ACADIAN-CAJUN-L Archives

Archiver > ACADIAN-CAJUN > 2003-03 > 1048247012


From: "Martha Hardcastle Guthrie" <>
Subject: Re: Molaison (Moleson) and Doiron
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 06:43:32 -0500
References: <14b.1d487cda.2bac233d@aol.com>


Heather et al,

This has been confusing to a lot of people, so don't feel bad! But it's not
as crazy as it seems. If you go to the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinsville,
there are approximately 3,000 names of original Cajun pioneers on the Wall
of Names. Of those, just about half came on the Seven Ships from exile in
France. And to my best recollection, 99 percent of the people on those ships
were of Acadian descent. The Acadians who were exiled to France had been
away from France for 150 years or so - four or five generations! Especially
in those days of limited communication, they felt no connection with France
and when they were returned there in exile, they were extremely displaced.

The Spanish government needed settlers in Louisiana and a one-time offer was
set up to re-locate those expatriated Acadians to Louisiana, where many of
their relatives had already made their way. As many were dumped on the
eastern seaboard of the US in servitude, poverty and abuse - my gggg
grandaunt Angelique Thibodeaux LaPierre (39) and uncle and Francois
Thibodeaux (37), a sister and brother both died on the same day, July 24,
1756 in Malden, Mass, a fact I find a bit chilling considering the
conditions the exiled Acadians were subjected to - cultural genocide and
conditions virtually no different than slave ships.

Moulaison should be an easier spelling to research for Acadian/Cajun names
and seems to be a preferred spelling, so that should be helpful. You will be
surprised how much there is out there on this family! Your Acadian pioneer
ancestor is Pierre Moulaison of Limoges, France and his wife was Marguerite
Pichoine. His son and your ancestor Gabriel -Gabriel was quite a character
and definitely worth researching.

In Jan. 2000, Lucie offered these variations on the name from Stephen
White's research:

"By the way, Stephen White has these variations for MOULAISON in his
Dictionniare on page 1236: Moulaison, Moulezon, Moulizot, Oulizon and dit
Rencontre. Lucie"

Don't feel bad about your confusion, either. My mother just died at 89 and
was raised to believe that her family was "French" - even though she
logically knew they were Cajun, the family had told themselves so long that
they were different because they had that hiatus in France - and partly
because my great-grandmother became a Baptist, that they tended to separate
themselves even though they were 100 percent Acadian/Cajun descent.

A few years ago we went to visit the Wall of Names and a docent lady about
her name was explaining everything when my mother broke in and started in on
the story that her family was similar but had gone back to France - it just
didn't seem to register that her 10 French/Acadian/Cajun/Louisiana pioneer
ancestors were the people whose names were were getting rubbings of off the
wall! And these were just the direct ancestors - not cousins, aunts, uncles,
etc.!

If anyone has any corrections or additions to this information, I welcome
their input.

Martha


----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 3:11 AM
Subject: Re: Molaison (Moleson) and Doiron


> Hey you guys,
>
> This kinda seems confusing to me. The Acadians were of French descent,
> originally from France. Then, they move in Acadia, settle and live there
for
> 120 years or so, then they're kicked out of their country, and shipped all
> over the place, including back to their original France. Then, the ones in
> France came here to Louisiana. Now, the records here state these people
as
> being from France. But with them all being French, it's hard to tell from
> here which were of Acadian descent and which were not. Unless you are
> familliar with ALL the Acadian names, and even so, these first Acadians
most
> likely had families left behind in France when they crossed over, which
would
> mean that some, if not all, of these names had family branches that never
> left France at all. Which also means that those who appear to be Acadian
may
> not be Acadian at all, just French.
>
> I was having alot of trouble with this Molaison / Doiron family, trying to
> figure out if these people were Acadian or not. I knew that Doiron was an
> Acadian name, but I somehow didn't remember seeing Molaison amoung the
names.
> At any rate, because they went back to France instead of here, I was
having
> trouble connecting these people to the Acadians. I want to thank those of
you
> who helped me with them. You have been a big help, and helped me find my
> link. Thanks :-)
>
> Heather LeCoq

This thread: