François Gaury in 1793

Whilst perusing the digitized notariat for Saint Domingue (on Family Search), we came across yet another distant Gaury relative. This one was François Gaury, who in 1793, was a witness to a sale in Bainet. Like most of the Gaury we have so far found in the record, he was illiterate. 

We suspect this guy was the François Gaury born in 1738 to François Gaury and Marie-Françoise Saugrain. If so, he may have the oldest Gaury still around in 1793, although we need to check the baptismal records and death notices for the parish one more time to confirm. 

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? 

Marie Elizabeth Gaury

Came across another Gaury on ANOM's digitized records from Jacmel, this time a fille naturelle who died in 1802 at age 25. So, Marie Elizabeth Gaury would have been born in c.1777. 

The man who declared her death, a "mulatto" tailor named Jean-Baptiste Colon, was baptized in 1756 in Jacmel. We assume that Marie Elizabeth Gaury's mother was a sibling of this man, and therefore her mother was probably the child of Jean-Baptiste Colon and Marie Lemoine. But who was her father, Jean-Louis Gaury? 

Her father was the son of Jean-Baptiste Gory baptized in 1747 (in Bainet), meaning she was a great-granddaughter of Louis Gory, the earliest known Gory in the Bainet area. What surprised us is another link to a different family, the Colon in Jacmel. It also appears like Marie Elizabeth Gaury passed away on the habitation of a Lacour. 

Full Circle on Victoire

After revisiting old parish registers and notes, we have returned to believing the mother of our Anne Marie Joseph Gaury was indeed Victoire Susanne Monteise. The other possibilities we know about either do not fit or are too unlikely. For instance, we once thought a woman baptized in 1778, Marie Victoire Sanite, could have been the mother. Sanite was the illegitimate daughter of a Marie Magdelaine Beaubrun Dupuy and her godmother was none other than Marie Victoire Susanne Monteise. However, Baynet parish records indicate that a Marie Victoire died about 5 years later in 1783. The mother is only identified as a Marie Magdelaine, but this probably means that Marie Victoire Sanite died in 1783, about ten years before the birth of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury. 

Another candidate for the mother, Marie Victoire Pitiot, appears to have been married to a Diegue Prunieu (or Prunier?). Marie Victoire Pitiot, baptized in 1765, was incorrectly identified as a Pichot by the parish priest. However, it becomes rather clear that Pitiot was her surname since her mother was identified as a Marie Victoire Gory. We later learn when Marie Michelle Gabrielle Pitiot was baptized that her godmother was Marie Victoire Pitiot, the wife of Diegue Prunieu. If Marie Victoire Pitiot was married to a Prunieu by 1787, and descendants of the Gory/Pitiot would also marry them in 1800s Grand-Goave, it is probably unlikely for Marie Victoire Pitiot to have been the mother of Anne Marie Joseph in 1793.

The original Marie Victoire Gory is also worthy of attention. Baptized in 1749, Marie Victoire Gory was the daughter of Francois Gory and Francoise Saugrain. She married Michel Pitiot in 1765. They went on to have at least a few children, including Marie Victoire Pitiot, Jean Joseph Gabriel Pitiot (baptized in 1781), Marie Michelle Gabrielle Pitiot (baptized in 1787) and even another child, Marie Anne Francois Pitiot, in an unknown year. It seems highly unlikely that this Marie Victoire Gory was the mother of Anne Marie Joseph. She was more likely to have still been married to Michel Pitiot in 1793. 

The loss of Marie Victoire Gory (baptized 1749), Marie Victoire Pitiot (baptized 1765) and Marie Victoire Sanite (baptized 1778) as possibilities leaves us with Victoire Susanne Monteise. Baptized in 1764, she was the daughter of a white Frenchman and Marie Francoise Gory. Her godmother, Marie Victoire Gory, was the source of her name (which was written as Marie Victoire Susanne Monteise by the priest who recorded Sanite's baptism). We know that this Victoire Susanne's sister married Jean Baptiste Marillac, a frequent witness to events affecting members of the Beaubrun Dupuy, Pitiot, Gory, and other Baynet families in the late 1700s. We also known that all these women were related to or connected to each other in Baynet during the second half of the 18th century. 

