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PIRATE LAFITTE REALLY NAMED BOUTTE , SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA MAN?

6/29/2020

23 Comments

 
By Vera LaFleur and Ethel Chachere (The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA, September 23, 1956). Some small changes were made to the original article.

Were the legendary Lafitte brothers and their partner in piracy, Dominique You, really Bouttes?

This is the opinion of J. Herman Guillory, attorney for the heirs of Francois Zenon Boutte, who yesterday was at the courtroom of the Lafayette City Hall, interviewing Boutte’s heirs and distributing oil and gas lease checks.

Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre commanded a band of pirates that operated in the Gulf of Mexico over 100 years ago. They had a hideout on Barataria Island in Jefferson Parish where they lay low when indignant American and foreign shippers got too close for comfort.
​
Now, there is a question as to the real identity of the Lafitte’s and their Number One pirate, Dominique You. Perhaps they were not a trio of Frenchmen who came to Louisiana by way of the West Indies. There’s a strong chance that they were really a trio comprised of Sourthwest Louisiana Acadians named Francois Zenon Routtee and two of his brothers, hundreds of whose heirs live in the French-speaking parishes of the Evangeline area. 
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Barataria Island is at tip of Grand Isle (Google Map)
Guillory said he had come to believe in the course of his research that the Lafitte brothers and Dominique You were in reality the Boutte brothers. The Boutte heirs are now dividing the profits of what may be the largest distribution of mineral lease payments in the history of the oil industry. The heirs, numbering 3,287 at the last count, represent eight generations.

Checks were being given yesterday to members of the Lafayette, St. Martin, and Iberia branches of the family tree, including such names as Judice, Vincent and Pellerin.
​
Some 400 checks were given out yesterday, and eventually Guillory, a Ville Platte attorney, expects to distribute approximately 800 more in this area. Most of the heirs have been found in the parishes of Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Landry, Evangeline, Jefferson, Lafourche, and Calcasieu, but some heirs have been discovered as far away as Canada and Australia. 

Picture
Ulysses Pierrottie gives an oil bonus check to W. J. Judice.
About 100 heirs and representatives of others crowded the courtroom at 8 o’clock yesterday morning, when the distribution began. 

Presiding over the thick sheaf of legal forms referred to as the family tree was Miss Edith Steckler, St. Martinville. Miss Steckler has been working with Ulysses Pierrcttie of Mamou. himself an heir, and the man who has spearheaded the search for heirs for about 20 years. (Pierrottie is a great-great-great-great-great grand nephew of Zenon.) As each heir was called forward, there was a general stirring and looking about. The heirs passed through the crew of clerks and lawyers sitting inside the courtroom railing.

​First step toward getting a check was the identification of the heirs. Most of them had been previously notified of yesterday’s distribution and were ready with certificates of birth or baptism. Some also held powers of attorney for other members of their families 
Picture
L to R: John W. Roy, Ulysses Pierrottie, Herman Guillory, Miss Edith Steckler
2c to $400
After the identification was made, the heir had to execute the lease. In some cases this required several signatures and addresses Finally the heirs reached the final step in the process, and were handed their checks. Guillory said that checks distributed in the Lafayette area yesterday ranged from two cents to about $400. Pierrottie, Miss Steckler, Mrs. Dan Robichaux, Guillorys daughter, and Mrs. Fred E. Builliard, were among those assisting with the distribution. Guillory himself has been hospitalized for a heart condition and was accompanied to yesterday’s gathering by a nurse. The attorney left shortly after the proceedings began.
 
8 Generations
Many have worked on the staggering job of tracing and contacting the over 3,000 heirs of the Boutte estate, but the man who has been heir hunting for the most extensive length of time is Pierrottie who has been working on the case for some 20 years. The search has taken Pierrottie in every court house and every Catholic church in Louisiana, painstakingly looking through old records and files in an attempt to trace the various branches of the family tree through the eight generations.
 
Pierrottie, who is himself an heir, received help in his 20-year search from his first cousin, John W. Roy of Opelousas. Roy assisted in contacting and tracing the heirs after they were discovered and securing their signatures on the leases.

