Eugene Gaury

"Jacmel, Jacmel, Sud-Est, Haiti records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS9W-LKRC?view=explore : Sep 8, 2024), image 187 of 259; Archives Nationales D'Haiti, Port-au-Prince, Haiti..

We may have identified another Gaury branch, based in the Jacmel area in the 1800s. In 1844, a Marie Joseph Gaury and Jean Denis Meauchil, registered the birth of their daughter, Marie Rose. One of their witnesses was a man named Louis Eugene Gaury, aged 63. One should also note that Marie Joseph Gaury was a resident of the Montagne district of the Jacmel commune, the same area Marie Elizabeth Gaury was from when her death was reported in 1802.

Thanks to ANOM's digitized records, we think we may have identified Louis Eugene Gaury. His age matches that of a Eugene Pitiot, whose baptism was recorded in 1781 in Bainet. The fils naturel of an Elizabeth Pitiot baptized in Bainet in the year 1752, the identification of Eugene's father remains a mystery. Moreover, the man identified in 1844 as living in Jacmel was named Louis Eugene Gaury, raising the question of whether or not we are speaking of the same individual. In addition, we also think it possible that this Louis Eugene Gaury was the sous-chef of movements of the port in Jacmel in the year 1845, according to Maurice Lubin's L'administration de Jacmel en 1845.

What makes things even more confusing is that the surname of Elizabeth in 1752 is that of her father, a Michel Philipon (?) who owned her mother, a black slave. It seems like Pitiot became the preferred name later on, a surname that also surfaced among Gaury descendants. For instance, a Marie Victoire Gory married Michel dit Pitiot in 1765, but only his mother was identified, a slave of a Renard. Was this Michel dit Pitiot a sibling of Elizabeth Pitiot or another relative?

We will have to revisit the Pitiot of Bainet again to make sense of this relationship. But it seems like Elizabeth Pitiot's son, baptized in 1781, was indeed the Louis Eugene Gaury mentioned as a Jacmel resident in 1802. Was Louis Eugene Gaury's father Jean Louis Gaury or another Gaury established in Jacmel? 

Our Louis?

We are still trying to uncover the origins of Louis Gory of Bainet, the first Gory. We think his sons were born in the late 1710s or early 1720s, so it is possible that this Louis above, a quarteron libre born in 1699, could have been their father. Our evidence is slim, but it is interesting to note that the godmother of this Leogane-born Louis was a Montard. The Montard, spelled as Montar, were also in Bainet by the 1720s and 1730s. Indeed, in Bainet was a Louis Montar living in Baynet in the 1720s who fathered children with a free black woman. Perhaps this Louis, whose father was not named, was the same Louis Gory or Gorry (also spelled Gaury) who was identified in the Bainet parish registries in the 1720s-1740s? He was a "quarteron" instead of a "mulatto" but we have already seen how flexible those terms were. Unfortunately, if his son Jean Baptiste really was born in or around 1711, this Louis would have been too young to have been his father. Of course, by 1791 there were few people around who would have known Jean Baptiste's actual age when he died. It is more likely that he was born in the late 1710s or early 1720s, around the same time as his brother, Francois. Perhaps a young Louis and Marie sired them when they were in their late teens or early 20s. Either way, we need more proof and identifying this Louis's godfather might point us in the right direction. Who was Guy L'Eroudelle?