Of course, one still needs to understand why Anne Marie Joseph's mother was recorded in 1793 as simply Victoire Gory. Was it due to to her illegitimate birth? Or was there yet another Victoire Gory living in the same area of Baynet and part of the same kinship networks? And who was the Joseph mentioned as Anne Marie Joseph's father in her 1859 death certificate? The only Joseph Gory was the son of Jean-Baptiste Gory, a cousin of Victoire Susanne. A Joseph Deslande was also present, but he married Agathe Gaury in 1775. With Agathe, he had a son named Joseph Guillaume Deslande, baptized in 1776. It seems improbable that Joseph Deslande was the father of Anne Marie Joseph, although we cannot rule it out. After all, Agathe Gaury died in 1788.

An alternative clue to the identity of Anne Marie Joseph's origins may also be found by looking at her godparents again. Both of her godparents were from the Marillac family, and siblings. Indeed, her godmother, Marie Marillac, was a widow who also had an illegitimate child after her husband's death. According to the Bainet parish books, Jean Baptiste Marillac's sister had her illegitimate daughter baptized in 1788. She used her own name, Marillac, and had her relatives, including the sister of Victoire Susanne Monteise, serve as a godparent. Whatever stigma of an illegitimate child in this era clearly did not stop men like Jean Baptiste Marillac from acting as a godparent to the children of his relatives. We are inclined to believe the same thing applied to Anne Marie Joseph Gaury, whose mother's name was inexplicably written as Victoire Gory. There may have been another Victoire Gory out there, perhaps in Grand-Goave, whose existence we cannot affirm. Based on the sources we currently possess, the simplest explanation is that Victoire Gory and Victoire Susanne Monteise were indeed the same people.

Another Louis Gauri

Although probably of no relation to the Gaury we are currently obsessed with, it is interesting to see the name, spelled Gauri here, in nearby Leogane. Louis Gauri was a soldier in the 23rd half brigade and we only see the name of his mother here. However, it specifies that he was born in Baynet, and thus presumably from the area around L'Islet of Bainet. We assume he was probably young, perhaps born in the early 1800s or 1790s, when he passed away in 1822. The Gaury we're interested in, Anne Marie Joseph, appears to have been the one born in 1793 to a Victoire Gory and an unnamed father later revealed to have been Joseph. But one never knows, perhaps she knew this Louis or they were related in some other way. We also suspect the Jean Louis Gauri whose birth was registered in the 1825s in Bainet, a son of Marie Ursule Oriol and Jean Louis Gauri, was also possibly related to her. 

Another Victoire

Somehow we neglected to mention the existence of another Victoire related to the Gory of 18th century Bainet. A quick persual of ANOM's Baynet parish registries clarified the matter, somewhat. In addition to Victoire Suzanne Monteise and her godmother, Marie Victoire Gory, there was a Marie Victoire Pitiot (incorrectly written as Pichot by the parish priest). Baptized in 1765, this Marie Victoire could also have been the mother of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury. Again, like Victoire Suzanne, there is a problem of why her name was recorded as Gory by the parish priest but that could have been an error on his part, just like the parish priest who wrote Pichot instead of Pitiot. We know Marie Victoire Gory was married to Michel Pitiot and thus the mother of Marie Victoire Pitiot. Marie Victoire was also the aunt of Victoire Suzanne Monteise. In other words, the mother of the Anne Marie Joseph baptized in 1793 was likely one of these three women. 

It seems that Anne Marie Joseph's parents were still alive when she passed away in 1859, so it was probably one of the younger women (the daughter or the niece of Marie Victoire Gory). Marie Victoire Gory was still married to Michel Pitiot in the 1780s and we were unable to find any mention of his death before 1793. Moreover, we know that Victoire Suzanne Monteise's first name was obviously Victoire, strengthening the case for identifying her as the mother. We could only find one instance in which Marie Victoire Gory's name appeared as just Victoire Gory, and that was when her sister's illegitimate child, Marie Louise, was baptized in 1769. Marillac, who married a sister of Victoire Suzanne Monteise, was also the godfather to the son of Marie Victoire Gory born in 1781. He must have known all three of these women but all the evidence remains slightly in greater favor for Victoire Suzanne. 

