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Charles and Constance, or Carlos and Constanza in Spanish, went on to produce a large family. I account for 11 and right away you will see their hispanized names:

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Constance died on September 4, 1843 in New Orleans. Several heirs petition the courts to open her succession, as she died leaving property. Those children were Eulalie, wife of Norbert Fortier; Marie alias Séfisse; Vincent alias Florville; Rose alias Adéline; Similien.

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Included in the probate docket for Constance’s estate, were several baptismal extracts from St. Louis Church in New Orleans. The first born, Marie Annonciade, had for baptismal sponsors (godparents) Raymundo Gallar [sic] and De Breyu [sic]. The baptism is written in Spanish. Using Spanish phonetics, we can deduce that the godmother’s surname, spelled De Breyu in the document, was probably pronounced /day bray yoo/ in English phonetics, or Débréyou in French orthography. For Louisiana Creolophones, the French vowel U, /ew/, most often transformed into É /ay/, as did the French diphthong EU /uh/ and triphthong EUI /uh/. When the French triphthong EUI /uh/ is followed by an I, ergo, EUIL, the sound often transformed to /yoo/, or you in French. Annonciade’s family surnames helps to situate who the godmother could have been.³María, baptism, Iglesia San Luis de la Nueva Orleáns, vol. 2, folio 286, #1003.

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There is one likely candidate. Annonciade’s maternal grandmother, Constance’s mother, was named Marie Manon du Breuil. Manon’s name only appears as Manon or as Marion, without a surname, in her children’s Spanish-era marriage records. However she appears as godmother to a number of her grandchildren, using various creolized derivatives of her du Breuil surname. For instance, Domingo Gallar [sic], known otherwise as Dominique Gaillard, was born in New Orleans 27 July 1796 to Raymond “Ramón/Raymundo” Gaillard and Marie Isabelle “Manon” Destréhan, all gente de color libre. Manon Destréhan is of no known relation to Manon du Breuil. Dominique’s godmother’s name appears as María Dubril [sic]. His godfather was Manon du Breuil’s consort, the medical doctor Raymond “Raymundo” Gaillard, a native of France. To clarify any ambiguity, the Hispanophone priest recording Dominique’s baptism noted that Raymundo and María were the child’s grandparents. Not so coincidentally, Annonciade’s godparents were Raymond and Manon, also. These are merely 2 records, but they clearly show a pattern in Manon’s usage of du Breuil as a surname, and also that she was the grandmother of the child christened. From this, we can infer that Annonciade’s “De Breyu” godmother, therefore, is her maternal grandmother, Marie Manon du Breuil. If any doubt still lurked, consider that when Marión Dubreuil [sic], mulata libre, declared before Pierre Pédescleaux, a notary public in Spanish-era New Orleans, having brought into the world 5 children for the Frenchman, Raymundo Gaillard.⁴Carlos Brulé, mulato libre, son of Luisa, married María Constancia, daughter of Manon, on 10 May 1777: Iglesia San Luis de la Nueva Orléans, registro de matrimonios de personas de color libres, vol. 3, #2. Ramón Gallard, native of New Orleans, natural son of Marión, married María Isabel Destréhan, native of San Luis de la Nueva Orleáns parish, daughter of Cathalina, on 11 Dec 1788: Iglesia San Luis de la Nueva Orleáns, registro de matrimonios de personas de color libres, vol. 3, #7. For Manon’s declaration, see Kuntz Collection, Spanish Colonial Period, 15 Feb 1782, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library; Records and Deliberations of the Cabildo, vol. 2, 15 Feb and 20 Sept 1782; as found in Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded Lives, Bounded Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans ( ), Jennifer M. Spear, Race, Sex, and Social Order in Early New Orleans (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 143.

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Another example is Annonciade’s sister, Eulalie. Eulalie’s baptismal sponsors were Jean Baptiste Eugeon [sic] and Manuela (no surname). Both were mulatos libres. Jean Baptiste is actually Jean-Baptiste Hugon, pronounced /ew gawn/, a mulâtre libre of some considerable status in Spanish-era New Orleans. When creolized, Hugon took on different sounds and thus different renderings in ink. One was /ay zhawñ/, so you will find it spelled Eigon in records. The marriage of Baptiste Augustin Fonténot, free man of color, a son of Augustin Belair Fonténot and Jean Veuve Eigon [sic], free woman of color, all residents at the Opélousas Post serve as a good example. Geneviève Hugon, griffe libre, born a slave of a morena mother named Marie, was a daughter of this same Jean-Baptiste Hugon. Perhaps sensing death, Jean-Baptiste arranged for the execution and notarization of his last will and testament in July 1792. The ailing testator requested that his executor, the well known moreno libre Noël Carrière, a leader in the moreno libre militia at New Orleans, purchase his daughter, Geneviève, then a 22-year-old slave of Mr. Belair Fonténaut [sic] (Augustin’s father) at the Opélousas Post, then emancipate her. By August 1792, Jean-Baptiste was dead and one year later, the Fonténauts received 460 pesos for Geneviève, and through power of attorney of María Juana [Marie-Jeanne] Brignac (Augustin’s mother), widow of Belair Fonténaut, Louis Fonténaut issued the emancipation.⁵Eulalie Bruslé, baptism, St. Louis Church, vol. 4, folio 214, #1166; Hanger, Bounded Lives, 128; Last will and testament, Juan Bautista Hugón, h.d.c.l., 29 July 1792, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, freed slaves in Louisiana database, line 1590. Hall also notes the document is available at the Louisiana Historic Collection, 8th Aug 1792. Geneviève, called Genoveva in the document, is described as griffe in complexion. Hugon had purchased Geneviève’s siblings, Henri “Henrrique” (age 4) and Constance “Constanza” (age 1 1/2), both griffes, from Lawrence “Lorenzo” Bailly in New Orleans in 1776: Hall, freed Louisiana slave database, lines 431-32. In 1779, Hugon purchased and emancipated his consort, the negra slave name María, age 40, and their grifa daughter, Celeste, from Bailly and paid 700 pesos to Bailly for them: ibid., lines 609-10. Baptiste August Fonténot, h.d.c.l., natural son of Augustin Fonténot and Jean Veuve Eigon, f.d.c.l.,  married civilly on 26 Jan 1810 Marie-Louise Thierry, f.d.c.l., natural daughter of Louis Thierry and Marie Glaude-Guillory, f.d.c.l. Witnesses were Hugh Duffin, John Andrus, and A. Reeder: St. Landry Parish Court House, Conveyances, vol. A-1, #427-A.

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As it turns out, Raymond Gaillard and Charles Brûlé were well acquainted with Jean-Baptiste Hugon, and Hugon was a man of some stature in Spanish-era New Orleans. He captained the pardo militia of free men of color during Spanish-era New Orleans, with Raymond Gaillard fils and Charles as members of that same militia. In 1784, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Bouligny, a native of Spain, and founder of New Iberia, Valenzuela, and other Hispanophone settlements in colonial Louisiana, recommended Hugon, known in Spanish as Juan Bautista Hugón, mulato libre, among many other free men of color serving in New Orleans’s pardo and moreno militias, for royal commendation for having assisted in the 1784 capture of 50 runaway slaves in the San Maló band of cimarrones. However, the colonial governor, Don Estéban Rodríguez Miró y Sabater, rejected the commendation and did not forward it to Madrid. When Hugon died in August 1792, his funeral expenses included the raising of the body with its cope, 2 additional priests, a vigil, ringing of the church bells, 3 cantors, 3 alter boys, the grave, cross, and pall, the incense and lighting, a low mass, and fees for the sacristan. ⁶Records and Deliberations of the Cabildo, vol. 2, 28 May and 4 June 1784; Charles C. Thompson Collection, box 2, folder 9, 1784, LLMVC; Gilbert C. Din, Francisco Bouligny: A Bourbon Soldier in Spanish Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), 138-39, and “Cimarrones and the San Malo Band,” Louisiana History Association 21, no. 3 (Summer, 1980): 237-62; all found in Spear, Bounded Lives, 131. For Bouligny’s settlements, see, among others, Din, The Canary Islanders of Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999); Glen R. Conrad, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People (Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1986).

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Different spellings for names in Louisiana tell a fascinating story that, quite frankly, often determines whether one conducts good genealogy, or misidentifies people and lineages.

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– Christophe Landry