♀Ozite Barbe Blanchard

Ozite Barbe Blanchard (about 1763 – 15 October 1799) was an Acadian born in exile at Baltimore, Maryland, who grew up in Spanish Louisiana and married Joseph François Mollere, whom a baptism register calls “of Canada”. She died at New Orleans aged thirty-five. She was the fourth great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through her daughter Barbe Osite Mollere (1784–1823).

Early life

She was the daughter of Anselme Blanchard and Esther Leblanc, Acadian exiles whom later registers call “of Acadia”. A petition of the exiles held in Maryland, dated 7 July 1763, lists her parents at Baltimore as a household of two; she was born within about a year of it. Her cemetery card at New Orleans gives her birthplace as Baltimore.

The family reached Spanish Louisiana with the Maryland exiles and settled at St. Gabriel, on the Mississippi. A Spanish roll of July 1767 lists her parents with a daughter Rosa, aged four; if that is Ozite, she had crossed to Louisiana by about the age of four. Her father rose to command the Acadian post of Valenzuela on Bayou Lafourche and to captain the militia of Bayou des Écores in New Feliciana.

Marriage and family

On 20 April 1783, at Ascension (now Donaldsonville), she married Joseph François Mollere, son of Francois Mollere and Marguerite Perrodeaux. He was later a lieutenant in the militia.

Their daughter Barbe Osite was born on 8 January 1784 and baptized at Ascension the next month, her grandfather Anselme Blanchard, then commandant of Valenzuela, standing as sponsor. The diocesan volumes name nine children, the later ones baptized at St. Gabriel.

In September 1795 she had a son, Guillaume, written Guillermo in the register. His godmother was her own daughter Barbe Osite, then twelve years old. His godfather was entered as “Manuel Gayosa Brigdelos”, most likely the Spanish governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos^W.

Death

She died at New Orleans on 15 October 1799 and was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Her card calls her “Dona Osite Barbara”, wife of “Don Jose Moler”. The records do not say why she was in New Orleans.

Her father died six weeks later, on 25 November 1799. On 28 October 1800 her husband married Magdalena Braux, widow of Jean Baptiste Landry; among the witnesses was Raphael Croquer, who would marry their daughter Barbe Osite in 1803.

Notes

Birth date

The card’s age of thirty-five at 15 October 1799 puts her birth between 16 October 1763 and 15 October 1764. A household of two at Baltimore in July 1763 means a childless couple, which places the birth after that July. “About 1763” also depends on the Rosa identification below. Cormier’s compiled history gives her age as twenty at the 1783 marriage. Some family trees give 20 April 1763, the day and month of her 1783 marriage. No record gives a day for her birth, and a Find a Grave index entry gives 1764.

Birthplace

The card gives “Native of Baltimore, Md.” It is a typed abstract made by the Louisiana State Museum from the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 records, one step removed from the register, and the 1763 Maryland household agrees with it. The 1796 baptism calls her “of New England”; that is loose origin wording in that act, and the card is preferred.

Rosa on the 1767 roll

The St. Gabriel roll of July 1767, as printed in Chandler’s End of an Odyssey (p. 81), lists “Rosa”, aged four, in the household of Anselme and Esther. Steven A. Cormier’s compiled history, The Acadians of Louisiana: A Synthesis, describes “Rose-Osite-Barbe” Blanchard, born about 1763 in Maryland and “called Roza, age 4”, and takes her to be this daughter. Rosa’s age of four points to about 1763, and she is the only daughter listed in the household. That identification is probable, not established. The roll names no child Ozite in the household. A christening of her daughter Eulalie (written Eulalia in the register) in April 1792 names the mother as “Rosa Blanchar”.

Her parents

The 1783 marriage abstract in the Diocese of Baton Rouge volumes gives the bride’s parents as “Anselmo & Esther LeBlanc” (ASC-1, 149). Earlier versions of the family record gave her parents as Francois Blanchard and Marguerite Perrodeaux. Those were the groom’s parents, wrongly read as hers. Her mother is “Maria” in the 1796 baptisms of her son Guillaume and of her brother Antonio’s daughter, “Esther” in the 1783 marriage and “Ester” in an 1800 baptism; one compiler wrote both forms, so they name one woman.

Her father is “Captain of the Militia of Bayou DeEscours” as sponsor at a 1790 baptism (ASC-5, 34) and “Commandante of Valenzuela” when he sponsored her daughter in 1784 (ASC-1, 100). The Louisiana militia list places him as captain of the Third Company of New Feliciana. The card gives his death as 25 November 1799. The Dictionary of Louisiana Biography gives 1 April 1800 and a birth in France; it is a compiled account, and the card is kept.

Her husband

The 1800 remarriage entry gives “Joseph MOLLERE, Lt. in the Militia widow[er] of Ositha Blanchard”, and gives his parents as “Francisco & Margarita Perrodeaux, of LaFourche”. The 1796 baptism gives them as “Francisco Moler, of Burdeas & Margarita Perideaux, of Canada”. The phrases “of Burdeas” and “of Canada” are origin phrases in that act; they are cited here and not taken as birthplaces. The 1783 abstract gives the groom’s parents as “Francisco & Margarita Perodot”, and the 1800 entry gives the bride no surname of her own; Braux comes from other family records. The 1783 witnesses were Luis Judice, Jerome LeBlanc and Joseph Landry.

The 1796 baptism

The entry runs: “Guillermo (Joseph, of Canada & Barbara Blanchar, of New England) bt. 21 Apr 1796 bn. 17 Sep 1795 spo. Manuel Gayosa Brigdelos & Osita Barbara Moler”. The godmother is the daughter Barbe Osite, aged twelve. The godfather’s “Brigdelos” is most likely “Brig. de L[em]os” run together, and the same series of diocesan abstracts has a 1792 sponsor “Manuel Gayoso, Governor of Natchez” and a 1797 sponsor “Brigadier Manuel Gayoso de Lemos”. Gayoso often stood sponsor by proxy, so the entry does not prove he was present.

Children

The diocesan volumes name nine children with her as mother; eight baptisms run from 1784 to 1796, and Celestin appears at his marriage in 1823. A Geneanet member tree lists thirteen, and a member tree’s list is not evidence.

Death

The St. Louis No. 1 card gives “Daughter of Don Anselmo Blanchard and Dona Ester Le Blanc” and “Died Oct. 15, 1799 / Aged 35 yrs.” The Diocese of Baton Rouge volume gives no burial for her. Earlier versions placed her death at Donaldsonville with no citation; the card and the Find a Grave index give New Orleans.