Gorr

Fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony. One of our ancestral surnames comes from the word for the pig, our least favorite animal. Our source, Morlet's Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille includes several variants of the family name, although the spelling of Gaury does not appear. It seems to be a lesson common surname nowadays.

Drouillac Hunting

Our current theory assumes this Françoise Drouillac, who passed away in 1761 in Leogane, was the mother of Marie Françoise Paponet, who married Joseph Gory in 1771.

As part of our quest to trace the origins of the forebears of Anne Marie Joseph Gory in our tentative family tree, we decided to attempt to tackle the issue of the Drouillac. According to our theory, Anne Marie Joseph's father was the grandson of a Paponet who married Joseph Gory. Her mother, a Drouillac of Leogane, appears to have died in 1761 and was presumably born in the early 1720s or late 1710s. Paponet had a son from a previous relationship who married Agathe Gory. The product of that union, a Joseph baptized in 1776, seems like the best candidate for Anne Marie Joseph's father. Even if we are wrong, at least we are further establishing the familial network of the Bainet Gory in 18th century Saint-Domingue.

The 1771 marriage entry for Joseph Gory and Paponet appears to indicate that Françoise Drouillac was deceased, which supports the idea she was the Drouillac who died in 1761. 

So, who were the Drouillac? Another round of searching Leogane entries of baptisms, marriages and deaths via ANOM's site helped to partly address the question. We found a few individuals who were likely siblings of Françoise, including a Pierre, Ignace, and François. Although I am not sure all had the same mother, they appear to share a Gilles Drouillac as their father. Assuming they were all born in the 1710s and 1720s, we assume Gilles Drouillac was probably born in the late 17th century and was a "mulatto" scion of a Drouillac and a black woman we could not locate. 

Ignace Douillac, who died in 1744, was the son of a Gilles and a woman named Marie Therese. We assume Ignace was a sibling of our Françoise.

What helped make things easier is the number of children Pierre and François had. The baptismal entry for the daughter of the latter, Rose Victoire, actually named Gilles Dujacq (Gilles Drouillac) as the godfather. Interestingly, François was named as a free black, perhaps because he was a dark-skinned grif son of a "mulatto" and a "black" woman? Elsewhere we have noticed the shifting color or racial terms used to describe the population of Saint-Domingue, so we assume the parish priests just recorded what they thought as more accurate "racial" category for nonwhites (or, in some cases, chose to omit any mention of their racial origin). 

We also have established by 1752, Gilles Drouillac resided in Grand-Goave. Assuming Marie Therese was the mother of all (or most) of his children, including Françoise Drouillac, we can probably infer that she was a "griffe" born sometime in the early 1720s or late 1710s. She actually appeared as the godmother to the child of Pierre  in 1743. So we know at least a few things about her origins and her parentage. The Drouillac were still around in the late colonial era in Grand-Goave, too. A Marcel Drouillac, son of a later Gilles Drouillac married in 1794. We assume his father was the Gilles baptized in 1756, a son of Pierre Drouillac. 

A daughter of Pierre Douillac (Drouillac) and Marie Rose was baptized in 1743. Her godmother was Françoise and the child actually bore the same name as Françoise's daughter.

The harder, more time-consuming task that remains is to search for Gilles and Marie Therese early on in Leogane. Who knows, perhaps that could contain a reference to an African-born person or lead to a revelation about other possible Drouillac-Gory connections. We just wish Drouillac had a consistent spelling so we don't have to search for Douillac, Douliac, Dujac, Dujacq, and Drouillac. Alas, we still have to identify the Paponet father of Marie Françoise and the father of her son. That would require a trip to Grand Anse and a more thorough search of the voluminous Leogane parish register.

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.

More Gory Searching

Jean-Baptiste Marillac married a woman of Montes and Gory parentage in 1787. 

A quick perusal of ANOM's Baynet parish record revealed some more information that strengthens my theory for Anne Marie Joseph Gory's origins. Her godfather, Jean-Baptiste Marillac, was actually related to her and shared her Saugrain ancestry. Moreover, Marillac was linked to the Gory through his marriage to a daughter of François Monteise (Montes) and a Gory. Indeed, it is possible that Jean-Baptiste Marillac was actually married to the aunt of Anne Marie Joseph, if indeed Victoire Gory was the same person as Victoire Suzanne Monteise. 

