Searching Leogane

Jean Baptiste's marriage to Marie Pichot. According to this document, Pichot was the daughter of a Jacques (presumably the one who died in 1749) and a free black woman, Nanette. There was a Nanette who died in Léogâne that might have been Pichot's mother.

After taking a break, it was decided to peruse Léogâne parish on ANOM's site. It was not unexpected to uncover new information pertinent to the Gory of Bainet we are trying to trace. Indeed, it was in Léogâne that Jean Baptiste Gory married Marie Pichot in the 1740s. Using the record of their marriage, we can see that Jean Baptiste's mother was a free black woman. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to say if her name was Marie or Marine or something else, but at least we know that Louis Gory sired at least one child with her. We operate on the assumption that Jean Baptiste was born in the 1710s or early 1720s, as was François Gory. Thus, assuming the two are both sons of Louis Gory, which seems likely, we believe the mother of François was the same black woman. Unfortunately, there is no obvious trace of her in Bainet or Léogâne, so we cannot speculate as to her origins or how she became free. However, if she was around the same age as Louis, we expect her to have been born in the later decades of the 17th century, perhaps the 1680s or 1690s.

Nanette died in 1744, before her daughter Marie Pichot married a Gory. Nothing of her origins can be seen here, but the man who freed her bore a name which resembled that of Jean Baptiste Gory's (second?) wife. Or did Marie Pichot drop that surname for the one of the man who once owned her mother?

Léogâne also provided some hints as to the origin of Louis Gory. We could not help but notice that the father of Marie Pichot was also the godfather of another mixed-race Gory. Jacques Pichot was a witness to the profession of faith of a Jacques Gorri (Gory), habitant of Nippes, and godfather to his daughter, Marie Rose. Perhaps Jacques Gorri (Gory) was a Protestant and although he was not old enough to have been the father of Louis, the two must have been related somehow. Jacques died in 1736, around the age of 40. Perhaps the two were cousins or siblings of some sort? His daughter, Marie Rose, appeared later on in the parish registers as the mother of illegitimate children. Her race was indicated as "mulatto" but it is possible both of her parents were of mixed-race origins. As for the Protestant background, Jacques must have converted to Catholicism much later than Louis. 

What exactly was the relationship between Jacques and Louis? Both families were connected to Jacques Pichot, and one might get away with thinking Jacques Gory and Louis Gory were somehow related.

Léogâne parish also gave a few more details on the families connected to Bainet. The Drouillac mother of the woman who married Joseph Gory appears to have been born in or around 1721. The Marie François Geoffroi who married Pierre Celin Cangé was born in the 1730s to Pierre Geoffroi and Marie Magdelaine. Pierre Celin dit Cangé was supposedly the son of Jean Celin and Marguerite Butet, according to his the entry for his marriage to Geoffroi. People were on the move, and one can find connections to Jacmel and Bainet from this parish.

The Cangé were tied by marriage or other bonds to Saugrain, Barreau, Geoffroi and, via them, to the Gory. 

Despite still being in the dark, we have confirmed some things, figured out a few more, and hope to explore other parishes for additional  information. As to be expected, very little of the information I find has unveiled the African background of the individuals I suspect to be the ancestors of the Bainet Gory. Nonetheless, it is interesting (and disturbing) to imagine what life was like for these people in a hellish slave society like Saint-Domingue. It puts something of a human face to this brutal era to know that some of these people were ancestors.