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Leforts in Lafourche
Alexis Eugene Lefort

by Paul Wallace Lefort Jr.
last updated:  21-Jan-2005 10:01:22 PM

Alexis was born on July 02, 1776 in Nantes, France and baptized on July 03 at Saint Nicolas Church. He was the last of 9 children. His brothers and sisters were: Andre’ Julien b. Feb. 25, 1763; Marguerite b. Feb. 29, 1764; Marie Marguerite b. Jun. 26, 1765; Julien Joseph b. Sept. 16, 1766; Anne Rosalie b. Oct. 22, 1769; Jean Julien b. Sept. 21, 1770; Pierre Julien b. Nov. 24, 1772, and Jean b. June 25, 1774.

Alexis’ father was Julien Lefort b. 1734 in Rennes, France and baptized at Saint Jean de Rennes. He died Dec. 26, 1794 in Nantes of natural causes. Alexis’ mother was Anne Marguerite Guilbert b. Sept. 01, 1740 in Nantes, France and she died after 1794. Julien and Anne were married Oct. 17, 1761 in Nantes. Julien was a glass cutter by trade.

Alexis’ grandparents were Jean Lefort and Jacquette Gilet. They had Julien in 1734 and a girl Anne. Jean died before 1759. No other dates or information is available at this time on Jean and Jaquette, and I will continue to research the Lefort line beyond Jean with the help of a French genealogist.

Alexis probably moved to Louisiana around 1795 to 1804, between the ages of 19 and 28 years old. I hope to locate information on his voyage to America, but this may be extremely hard to find. He married Marie Hipolite Ferlau on Feb. 03, 1805 in Plattenville, Assumption Parish. Marie was born Apr. 15, 1789 in Donaldsonville to Mathurin Chevalier Ferlau and Marie Francoise Pitre. He was 29 and she was 16. Alexis and Marie is the couple I believe all Lefort families in Lafourche Parish come from. (I was only able to locate a few earlier unrelated Lefort’s in the New Orleans area on census information.) Alexis and Marie had 11 children, of which 7 were boys. I believe this to be the original foundation of our family in Lafourche Parish.

Alexis and Marie had 11 children who were: Marie Chothilde b. Aug. 27, 1806, married Louis Auguste Pitre, June 17, 1826; Marguerite Catherine b. Aug. 25, 1807, married Joseph Quif, Aug. 2, 1829; Jean Alexis (Jr.) b. May 05, 1809, married Josephine Menard, d. after 1870; Abdela Virginia b. July 16, 1811; Pierre Napoleon b. May 14, 1815; Joseph b. Apr. 08, 1817; Maximilien b. May 29, 1819, married Marie Veturie Pitre, April 06, 1853, d. June 06, 1878; Maturin Elphedge b. Apr. 19, 1822, married Adele Durant, Aug. 17, 1845; Eulalie Melaine b. May 25, 1824; Charles Valer b. Dec. 10, 1825, and Julien Ethiene b. June 10, 1829, married Celine Augustine Coulon, 1856, d. Oct. 12, 1912.

It is amazing that they had 11 children over a 23 year period and their last child was born when Alexis was 53 years old.

Alexis and his family first appear on the 1810 and 1820 Lafourche Interior census. They lived on property along Bayou Lafourche’s west bank on the north corner of LA. Hwy 1 and St. Charles By-Pass Rd, where today exist Ledet’s Supermarket. In the book "First Land Owners and 1810 Annotated Census of Lafourche Interior Parish, LA" by Mrs. Audrey B. Westerman 1995, the 1810 census shows land section #342 as the location of the family. Both the 1810 and 1820 census shows the Brunet’s, the Babin’s, and the Pitre’s near Alexis and his family. It is possible that there was some relation to the Pitre family living next door, and Alexis’ mother-in-law Marie Francoise Pitre Ferlau. Interestingly, two of his other neighbors were listed from Nantes, France. In 1820, Alexis was one of only four Leforts in LA, the other three in New Orleans area are unrelated.

On June 19, 1826, Alexis purchased at public Sheriff’s sale a section of land six arpents wide on Cheniere Caminada from the Francoise Pitre estate in Thibodauxville for $201.00. The terms were a third payable each March in the years 1827, 1828, and 1829. This is a possible Pitre family connection. They relocated to Caminadaville soon afterwards to build a new home and life, as they appear on the 1830 census in the Barataria area of Jefferson Parish.

The Cheniere Caminada area began to settle just after 1800, after the "Pirate" era of Jean Lafitte. This area was an earlier home to the Chitimacha Indian. It was named after Francisco Cominada shortly after 1770, when the New Orleans merchant acquired the Cheniere area. It then became known as Caminadaville. The Caminada Bay was ideal for harboring ships traveling in the Gulf of Mexico, and a popular stopping point for traders. Alexis was probably a fisherman, a skill he may have acquired in the port city of Nantes, and used it to support his family in the coastal environment of Caminadaville. The Lefort’s were a founding family of Caminadaville, and prominent in the community throughout its history until the hurricane of 1893.

Alexis’ son Julien Ethiene (b. June 10, 1829) was a merchant who owned a general store on the Bay. He was considered the "Father of Cheniere" by many in the community. Julien was recorded as being a survivor of the 1893 hurricane. The residents of Caminadaville were predominately Catholic and had a simple but good life in the village. They had dances with fiddle, accordion and harmonica playing, along with family gatherings and card playing. Most of the seafood caught was sold to local seafood dealers, Chinese shrimp-drying businesses, and in the French Market in New Orleans. Jean Alexis Jr. is shown to have acquired 143 acres of land at Cheniere Caminada in May of 1859 near his father Alexis.

Little is left of the area now since the hurricane of 1893, when most of the coastline was forever altered. Many of the survivors moved up Bayou Lafourche to the Larose and Golden Meadow areas. The only one of Alexis’ sons that moved from the area early on was my ancestor Pierre Napoleon, who moved to the Thibodaux area about 1855.

Alexis is listed on the 1850 Jefferson Barataria census at the age of 74, along with his wife Marie and son Joseph. That is the last census listing of him. I have not been able to locate his date of death, nor his burial place, so more research needed. I can only assume he died at Caminadaville and was buried there. Research in the Jefferson Parish Court House in Gretna did not reveal any succession papers for Alexis, only property transactions. On August 13, 1834, they donated a portion of property to each child, and on September 12, 1843, they exchanged some property with Mathurin. The last recorded transaction involving Alexis and Marie is on July 25, 1854, when they purchase 10 x 40 arpents on Caminada Bay from the Caroline Pitcher estate. This confirms he was alive in 1854, at the age of 78, and died before the 1860 census.

For more information on Cheniere Caminada and the Lefort’s origins there, a very good book to read is "Cheniere Caminada, Buried at Sea", by Dale P. Rogers available at Laurel Valley store.