At one time during the twenty-year search, Pierrottie’s funds became completely depleted and his only recourse was to mortgage his personal property. Seeking the advice of a Ville Platte judge, he explained the facts of the case to him Do you play poker? the judge wanted to know. When Pierrottie looked quizzically at him the judge continued, “You have what could be likened to a straight flush, so you can hardly lose.”  Pierrottie took the advice of the judge and mortgaged his property. That was in 1945, he said. Later had to sell half of it to redeem the other half. He will only be completely reimbursed when the case is officially cleared up. Pierrottie has retained Guillory to continue work on the legal ramifications of the case. Besides Guillory, other attorneys who have represented the heirs are A. H. Reed, Corwin B. Reed, Floyd J. Reed, Jack Voyles, Nilas J. Young, Dale, Richardson & Dale, and E. Leland Richardson.

Complicated History
Pierrottie was the coordinator of the activities yesterday, calling forth the heirs in turn, assisting with the execution of the leases, and periodically switching from English to French as he explained the complicated history of the Boutte family and their island property.

He told the assembled heirs about his years of research and explained that the present lease bonus checks are small. After the land is fully developed, he said, many of the heirs will receive substantial monthly royalties as long as the oil and gas are produced.

​He pointed out that the entire tract is still not under lease. About half of it is still undeveloped.  “But we’ve got a good foundation,” he said Now we can really roll up our sleeves and get to work. If you are patient, and give me your co - operation, the day will come when we will all have our rightful share.
Heirs present yesterday represented a cross - section of the population. There were teachers, farmers, housewives, attorneys, carpenters.

Typical Hassle
Typical of the legal hassles and missing links involved in the search for heirs is one which came up in the courtroom this morning. Cyrus Provost, Lafayette, is an heir through one Doralice Judice, a niece of Zenon Boutte. Doralice was married to a de la Houssaye, and had one daughter. She later married Ludfroy Provost and had a daughter by him, Cyrus Provosts great - grandmother, Celestine. But the records of this second marriage have been lost, and Cyrus and his family have been assembling the proof of their claim. Their claim will necessitate a re-division of one share of the royalties, and will thus mean another delay in the whole case.

Returning to the background of the island property, Guillory explained that according to historians, Zenon Boutte was a member of the band of pirates led by Jean Lafitte and in fact owned half of Barataria Island, where the pirates had their hideout.

Guillory says he has come to believe that the Lafitte brothers and Dominique You were in reality three of the Boutte brothers. As Guillory explained it, historians in the past have surmised that the Lafitte brothers came over to Louisiana from France by way of the West Indies. How could these men, strangers to that territory, suddenly know all the intricate and multitudinous turns and twists of the Louisiana bayous?

It is Guillory’s presumption that they were the native Bouttes, an idea that he would like to discuss more thoroughly with contemporary historians. When Boutte. sold his half of the 2,000 - acre island near the Gulf of Mexico in Jefferson Parish, a tract of some 800 acres remained in his possession. Zenon died childless in 1863, leaving his seven brothers and sisters as his sole heirs.

Spanish Grant
He was forgotten until 1932, when it was discovered that Barataria Island was rich in oil and gas deposits. Research disclosed that the entire island had been owned by Nonc Zenon [Uncle Zenon], as the family called him, and his uncle, Jean Baptiste Boutte. (The two had been granted the island by the king of Spain.) The research also revealed that when Zenon sold his half of the island, there remained unsold and in his name a strip lying across the island from Bayou Barataria to Bayou Perrot 5 arpents wide by 6 miles long.

At first, the oil operators believed that Zenon’s uncle and former co-owner, Jean Baptiste Boutte, was his closest relative. His descendants, numbering some 265, took possession of the strip. But further investigation revealed that Zenon had left brothers and sisters, whose descendants would have inherited instead of those of the uncle, Jean Baptiste.

When oil operators became interested in the forgotten strip of land, an extensive research of heirship was undertaken. It was established that Zenon had actually left seven brothers and sisters at his death. Since Zenon died a widower, the descendants of these brothers and sisters inherited to the exclusion of the more remote collateral relatives, the heirs of Jean Baptiste Boutte, who had taken possession of the strip.

