Cange Revisited, Part 2

The father of Jean Charles was baptized in 1760, also available on ANOM's website

Although we still face the huge problem with a lack of documents for the period from 1796-1803 and several years missing for the 19th century Bainet records in the Haitian National Archives, we thought it might be useful to expand on our last post. Using an 1827 birth act recorded for someone born in the same valley section of Bainet as our great-great-grandmother's father, plus the name of the godfather, we deduced the possible identity of his parents. We found it likely that our great-great-great-grandfather, Jean Michel Cangé, born in or about 1829, was the son of a Jean Charles Cangé and a Marie Jeanne Barthelemy. We would like confirmation with an acte de naissance, but the range of years for Jean Michel's birth have not survived. 

The 1729 baptism of Pierre Cangé, son of Jean and Marguerite (Butet, we think).

As previously stated, we searched for records of a Jean Charles Cangé born in the late colonial period, since we assumed Jean Michel's father was at likely at least 20 or older when the other son was born in 1825. We located one Jean Charles Cangé in our region in the late 18th century, baptized in 1789. That Jean Charles Cangé was the son of a Jean Pierre Cangé and Marie Louise Sougrain. Surprisingly, Jean Pierre Cangé was born in 1760, and baptized in Leogane. His father's name did not appear in the baptismal record, yet his marriage record identified him as Pierre Celin dit Cangé. Sometime between 1760 and his marriage in 1783, Jean Pierre's father recognized him.

In 1768, a Terrien married Elisabeth Cangé. Her parents, Jean Celin and Marguerite Butet, were described as free "mulattoes" 

The trouble now becomes identifying this Pierre Celin dit Cangé. There were far too many people carrying variations of Pierre or Jean or a combination of the two in 18th century Bainet, Jacmel, and Grand-Goave. This may have arisen from the original Cangé in this part of the island, which included 2 adult males according to a 1703 census. It is possible that these two adult males included a Jean and a Pierre who each passed on their names. We know that a Pierre Cangé baptized in Jacmel in 1729 was the son of a Jean Cangé and his wife, Marguerite (both presumably mixed-race). His godfather was named Pierre Cangé, perhaps a brother, cousin, or uncle of his father. Our original theory was that the Pierre Cangé baptized in 1729 married a Petit, and became the progenitor of several more Cangé in the 1750s-1770s. If he was the father of our Jean Pierre, born in 1760, he does not seem likely to have ever married his illegitimate son's mother.

If, however, the father of Jean Pierre was a Pierre Celin Cangé whose paper trail was recorded in Grand-Goave and not the same person as Pierre Louis Celin, we cannot identify him at the present stage. The Pierre Cangé born in 1729 seems like the best candidate based on age and known living locations. However, we still have to figure out his alleged "legitimacy" and if there was a Pierre Celin Cangé who did eventually marry the mother, Marie Francoise Geoffroy. The Petit-Harpon, Leogane, and Bainet connections make us inclined to see Jean Pierre as a grandson of Marguerite Butet, but we need more documents to affirm that theory. Either way, understanding Jean Pierre as born out of wedlock might have made him someone of lesser social standing?