Origins of Celin dit Cangé

Due to our obsession with their dit name that has survived among many Haitians, we have completely overlooked the original family name of a large family of free people of color: Celin. The founders of the lineage in Haiti were actually a white man from Galice (Galicia) named Pierre Sellin (Celin, or perhaps a Gallicized Salinas?) and a woman of color named Marie Therese Damillide or Damilide. The latter may have been from Veracruz, taken in a French raid on that part of Mexico. It is difficult to read the surname of Marie Therese's mother (Orada? Orara? Arara?) and the place of origin seems to be Vella or Novella Cruz isle espagnolle, but Veracruz the ville might have been the intended place of origin. Regardless of her exact origins, Pierre Sellin appears to have married a woman of color since their children were identified as such in later records. Their daughter, for instance, married a Jean Baptiste Souché who was a "mulatto" and habitant of Jacmel.  

The two were married in Leogane parish in 1695 and produced at least 3 or 4 children. It looks like their household was enumerated in the Jacmel Quarter and its dependencies in the 1703 Census. We assume Jean Salin or Jean Celin born in Leogane parish was the one who married Marguerite Butet and produced numerous children, beginning with Jean Baptiste in Baynet. 

In addition to Jean, his sister Elizabeth or Isabelle also married a Souché and his brother Pierre Celin probably also had children. Perhaps Pierre the father or Pierre the brother also acted as the godfather to Jean's children born in the 1720s before they moved to Petit-Harpon. Intriguingly, one of the Pierre Celins (perhaps Jean's father, or more likely his brother?) married the widow of Francois Saugrain, Marguerite Francq. 

Trying to make sense of the numerous Cangé in 18th century Jacmel, Bainet, and Leogane is difficult with only digitized ANOM parish registers. The repetition of Jean and Pierre as names sometimes leads to confusion, although we now understand why Pierre was so commonly used as a first name (after the founder of the lineage and the brother of Jean). We assume the Jean Sellin born in the 1690s was the only one who had children with a woman named Marguerite Butet, perhaps a sister of Jeanne Butet (illegitimate daughter of Rene Butet of Le Mans). However, the Jean Baptiste baptized in Baynet in the 1710s had a mother with a different surname, something like Courville? We are also unsure about deaths of Jean Celin's parents or if most if not all people bearing the Celin dit Cangé name were actually descendants of Jean.

Part of our confusion stems from the 1703 census. According to that source, the Cangé (or Celin) household included 2 males bearing arms and 2 adult women. We are probably safe to assume that by this period Pierre Sellin and Marie Therese were 2 of the adults. Who were the other ones? Was Pierre Celin accompanied by some unknown cousin or brother we are ignorant of? His sons would have been children and too young to be counted as men bearing arms. 

What makes sense to us is that Jean Celin, born in the 1690s, was the "mixed-race" child who started having children with Marguerite in the late 1710s and 1720s. He was probably illiterate and by the late 1730s or 1740s, had established himself at Petit-Harpon. Some of his children stayed or moved back to Jacmel and Bainet, spreading their Celin Cangé name around the area. Some of their descendants ended up in the valley of Bainet, such as Jean Pierre and Jean Louis in the late 1700s. We assume the "Calit Cangé" habitation in the valley of Bainet was named after one of them and that some remained in the area after the Haitian Revolution. 

Since Celin disappeared and Cangé survives in the Bainet and Jacmel area, and the Cangé were a numerous family in the 18th century, we assume that some of us are descendants of them. Our earliest known ancestor with the name was probably born in c.1829 in the valley of Bainet, but we are missing too many years of the 19th century Bainet civil records to positively identify his parents. However, we earlier pointed out a connection between a Jean Charles Cangé and an Alexandre who acted as godfather to his child in the 1820s. There were also other Alexandre-Cangé ties in the valley of Bainet and Jacmel during the early 19th century. In nearby Jacmel, for instance, one Jean Baptiste Alexandre was married to a Cangé and had a child in the 1818. We think the parents of our great-great-grandmother may have been from close Alexandre and Cangé backgrounds, perhaps living in or near Bergin (Begin) but lack the required documents to prove it. Nonetheless, we're willing to bet good money Jean Michel Cangé was somehow related to Jean Charles Celin Cangé or another one of the Cangé living in the valley of Bainet during the 1790s. After all, the valley isn't that large of a place and many people must have remained in the area after independence.