Guillory, the attorney retained by Pierrottie several years ago to continue the “heir - hunt,” explained that in 1938 about 1,200 descendants of Zenon’s brothers and sisters filed a suit in Jefferson parish against the descendants of Jean Baptiste Boutte in the form of an action to try title to the disputed tract.
After a court struggle of 19 years and three trips to the Supreme Court, the case was resolved with the recognition of the heirs of Zenon Boutte as the rightful owners of the land. In the meantime, Guillory continued, some 800 of the original 1200 who had filed the suit died, leaving large families scattered in many states of the Union and several foreign countries. The problem then was to find the present heirs and their correct names and addresses so that a valid oil and gas lease could be executed and the lands developed.

3,000 Name
“After months of inquiry, a family tree consisting of over 3,000 names representing eight generations was finally constructed containing the correct names and addresses of the present living heirs. And it was to these heirs in the Lafayette, St. Martinville, and New Iberia areas that Guillory made distribution of oil bonus and trapping lease funds yesterday in the city hall, securing their signatures to an oil and gas lease for the California Company, which is presently developing Barataria Island. Distribution began on July 25, upon completion of the family tree, and to date the signatures of approximately 60 per cent of the interests in the oil and gas rights to the land have been secured. Heirs hold portions ranging from .000002 (1-500,000) to 0417 (1-24), the latter being the result of a double - cousin marriage with both sides being heirs. The majority of the checks presently being distributed is small, but it is expected that after the land is fully developed, they will be increased substantially. The entire royalty paid by the oil company will be received by the heirs. A one - eighth over-riding royalty will be paid the attorneys by the oil company itself. Barataria is proving to be a profitable island in more ways than one. Besides the oil production, the island is a rich trapping area, and a substantial stand of cypress timber exists there. Whether the Lafitte brothers were Bouttes or the Bouttes were Lafittes is a fine puzzle to tickle the fancies of historians of Louisiana’s colorful past, but Boutte or Lafitte, the fact remains that their descendants are today beginning to receive shares in a treasure far greater than their pirate ancestors ever imagined.
Other Pierrottie blogs
Ulysse Gabriel Pierrottie, A 33 year battle for his family's rights
Mary Pierrottie Soileau
Jane Bertrand Ortego
​
Sister Cesira Pierotti
​Louis David "L.D" Verrette Obituary
Betty Lou Deshotel Hollier Obituary
Donald Joseph Pierotti Obituary

​Books
​Pierotti - Pierrottie - Pierrotti Family & Photos
​Dominique Martel Southwest Louisiana Family

Constantino Pierotti Video

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The Pierrottie and Martel Marriages

2/29/2020

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by Murphy Miller, March 8, 2020

​​Charles Darwin and his wife Emma were first cousins. A cousin marriage is a marriage where the partners are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies today, though in some jurisdictions such marriages are prohibited. Worldwide, more than 10% of marriages are between first or second cousins. (1) 
​
Accordingly, it is not uncommon to find cousin marriages in Southwest Louisiana.  Moreover, the lack of mobility until the mid-20th century facilitated intermarriages as people lived in the same geographic area from birth to death when the U.S. was predominately an agrarian society.  Parents frequently made room for a child by gifting property to farm.  First cousins lived in close proximity to each other.

Many people in southwest Louisiana are familiar with the Pierrottie families that began with Constantino Pierotti (1832-1892), also known as August Constant Pierotti.  He was from Italy and emigrated to America in hopes of earning enough money to return to Italy, perhaps to bring back loved ones so they too could escape the poor economy in Northern Italy.  His plan to settle in the ante-bellum South fell apart upon his 1855 arrival and later when he was drafted into the Civil War.
Picture
Constantino "August Constant" Pierotti (Frances Pierrottie photo)

​Thirteen months following the end of the American Civil War between the states, in May 1866, Constantino married Stephanie “Fanny” Martel (1848-1936).  Stephanie is the daughter of Etienne Eugene Martel and Louise Mathilde Boutte.  She is one of eleven children born to this couple.  Her younger brother, Stephane Martel (1852-1934), married Ann Elizabeth Moore in 1877.  Stephane and Ann had six children, Etienne (1885-1970) and Theogene Martel (1885-1962), twins, were the third and fourth born to the couple.
Picture
Stephanie "Fanny" Martel, Circa 1906, Larry Hollier photo

​Theogene Martel married his first cousin Rosenia Pierotti, the daughter of Constantino Pierotti and Stephanie Martel, in 1910. This marriage had three children; Blanche (1911-1991), Louis Thomas Martel (1916-1989) and Aubry Theo Martel (1924-1988).  Their common ancestry is their grandparents, Etienne Eugene Martel and Louise Mathilde Boutte.
Picture
Etienne and Theogene Martel, Circa 1888, Murphy Miller photo

PictureTheogene & Rosenia Martel with grandchildren (Renee Martel photo)
​Theogene and Rosenia are also 3rd cousins via the Chachere/Vauchere family lines.  Their common ancestry is their great great-grandparents Louis Dominique Chachere (1760-1827) and Catherine Vauchere (1764-1825).  The charts below better illustrate this marital union relationship.

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The third union of the Pierotti family line and the Martel family line marrying are Gervis Paul Martel (1912-1994) and Mary Lillian Naquin (1923-1992).  Gervis is the son of Etienne (1885-1970), twin of Theogene, and his wife Clementine Savoy (1889-1935).  My mother, Mary L. Naquin (1923-1992), is the daughter of Olan Naquin (1904-1940) and Bernice Pierrottie (1904-1977), she the granddaughter of Constantino and Stephanie Martel.
Picture
Gervis Paul Martel weds Mary Lillian Naquin, 1948. Murphy Miller photo
​Gervis first married Ellenor Fontenot in 1931.  She died in 1937.  Gervis married Mary L. Naquin in 1948.  Gervis “Slim” Martel was a master carpenter.  He was employed as a Installation Superintendent and travel to the job to install store fixtures in stores like Macy’s.  In 1959, when he was 47 years old, he allowed me to live in his home with him, my mother and half-siblings.  Both he, my mother and the entire Brandon, FL community made a man out of a confused teenager.  He was not perfect, but he gave me the break I needed at the right time in my life. For that kindness, I am grateful.
Picture
​

Other Pierrottie blogs
Ulysse Gabriel Pierrottie, A 33 year battle for his family's rights
Mary Pierrottie Soileau
Jane Bertrand Ortego
​
Sister Cesira Pierotti
​Louis David "L.D" Verrette Obituary
Betty Lou Deshotel Hollier Obituary
Donald Joseph Pierotti Obituary

​Books
​Pierotti - Pierrottie - Pierrotti Family & Photos
​Dominique Martel Southwest Louisiana Family

Constantino Pierotti Video
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THIS BLOG
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African American Boutte Family - Alvin J Boutte (1929-2012)

2/28/2019

2 Comments

 
PictureAlvin J Boutte, Treasurer Sr. Class of Sacred Heart Catholic School. 1947
He is the 3rd great grandson of Andre Claude Boutte, II (1719-1792), “Claude”, and his slave Franchon (Francois) Filnotion (1732-1799). (1)  Some of his ancestry is unknown and where cited, the support is sometimes weak.  However, the birth of Eugene Pierre Barbe Boutte, son of Claude and his slave Francoise [Francon], is well supported. (2)
 
He attended, along with all his nine elder siblings, a private Catholic “Colored” school (3) even though both parents worked at low paying jobs.  With his parent’s vision and his determination, he was successful in business, his community and he was an active civil rights supporter during the 1960s Civil Rights movement. (4)

PictureAlvin J Boutte with wife Barbara in first drug store purchased. 1953-54. (TheHistoryMaker.org photo)
​Alvin J. Boutte, Sr. is his name.  He was “co-founder and former Chairman and CEO of Independence Bank [Chicago], the nation’s largest Black-owned bank…” The son of Arthur H. Boutte and Adorea Darensbourg, he was born on October 10, 1929 in Lake Charles, LA, and the youngest of 10 children.  All of Arthur and Adorea Boutte’s children attend Sacred Heart Catholic elementary, junior, high schools.  Alvin’s father Arthur was a gardener and his mother, Adorea, was a seamstress. (5) 

PictureAlvin J Boutte in bank. (TulsaWorld.com photo)
​Background
Andre Claude Boutte, II was the great grandson of Claude Boutte (1609-1677) and Francoise McQuennehen (1609).  The family was from France.  Upon the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Andre Claude Boutte, II brought his family to New Orleans. (6)  He served as a French military officer in Mobile, AL where he married the commandant’s daughter, Marie-Anne Francoise Bodin.  His mother-in-law, Francoise Paillet Bodin, traveled with them and it was from her that he purchased a domestic servant called Fanchon. She was born around 1732. (6A) One of the five children Andre Claude fathered with Fanchon was Eugene Pierre Barbe Boutte (1775-1832). (6B)
 
Eugene Pierre Boutte is the second child of Eugene Pierre Barbe Boutte and his wife Hyacinthe LaPorta and was born about 1796.  He married Isabelle Adelaide Olivier  in 1822.  Eugene Pierre and Adelaide had five children.  Eugene Pierre also had another child with an unknown mother named Hyacinthe Boutte. He was born in 1842. (6C)  In the 1850 census, Hyacinthe Boutte is one of the family members of Eugene Pierre and Adelaide. (6D)
 
Hyacinthe Boutte married Nellie Weber in 1873 in Edgard, LA, St John the Baptist Parish near New Orleans.  From that marriage, Arthur H. Boutte is born in 1886.  Arthur married Adorea Darensbourg.  Alvin J. Boutte is the tenth and youngest child born from this couple in 1929. (6D)

PictureAlvin J Boutte, right, in golf cancer fund raiser. 1976. (Facebook.com). The African-American community were instrumental in removing the PGA all-white professional tour status in 1961.
​Sacred Heart Catholic School
While his high school activities are not a guaranteed path to future successes, his high school participation probably contributed greatly to his lifetime achievements.
 
Alvin J. Boutte, a child of the Great Depression, graduated from Sacred Heart Catholic School in 1947. His senior year activities included President C.Y.O. (Catholic Youth Organization) ’45, Captain softball team, ’45, co-captain basketball team ’46; Corporal in R.O.T.C.; Treasurer of Senior Class; member of Patrol Squad. Hobby – gardening. (7)

​College, Military Service, Business and Community Service
He attended Xavier University in New Orleans on a basketball scholarship after completing high school.  “While at Xavier, he met his future wife, Barbara Gonzaque, who was a music major.”  While earning a Pharmacy degree in 1951, he also served the student body with a laundry pickup business and a payment collection business for male students.  After a tour in the U.S. Army, he was discharged a Captain in 1955. (8)
PictureAlvin J Boutte, CEO Independence Bank of Chicago. 1982. (Facebook.com photo)
​After completing his military service, he and wife and two daughters, Janice and Jeanette, moved to Chicago to join his mother’s family as well as former Xavier classmates who had already established themselves in their careers.  Moreover, they with former classmates, collectively had plans for the future.
 
Shortly after his Chicago move, he purchased his first drug store with a line of credit from Sealtest Dairy Corporation.  He soon had s chain of drug stores.  In 1964, Alvin J. Boutte and others established Independence Bank of Chicago.  He was proud of developing some of his staff as they became presidents of other minority banks as well as other executive positions.

​The civic-minded Boutte helped to advance the fledging Civil Rights Movement along with other Chicago African-American business leaders.  With the $55,000 raised they contributed to Rev. Dr. Martin Lughter King, Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (9)
PictureAlvin Joseph Boutte (1929-2012) (TheHistoryMakers.org photo)

​“During his lifetime, Boutte served on the boards of directors for several organizations including, most notably, twenty years on the board of The Chicago Metropolitan Insurance Company.  He also served as advisor to the Small Business Administration, and was an elected member of the Chicago Board of Education.  In 1971, Boutte was honored as man of the year by the Chicago Urban League.  He was the recipient of several other honors and tributes in his later years.”
 
