Suzanne from Curacao and Alexis Saugrain

 

At least Suzanne, an enslaved woman of the Saugrain, was eventually emancipated. According to our tentative family tree of the Gory and Marillac in Bainet and Jacmel, Suzanne was the mother of daughters who married a Gory and a Marillac. It looks like another of her children with Alexis Saugrain married a Barreau in 1738. Suzanne and Alexis Saugrain's name appeared on the 2 marriage contracts found in the Notariat of Saint-Domingue for Jacmel, available on FamilySearch. 

Apparently we were wrong about the parents of Alexis, Charles, and Francois (fils) Saugrain. Their father was the one who seems to have been the child of a Francois Saugrain of Normandie. Alexis and his brothers were probably born in Saint-Domingue (Grand Goave or Leogane) to Francois Saugrain and a woman named Barbe (surname indecipherable). The testaments of the brothers of Alexis Saugrain from the 1730s identify their parents and can be found in 1730s testaments in Jacmel.

Suzanne's origins are somewhat clearer now, too. According to notarized documents from the early 1720s involving Alexis and Francois Saugrain, Suzanne was around 30 years old and perhaps the most valuable enslaved woman of the Saugrain. Apparently she was a Creole of Curacao and not born in Africa. Although it is difficult to decipher the word after her name, perhaps she was a ménagère and therefore easily accessible to Alexis Saugrain's attention. 

All we know is that she was at some point freed and her children were recognized by Alexis Saugrain, who was "kind" enough to gift an enslaved child and a horse to his daughter who married a Gory in 1738. Interestingly, she gave birth to a pair of the twins and her daughter who married a Gory also had twins. 

In short, our theory of Suzanne as a common ancestor of several Gory and Marillac was correct, as well as the Alexis Saugrain link. We were incorrect about Alexis Saugrain's parents, but right about Louis Gory and Marie being the parents of the two Gory brothers Jean Baptiste and Francois. Now we need to somehow find documents clarifying the origins of Louis Gory and Marie in the Saint Domingue Notariat. Sadly, FamilySearch does not possess all of the required documents necessary for such an undertaking. But it would be interesting to uncover the origins of the first Gory in Bainet.