Marguerite Louise, the older sister of Victoire, was born in 1761. 

Although I would like firmer evidence to connect Anne Marie Joseph to Victoire Suzanne Monteise, our case rests on slightly stronger ground. We have identified this specific Jean-Baptiste Marillac, who was baptized in 1758, and linked him to the Saugrain and Gory through birth and marriage. The fact that he was Anne Marie Joseph's godfather further establishes a connection. Indeed, the fact that he was married to Marguerite Louise Montes, the possible older sister of Victoire, makes it possible he was an attractive candidate to be Anne Marie Joseph's godfather (her uncle). Furthermore, we have yet to locate any other Victoire living in that section of Bainet besides the older Marie Victoire Gory, who was probably not Anne Marie Joseph's mother (she would have been far less likely to still be alive in the 1850s). It is possible Victoire Suzanne dropped the Montes name because her father was dead by 1787 if not far earlier.

Jean-Baptiste Marillac appears to have been born in late 1757, baptized in February 1758. His godmother was a Bainet Saugrain married to François Gory. We also see that Jean-Baptiste Marillac was a grandson of an enslaved woman, Suzanne, who had multiple children in the 1720s. At least one of her children was sired by Louis Saugrain. Her daughter, Marie Barbe, used the Saugrain name and married a Marillac.

Anne Marie Joseph Gory's godmother, Marie Marthe Marillac, was probably the brother of her godfather, Jean-Baptiste Marillac. If she was the brother of Jean-Baptiste Marillac, who was a Saugrain through their mother, then Marie Marthe was also a relative of Anne Marie Joseph. 

So, now that we have established the familial link between Jean-Baptiste Marillac and Anne Marie Joseph Gory, what do we know of the deeper origins of the Gory name in Bainet? Despite appearing rather early on as a godfather to several children, the first Gory we know of, Louis Gory, did not leave behind much of a paper trail. Our current theory is that he was the father of not only Jean-Baptiste Gory but François Gory, too. François Gory died in about 1760, around the age of 40. His brother, Jean-Baptiste Gory, died in 1791 around the age of 80. They both appear to have been sons of Louis Gory, a "free mulatto" who was still alive in 1746. 

Jean-Baptiste Gory died in May 1791. If he was 80 at the time of his death, then Louis Gory must have been born sometime in the later decades of the 1600s. Our current theory for Anne Marie Joseph links her to Jean-Baptiste and François. 

If Louis Gory was not a native to Bainet, from whence did he come? The other Gory or Gaury in early 18th century Saint-Domingue were in Croix-des-Bouquets and Cavaillon. The Croix-des-Bouquet Gory was a woman from Saint-Christophe, Anne, who died in 1732. Her father, Pierre Gorry, was presumably the son of another Pierre and his "mulatto" wife, Marie. The Cavaillon Gaury in the 1720s was a woman said to be a native of Île-à-Vache. Perhaps the origins of Louis Gory can be found in the Sud, although I cannot recall any census from 1703 or other records identifying a Louis Gory in that region. But I can imagine him moving to Bainet parish from another area once administered by the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue. Or, like others who migrated to Jacmel and Bainet parish, he could have come from Leogane or Croix-des-Bouquets.

In 1723, Louis Gori (Gory) was the godfather of a child of Mathieu Renard (probably related to Jacques Renard, a native of Saint-Christophe) and an enslaved woman. In that same year he was also the godfather of a child born to free blacks Soliman and Marie.

Sadly, we are still in the dark as to the origins of Louis Gory. We can guess he was born in the late 1600s, perhaps the 1680s. Our evidence suggests he was a "mulatto" and was well-connected to a number of other Bainet habitants, including free blacks like the Soliman. We are not sure where else to look for possible traces of Louis, either. Perusals of ANOM materials from Croix-des-Bouquets, Les Cayes, Léogâne, and other parishes has not revealed anything so far.

Here Louis Gory was identified as a "free mulatto" in yet another example of him acting as godfather.