Alvin Boutte died at his home in Hazel Crest, Illinois on April 1, 2012. He was 82 years old. (10)

References/related information:
Facebook
Chachere African-American Family

​---------------------------------------------------------------------
(1)  Andre Claude Boutte. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2019, from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Boutte-13. Louisiana Families Project WikiTree
(2)  Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900). CD. (Hebert Publications: Rayne, LA 70578)
​(3)  Sacred Heart Yearbook. 1947. School History, pg. 8.
https://africanamericanhighschoolsinlouisianabefore1970.com/sacred-heart-high-school-lake-charles-louisiana/
(4)  Watson, Elwood (2013, October 29). ALVIN J. BOUTTE SR. (1929-2012). Retrieved February 18, 2019, from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/boutte-alvin-j-sr-1929-2012/
(5)  ibid.
(6) Wood, B. B. (n.d.). Bonnie Bess Wood's Family Tree. Retrieved March 4, 2019, from https://gw.geneanet.org/beebeewood?lang=en&n=boutte&oc=0&p=andre claude dit lalime&type=tree
(6A) WikiTree Genealogy. Fanchon NN (Slave) https://www.geni.com/people/Fanchon/6000000084431391035#/tab/overview
(6B)  Ibid. Donald J. Hebert.
(6C) Ancestry.com. Jance Boutte. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/107516122/person/400059389181/facts
(6D)  Ancestry.com 1880 Federal Census.
(7)  ibid. Sacred Heart Yearbook.
(8)  ibid. Watson, Elwood (2013, October 29)
(9)  Associated Press. April 10, 2012.  Boutte to be eulogized. https://chicagodefender.com/2012/04/10/boutte-to-be-eulogized-2130/
(10)  )  ibed. Watson, Elwood (2013, October 29)

​
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Three Early Louisiana Miller Family Settlers

12/23/2016

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Picture
​
Jacob, George and William Miller families were early settlers in southwest Louisiana. Jacob Miller, and wife Anne Marie Thaison, claimed to be “Roman Catholic and Apostolic, and native of Germany.” George Miller, and wife Catherine Ritter, probably born in Maryland, was from London and reared at Hanover, Germany. William or Guilliam Miller, and wife Anne Kevin or Caven of Ireland, was born in Scotland.
 
Both Jacob and George Miller lived near Grand Coteau after the 1750’s. William did not live in LA but, his wife and family did. William died in Pensacola, FL in 1771 and his wife died in St. Martin, LA. Two of the three known daughters, both Marguerite and Elizabeth Genevieve Miller, married and lived in St. Martin and St. Landry parishes, respectively. Marguerite married Pierre Guidry in 1781 and they had 12 children. Elizabeth married Robert Burleigh, Jr. before 1781 and they had seven children.
 
Some of the William Miller descendants married into Jacob and George Miller families. Pierre Richard, a William Miller descendant, married Eva Colligan in 1865. Eva was a descendant of both Jacob and George Miller families. Therefore, their six children are descendants from the three Miller southwest Louisiana families.
 
Many in southwest Louisiana may know of, or their parents know of, some names from the Jacob Miller family. The Chataignier Miller families included Antoine Miller and Augustine Manuel’s descendants, Antoine Salomon (sons Camille, Faustin and Salomon), Emile (sons J. Bte. “Gus” and Cleophas) Martel (sons Aliday, Martel, Jr., and Gilbert Lee) Homer (son Mayo Homer, daughter Felonise & husband Onest Sonnier), and Jean Pierre (son Octave and his son Malcolm Lionel).
 
Farther south and west in Cameron parish, Antoine’s brother and Civil War Veteran, Pierre Valcour Miller settled. From that family, the well known cattleman Eugene Miller whose son Laurent was a veterinarian and son Martin O. Miller a well know New Orleans physician and was Governor Earl Long’s personal physician. Pierre V. Miller’s son P.V. Miller, Jr.’s son Minos Drosin Miller, Sr. was an attorney who practiced in Lake Charles and Vinton. He was politically well connected. Minos’ son M.D. Miller, Jr. was a WW II pilot, shot down on a mission, presumed dead, and buried at sea. After the U.S. victory, he was freed from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He practiced law, followed by his election as Judge of the 31st Judicial District Court of Louisiana (Jennings).
 
