Southwest Louisiana Genealogy for Family At Louisiana
  • Family At Louisiana
  • Blogs
  • George Miller Family
  • Jacob Miller LA Family
    • Table of Contents - Jacob Family Books >
      • Index - Jacob Miller Family 2018 >
        • Table of Contents - Jacob Miller Photos
  • Jacob Miller, Jr.
    • Jacob, Jr. -Table of Contents >
      • Jacob, Jr. - Index
  • Jean Miller Louisiana Family
    • Table of Contents
  • Antoine Miller
    • Table of Contents
  • Frederic Miller Family
  • Jean Baptiste Gus Miller Family (Hardbound with photos)
    • Gus Miller - Table of Contents
  • Jean Baptiste Gus Miller Family (Softbound book without photos)
    • Gus Miller (Softbound) Table of Contents
  • Jean Louis Miller
    • Jean Louis Miller Book Photos
  • Michel Miller & Hiacinthe Lejeune Family
    • Book Details >
      • Table of Contents
      • Index of Names in the book
  • Joseph Ozincoutt Miller
  • Pierre Valcour Miller
    • P. V. Miller - Table of Contents >
      • P.V. Miller - Index
  • Chachere Family
    • Chachere Table of Contents & Index
  • Loranzo (Laurent) Sturlese & Pierre (Larche) Achee
    • Index (Martel)
    • Sturlese & Ache - Table of Contents >
      • Sturlese & Ache - Index
  • Martel Family
    • Index (Martel)
  • McCauley Family
  • Ortego Family
    • Table of Contents (Ortego) >
      • Index (Ortego)
  • George E. Pettifield
  • Pierotti - Pierrottie Family
    • Pierotti-,Pierrottie Video
  • Albert A Pierotti Family
  • Balthazar Pierotti Family
    • Index (Balthazar Pierotti)
  • Jean B. P. L. Vidrine, Sr.
  • Printed Articles & Other
    • A Cajun is not a "Coonass"
    • Baccigalopi, "Family has Italian Heritage"
    • Bonsall Family
    • Bonsall 300th Reunion
    • Broussard Family
    • Cameron Parish Beautiful Teachers
    • Diggin Up Miller Roots
    • Fur & Wildlife Festival 2013
    • Inquest Concerning George Stelly
    • Lindsey Veillon & Gladys Miller
    • Sanner Family
    • Savoies of Cameron Parish
  • FindAGrave.com
    • Your Family Book
  • Family Research Resources
  • Forum; Let's talk
  • Contact Information
  • Photos
    • BHS 1962 & '63 Class Reunion in Summer 1993
    • Merry Christmas
    • Rhonda Means Medieval Dinner
    • Bohannon Sunday School Fellowship, November 21, 2014
    • Elvis Last Seen - 10/31/1994
    • Brandon High School Lunch Presentation, May 22, 2014
    • Chataignier
    • Pierotti/Pierrottie >
      • Pierrottie Photo Book
  • Family Videos
    • Mardi Gras - Tee Mamou/Iota Training
    • Harley
    • Fishing Trip, Pensacola, FL, May 2015
  • Karen Ileta Art
  • BHS 2017 Reunion
  • Music from Louisiana
  • Bateman Family of Canada
  • Holland Family of Canada
  • Temp
  • Bergeron
    • Bergeron Index

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

9/18/2013

20 Comments

 
Picture







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?
-------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------------------------
See also: Pirate Lafette Really Name Boutte, Southwest LA Man

20 Comments
    Picture

    Author

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

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    May 2015
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    African American
    Antoine Miller Family
    Basile LA
    Baton Rouge
    Bergeron Family
    Books
    Boutte
    Cameron Parish
    Catherine Adam
    Cementery
    Chachere
    Civil War
    Coonass
    Deshotel(s)
    Download Your File
    Duplechian
    Eunice
    Evangeline Parish
    Fontenot Family
    Frederic Miller
    Genealogy & Family Book Types
    George Miller Family
    Jacob Jackson Miller
    Jacob Miller Family
    Jacob Miller Jr
    James Gallier
    Jay Hawkers
    Jean Baptisted Gus Miller
    Jean LaFitte
    Jean Louis Miller
    Jean Miller_Boutin
    Jean Miller_Mayer
    Jennings
    Jr.
    LA
    LaHaye
    Lake Charles
    LeDoux
    Mamou LA
    Martel Family
    Mary Francis Miller
    McCall Family
    McCauley Family
    McGee
    Michel Miller Family
    Musician
    Obituary
    Ortego Family
    Ory Family
    Pettifield & Upchurch Family
    Pierre Valcour Miller
    Pierrottie_Pierotti
    Relationships
    Richard
    Ritter
    Savoy_Savoie
    Sonnier
    Veterans
    Ville Platte LA
    World War I
    World War II

    RSS Feed