To sum it all up, our current understanding of the available evidence suggests the earliest Gory in Bainet was a "mulatto" named Louis. Jean-Baptiste was his son, as was likely the case for François. Anne Marie Joseph's godfather was also related to the Gory via Saugrain ancestry and marriage to a Gaury who also had a Monteise father. Our theory suggests Anne Marie Joseph's mother was the sister of Jean-Baptiste Marillac's wife. Being her uncle, it is no surprise to see him act as her godfather.

A crude family tree for Anne Marie Joseph Gaury's parents.

Joseph Gory (Gaury)

After reviewing the evidence, we find it likely that Anne Marie Joseph Gaury's parents were actually cousins. In fact, that means Anne Marie Joseph Gaury was a descendant of both Jean-Baptiste Gory and François Gory. A second read of the 1771 marriage license for Joseph Gaury (a son of Jean-Baptiste and Marie Bichot (Pichot?)) and Marie Françoise Paponet (the daughter of a mulatto, Françoise Drouillac, from Léogâne) revealed an interesting fact: Joseph Gory married the mother of Joseph Delande.

A close read of Joseph Delande's marriage record to Agathe Gory (also a child of Jean-Baptiste, but born in 1759) clarified the matter. Joseph Delande was explicitly stated to be under the guardianship of Joseph Gory, who was married to his mother, Paponet. So, Delande, already related to the Gory via his mother's marriage, proceeded to marry Agathe Gaury, the younger sister of his stepfather. Talk about incestuous? Or maybe borderline? At least they were not actually related.

Agathe and Joseph Delande had a son, Joseph Guillaume, baptized in 1776. This Joseph was likely the father of Anne Marie Joseph. Perhaps his name did not appear the entry for her baptism in 1793 because of his age and the fact that the mother was his cousin? The mother, Victoire, was likely Victoire Suzanne Monteise, born in 1764. She was therefore quite a bit older than Joseph Delande. Maybe his name did not appear because of an inappropriate relationship between cousins with a sizable age gap.

Our theory also makes it more easier to explain why Anne Marie Joseph's 1859 death certificate referred to her parents as if they were still alive. If Victoire was still alive in 1859, she would have been in her 90s, which is plausible but rare. Joseph Guillaume would have been in his 80s, which also seems rare but not completely unheard of. As for why Joseph Guillaume was named Gaury in her 1859 death record, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that his father's mother was married to a Joseph Gaury and his own mother was also one.

In light of the close link between Joseph Guillaume's father's family to the Gory, and his own maternal ancestry, one can understand why he used that name. It would appear that his father was an illegitimate child whose own father is not easily traceable. Therefore, the Gory name might have made more sense for him to adopt. We still do not know the exact reasons why Victoire, who was probably a Monteise through her father, used the Gory name. But this theory makes sense out of a messy situation of kissing cousins and missing records. Moreover, it illustrates how Beresfort's mother was linked to a variety of places besides Bainet, including Leogane, Grand Anse, and Jacmel. Now we just have to make sense of the possible Bichot connection and figure out where Paponet and Deslande came from. 

Gaury or Gory Searching

A Joseph Gaury was baptized in Bainet back in 1748.

Despite our limited sources to identify the origins of Beresfort Francois's mother, we have explored the Gory or Gaury name in Bainet for clues as to her origins. Her 1859 death certificate is highly problematic. The document is partly illegible and the full name of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury's mother Victoire cannot be determined. Fortunately, the estimated age of around 60 was plausible for Beresfort's mother. We know two of his siblings were said to have been born in c.1818 and 1816, which would suggest the mother was probably born in the late 1700s or very early 19th century. We suspect Annie Marie Joseph Gaury was born in the 1790s or so. And indeed we found someone named Anne Marie Joseph Gory born in 1793.

Anne Marie Joseph Gory was baptized in April 1793. Her mother was Victoire Gory, but the father is not named. Note the godfather was a Jean-Baptiste Merillac. Who was the Joseph Gaury named in her 1859 death certificate?

Almaïde François, the sister of our great-great-great-grandfather died in 1888. According to the document, she was 70 and therefore born in c.1818.