With so many Miller descendants, it can become overwhelming when evaluating ones family history. You may ask if "So and So" is your relative? The answer requires hours of research. Examples include Miller families in Evangeline parish. The Bonnes Nouvelles recently published “Jack Miller's Food Products Celebrates 75 Years” (June 2016) and “Zick Miller Family - Two Hands to the Plow” (September 2003). The Ville Platte Gazette listed J. Bte. Gus Miller as the Police Jury President (July 1976) and the Daily World (April 1987) printed, “Memories of Miller’s Lake revived”. Roderick Luke Miller’s obituary in the Daily World, January 2005) recounted Cleophas’ son, Rod, and his success as a family man, an attorney, and the first Republican elected to the House of Representatives from Lafayette Parish. Not all of your questions will be answered about the Miller stories published, but let us explore some of the family details mentioned about those families.
 
Dosite “Zick” Miller married Olivia Faul (also Fall) in 1901. One of the 12 children is Jacque Dosite “Jack” Miller who married Joyce Chapman in 1937. Dosite (Do za’ ta) is a descendant of George Miller, Sr. (London) and Catherine Ritter (Germany) both born in the mid 1750s. Olivia’s 2nd great grandparents are John Faul and M. Therese Miller married in 1802. M. Therese Miller is the daughter of Jacob Miller and Anne M. Thaison. Thus, all of Zick and Olivia’s descendants are George and Jacob Miller descendants. That makes “Gus” Miller, the successful Miller Lake advocate, and Jack Miller, of Jacks’ BBQ, 3rd cousins twice removed.
 
Additionally, Olivia Faul is related to Jacob Miller family via her 3rd great grandmother, Marie Barbe Miller, daughter of Jacob. Marie Barbe Frozard, daughter of M. Barbe Miller and wife of Toussaint Quebedeau, is the father of Marie Catherine Quebodeau who married Jean George Fall, great grandfather of Olivia.
 
Dosite “Zick” Miller is 1st cousin three times removed with Marie Magdelaine Boutin, wife of Jean Miller, son of Jacob. This relationship is via his great grandmother Sophie Andrus who married George Miller, Jr. Sophie is the granddaughter of Marguerite M. Boutin, daughter of Paul Boutin, Jr. and the father of Marie Magdelaine Boutin. Gus Miller’s great grandparents are Jean Miller and M. Magdelaine Boutin. Accordingly, Antoine Miller is 2nd cousin twice removed with Dosite “Zick” Miller.
 
Zick and Olivia’s grandson, Alexandre “Alex” Miller married Audrey Castile in 1964. As previously established, Alex is a descendent of both George and Jacob Miller. Audrey’s grandfather Onezime Castille married Laura Guidry, daughter of Moise Guidry and Marie Julia Miller. Julia is the great granddaughter of Charles Miller, Sr. and Anastasie Andrus. Charles is the son of George Miller, Sr. and Catherine Ritter. Thus Audrey Castille is the 5th great granddaughter of George Miller, Sr. and Catherine Ritter. Audrey’s husband is the 4th great grandson of George Miller, Sr. and Catherine Ritter.
 
Audrey Castille is also a descendant of the Jacob Miller via her maternal grandparents, Moise Savoy and Eliza Leger. Eliza’s grandparents are Honore Meche and Josephine Meche, the daughter of David Meche and Marie Rose Frozard. Marie R. Frozard is the daughter of Joseph Frozard and Marie Barbie Miller, the daughter of Jacob Miller and Anna M. Thaison. Accordingly, Audrey Castille is the 5th great granddaughter of Jacob Miller and Anna M. Thaison.

In summary it appears that some family trees have few branches. Regardless of the where one was born, cousins did marry cousins. Many, like my parents, were simply unaware of the family relationships. The automobile did not play a significant role in separating one major family from another until the 20th century. Moreover, cousins who did marry are separated by several generations. Living in an agrarian society until the early 1900s, families with different names were neighbors and in those early years, few traveled away from home. Whether you are Louisiana born or not, if your last name and your spouse’s last name is the same as an early settler, you probably married a distant cousin.

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Ulysse Gabriel Pierrottie, A 33 year battle for his family’s rights 

9/18/2013

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Ulysse Gabriel Pierrottie
(1884 - 1969)

His 33 years of work, took him into 10 states, traveling over 200,000 miles.  He sold most of his property, even a 40-acre tract of land in Allen parish, to finance his project.  In October 1963, he had a claim of $47,167.64 (equal to $333,831.28 in 2008 dollars) filed before the Gretna district court, seeking this sum, as payment for his efforts of 33 years to the estate of Francois Zenon Boutte.

