816.

Notes

Parentage

Cormier’s compilation calls her Ludivine, called Divine, and names her parents as Charles Guilbeau and his first wife Anne Trahan. A compiled Guilbeau family history gives her father the name Charles dit Charlitte. A Sons of the American Revolution patriot sheet printed in the Attakapas Gazette in 1974 lists the children of his first marriage as Ludivine, Jean Charles and Emilie, and gives the second marriage as 20 November 1775, to Marguerite Bourg. Compiled trees give the same parents. The published abstract of the Pointe Coupée register, which covers the Diocese of Baton Rouge^W’s registers from 1770 to 1803, writes the family name as Guilbau and records the brother’s baptism; Ludivine herself has no entry in that volume. The abstract of her marriage names her parents as Charles and Nanette Trahan, which makes it the closest register tie to her parentage, and the abstract of her son’s 1799 baptism writes the names as Guillebaut and Trahan.

Dates

The patriot sheet and an index of births give Jean Charles’s birth as 15 December 1771. The Pointe Coupée abstract writes 15 December 1772 and adds [sic]. Bona Arsenault gives Ludivine’s birth as 1772, which hardly fits a full brother born in December 1771. Her age of 45 in the burial abstract and the girl aged one in her father’s household in 1771 both point to about 1770. Family trees give 1772 and 1775 without a register source. The patriot sheet gives Anne Trahan’s death as before 1775; the compiled family history places it in the early 1770s.

Sources

Her marriage, her burial and her son’s 1799 baptism are known from Donald J. Hébert’s published abstracts of the St. Martinville register, each as a compiled family tree quotes it; the register pages themselves have not been seen. The place of the wedding is given as Attakapas, as Cormier’s compilation gives it; the abstract comes from the St. Martinville church volume, and Bona Arsenault places the wedding at St. Martinville. No record of her birth is known.