♂Raphael Mollere

Raphael Mollere was a settler on the Mississippi above New Orleans in the parishes of Ascension and Assumption, known from the registers for standing godfather to his own nephew in 1812, when he was no more than eleven years old: his father’s second marriage took place only in 1800, so he was younger than the child he sponsored. He was the half-brother of Barbe Osite Mollere (1784–1823), the third great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014).

Family

Raphael was the son of Joseph François Mollere (1764–1811), a captain of the Iberville militia, and of his second wife, Magdalena Braux, whom Joseph married at St. James on 28 October 1800. His mother was a widow of Ascension, entered in the register of his own wedding as “Manette Breau”. He was born on 21 September 1801 and baptized at St. Gabriel in Iberville on 3 August 1802. His godparents were Rafael Croquer and Constance Mollere, and the entry names both pairs of grandparents: François Mollere and Marguerite Perideant, and Arman Breaud and Madelaine Cloatre. He had a full sister, Eliza Gertrude, who married Jean Henry Ilsley of London in 1828, and several older half-brothers and half-sisters by his father’s first wife, Ozite Barbe Blanchard.

Godfather in 1812

On 29 June 1812 the register at Assumption records the baptism of Joseph Croquer, the son of Raphael’s half-sister Barbe Osite Mollere and her husband Rafael Croquer. The godfather was entered as “Raphael Moller, uncle”. Raphael was then ten years old. The register does not say why a boy was chosen; Rafael Croquer had himself been Raphael’s godfather ten years before. The identification of this Raphael Moller with the son of Joseph and Magdalena rests on the word “uncle” and that tie, not on a stated parentage.

Marriage and children

Joseph had died in 1811, and the marriage entry of 13 October 1822 at Assumption calls Raphael the son of Joseph, deceased, and of Manette Breau of Ascension. He married Clarisse Elene LeBlanc, the daughter of Joseph LeBlanc and Marie Rose Landry. The witnesses were Auguste Verrete, M. Randau and Paul Aucoin.

The couple’s first son, Joseph Theodore, was buried at Assumption on 22 November 1827, aged ten months. A second son was given the same name: Joseph Theodore, born 19 April 1828 and baptized on 14 July 1828, with his mother’s name written Clarisse Helenne LeBlanc. The registers examined show nothing further of Raphael’s later life.