Ulysse (1884-1969) is the son of Constantino “August Constant” Pierotti and Stephanie Martel.  He married Aminthe Fruge in 1907.  They had five children, Olivia (married Tanies LaFleur), Gladys (married Herbert Soileau, Sr.), Pearl (married George Richard), Ruby and Frances (married Warren J. Strohmeyer).

Ulysse was a farmer and later a deputy Sheriff with Ville Platte Sheriff Charles Pucheu. 

According to Pierrottie, Francois Zenon Boutte died about 1869, long after the deaths of his wife and child, leaving no natural heirs, and all of his fortune gone. His life and death were completely forgotten until 1930, when the Standard Oil Co., of Texas came into Louisiana to explore and develop the piece of land called Lafitte Island (now called Barataria Island) on the southern tip of the Louisiana boot.

While engineers and surveyors were going over the island, abstracting each and every strip of territory, they came across a forgotten strip of land some five acres wide and six miles long, land which belonged to Francois Zenon Boutte, and left by him to his heirs after his death. The story goes back into the years here, when Pierrottie told of how the land came into ownership by Francois Zenon Boutte and his uncle, Jean Baptiste Boutte. This island was once given to the famous pirate, Jean LaFitte by a grant of General Andrew Jackson, in payment for his services in the battle of New Orleans.

Jean LaFitte later sold the island to a man named "Villa" and this same Villa sold the land to Pierre Lavigne. At the time of the Louisiana Purchase it was owned by Pierre Lavigne, whose heirs sold it in 1915 to the brothers Hilaire and Jean Baptiste Boutte (uncles of Francois Zenon Boutte).

Pierrottie pointed out that Hilaire then sold his undivided half of the island to Joseph Triscoue and Triscoue sold his half to Francois Zenon Boutte in 1819, but the notary making the sale made a mistake and the sale read that Triscoue sold the entire island to Zenon Boutte. This necessitated a new document to read that Zenon Boutte had purchased only half of the island, the other half belonging to Jean Baptiste Boutte. To make it more clear, the two Bouttes then decided that they would divide the island in two equal parts, with Jean Baptiste Boutte taking the northern half of the island and Francois Zenon Boutte taking the southern half.

It is at this point, following the discovery of a forgotten strip of land located in the southern half of the island, land which belonged to Francois Zenon Boutte that Pierrottie comes into the story.  After digging back into old records and birth records, history books and deeds some 33 years later, Pierrottie completed his work - the finding of close to 3,000 heirs and descendants of Francois Zenon Boutte, Heirs and descendants of eight generations, of brothers and sisters, of Zenon Boutte - Marie Louise Hycinthe Boutte, Antoine Hilliare Boutte, Modeste Boutte, Louis Hilliare Boutte, Juan Leon Boutte, and Celestine Boutte.

Pierrottie's grandmother, Louise Mathilde Boutte, was a daughter of Antoine Hilliare Boutte.  Pierrottie's work came about by a request of heirs of Francois Zenon Boutte, who thought then that the estate could never be settled and nor could all the heirs be located.

In 1963, Pierrottie stated that this 500-acre tract, more or less, will never be sold by the heirs, and today is worth millions of dollars, and will, as years go by, bear more fruits, and will create more hardship, as heirs die and other heirs are added on, which could reach 5,000 heirs by 1975.

In his years of research, Pierrottie said, his work was greatly hampered because of all old documents and records being recorded in French.  This necessitated an interpreter and added expenses.  He also had to establish the fact that because of the known birth of a son by a second marriage, his son may have had heirs who would then be heirs of the Francois Zenon Boutte estate.  This claim had been filed by the heirs of Jean Baptiste Boutte, he stated.  After seven years of research of old records of the St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, it was officially established that his only son had died at the age of seven, Pierrottie said.

Ulysee won the court case and assets were distributed.  However, as a descendent of this family, am I owed some of these royalties?
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The above is based primarily on "One Fellow's Evangeline" by Elvin Reed and printed in The Daily World, Opelousas, LA on October 6, 1963
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See also: Pirate Lafette Really Name Boutte, Southwest LA Man

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    Murphy Miller, born in Durald, LA in 1943, and lives near Gainesville, FL.

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