♂Olivier Thibodeau

Olivier Thibodeau (4 January 1732 – 18 November 1803) was an Acadian settler of the Attakapas District^W in Spanish Louisiana, one of the eight Acadian chiefs named in the Dauterive Compact of 1765, and was twice married. He was the fifth great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) by two separate lines of descent, through his sons Cyrille Thibodeaux (1773–1829) and Nicolas Thibodeaux.

Life

A sketch of his life published in the Attakapas Gazette in 1974 calls him a native of Acadie and the son of Charles Thibaudeau and Francoise Comeau. Cormier’s synthesis of the Thibodeau family names his parents as Charles Thibodeau and Marie-Francoise Comeau, and a Thibodeaux genealogy in the Gazette in 1985 lists a Charles Thibodeau (1689–1756) married to Francoise Comeau (born 1693), though it places Olivier elsewhere (see the notes below). His first wife was Madeleine Broussard, whom the 1974 sketch also describes as born in Acadie. They most likely married about 1763. The 1974 sketch gives three children of that marriage: Marie, who married Joseph Sonnier, Théodore, and Anne Marguerite, born on 10 May 1765, who died that month. It records Madeleine’s own death on 16 May 1765 and her burial the next day. Six weeks before that death, on 4 April 1765 at New Orleans, he was one of eight Acadian chiefs named in the Dauterive Compact, the agreement made before the royal notary Garic under which cattle were placed with the Acadians on shares for six years.

The 1985 genealogy says that he settled above the land of a cousin, and that he received a Spanish grant of 6 arpents^W front by 40 arpents deep on both sides of Bayou Teche on 20 June 1771. It adds that he obtained a second grant in the Bayou Vermilion area on 5 January 1777, and that his son Théodore received a grant on the same day, directly above his father’s. The 1974 sketch, part of a series on the district’s patriots of the American Revolution, lists him on the roster of “La Compagnie de Milice des Attakapas” dated 1 May 1777. He is named in the Attakapas militia company, formed on 20 June 1774 and certified by a review held on 10 June 1774, as “Olivier Tibaudau”. Louisiana was then a Spanish colony, and Spain went to war with Britain in 1779^W. The general census and tax list for the church at Attakapas, dated 1 April 1781, gives “Olivier Thibaudot” with eleven persons, 180 animals and 32 arpents.

Second marriage

The 1974 sketch names his second wife as Agnes Brun, a native of Acadie and the widow of Paul Doucet, and 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 second marriage: Nicolas, Cyrille, Olivier, Marguerite and Jean Baptiste.

On 23 September 1786, before Commandant DeClouet, he signed the marriage contract of Jean-Baptiste Huval Jr. and Nanette Doucet, daughter of the late Paul Doucet and Agnes Brun. As her stepfather he promised the bride horses.

The inventory of his estate, taken at the Attakapas post on 25 July 1804 at the request of his widow and heirs, dates his death to 18 November 1803, the day before his burial. The sketch gives his age at death as 75 years and his burial at St. Martin of Tours on 19 November 1803. Agnes Brun outlived him by nearly six years. In August 1808 she made a conditional gift of all her property to her heirs, among them his sons Théodore, Jean, Cyrille and Nicolas.

Lines of descent

Olivier reaches Floyd by two separate lines, both on Floyd’s mother’s side through Ida Serrette (1903–1990). The first runs through his son Cyrille Thibodeaux (1773–1829), the second through his 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

Three birth years are given. The 1974 sketch places his birth about 1728, an estimate from his age at burial (75). Cormier’s synthesis gives about 1732 and states his age at burial as 70; it also quotes the February 1765 arrival list at New Orleans, which gives “Olivier Thibodeau of Chepoudy, age 32”. The 1985 genealogy gives 1745 and places him under a different father, Paul Thibodeau. The 1765 ages rule that placement out: the same list gives Amand Thibodeau of Chepoudy, age 31, as “Olivier’s brother”, and a man born in 1745 would also fit poorly with a first marriage in 1763 to a widow and a son Théodore granted land in 1777. His baptism settles the question and outranks all three estimates: the Beaubassin parish register, a copy of which is held by Library and Archives Canada, records that Olivier was born on 4 January 1732 at Chipoudy and baptized on 16 May 1732, the son of Charles Thibodeau (written Tibaudaut) and Françoise Comeau. The year agrees with the age of 32 on the 1765 arrival list, and the entry confirms the parents named in the 1974 sketch and by Cormier. The 1974 sketch gives the marriage contract as 30 September 1786, while a table in the 1975 volume of the same journal gives 13 September 1786. The 1974 sketch also dates Nicolas’s birth 15 September 1771, against 15 June in the baptism abstract. The 1974 sketch and Cormier’s synthesis both name Charles Thibodeau and Francoise Comeau as his parents, and the 1985 genealogy gives the same couple a son Amand; the sketch, Cormier and the 1985 genealogy are compilations, and the Beaubassin baptism entry is the only one of these sources that records Olivier’s birth itself. The death date rests on the inventory of his estate (St. Martin Parish, Original Acts, vol. 22, pt. 1), which gives the death as the eighteenth of November of the year before. A listing by Hebert (OA-22-126) dates that act 23 April 1804; the act itself is dated 25 July 1804. The 1974 sketch gives only the burial, on the 19th.

First marriage

The marriage year of about 1763 comes from the 1985 Thibodeaux genealogy (Attakapas Gazette, vol. 20), which gives the year as 1763 but no day or parish entry. The 1974 sketch (Attakapas Gazette, vol. 9), which writes her name Magdelene Broussard, states that no record of the marriage was found. Both are compilations, so the year is an estimate.