We did search ANOM's Baynet files for Joseph Gaury or Gory. To our surprise, there was indeed a Joseph Gory, the son of Jean-Baptiste Gory. However, his baptismal record from 1748 would have meant he was around 45 years old when Anne Marie Joseph was born. It is possible, but there could be other explanations for Anne Marie Joseph's father's origin.

Agathe Gory was baptized in 1758. She had a son named Joseph in the 1770s.

So, if the Joseph Gory baptized in 1748 is not the father we are looking for, what does that leave us with? The Gory or Gaury were mostly free people of color linked to the Bichot, Saugrain, Pitiot and other families of similar backgrounds. Many of the marriages, baptisms, and deaths recorded in Bainet for Gory or Gaury involve the descendants of two men, likely brothers: Jean-Baptiste Gory and Francois Gory. Jean-Baptiste's father was named Louis Gory, who was probably also the father of Francois, too. These two Gory fathered multiple children, including the Joseph Gory born in 1748. The other ones include Marie Francoise Gory, Francoise and Francois Gory, Jean Louis, Marie Victoire, Pierre, Agathe, Elisabeth, Jacques, and Guillaume. One person with a Gory mother included a Joseph Guillaume Deslande, son of Agathe. A few others were born in the second half of the 18th century to Gory mothers. Unless one of them fathered a Joseph Gaury that does not appear in the records, we are still in the dark as to the origins of Anne Marie Joseph's father. 

Victoire Monteise

It seems rather unlikely that Joseph Guillaume Deslande would have dropped his father's name, although he is of the right age range (born in 1776) to have been Anne Marie Joseph's (very young) father. A 1776 birth would have made him in his late teens when Annie Marie Joseph was born in the late 1790s or early 1800s. Then he could also have still been alive in 1859, residing in the bourg of Bainet. However, as previously stated, it seems unlikely that Joseph Guillaume would have used his mother's name.

Joseph Guillaume was about the right age to have been the father of Anne Marie Joseph and live well into the 19th century. 

In 1794, a Pierre Gaury passed away. He was almost certainly the Pierre Gory baptized in 1761 and a son of Jean-Baptiste Gory. Note the mention of his habitation. This Pierre would have been an uncle to Joseph Guillaume Deslande (or Delande) and a cousin of Marie Victoire.

But can we identify Victoire Gory, the mother of Anne Marie Joseph? One of the few persons with that name is Marie Victoire Gory, who had married a grif named Michel Pitiot in 1765. That man, the son of a Pitiot and a a slave, had a child with Marie Victoire (daughter of Francois Gory and a Saugrain) named Jean Joseph Gabriel Pitiot, born in 1781. Interestingly, the godfather was Jean-Baptiste Merillac, the very same man who served as the godfather of Annie Marie Joseph. Is it possible that Marie Victoire was the same Victoire who gave birth to Anne Marie Joseph in 1793? Maybe, but her birth in 1749 would have made her in her 40s in 1793. If she had a child with her cousin, the Joseph Gory, baptized the year before, then Anne Marie Joseph was the fruit of kissing cousins in their 40s. That seems a little unlikely considering the ages and the fact that both of these people were married to others.

Marie Victoire Gory's son had the same godfather as Anne Marie Joseph. 

Our theory is that Anne Marie Joseph Gory's mother may have been another Gory, probably a younger one. Since there was a plethora of related individuals bearing the name Gory, and all connected to L'islet, perhaps she was born to one of them and we simply have not located any trace of her yet. One candidate for the mother of of Anne Marie Joseph is a Victoire Susanne Monteise (?), born in 1764. Her mother was Marie Francoise Gory and her godmother was Marie Victoire Gory. We know this Victoire's mother married a Monteise (a white man, from Clermon-Ferrand?) in 1759, and she was the daughter of Francois Gory and Marie Francoise Saugrain. Perhaps she was the mother of Anne Marie Joseph, but used the Gory name or was identified as such in 1793? Perhaps that was sensible if one assumes her Monteise father was a white man who married into a landowning family of free people of color.

Victoire Susanne was the daughter of the Marie Francois Gory and a Monteise, who married in 1759. Monteise appears to have been from Clermont-Ferand.

Either way, her child born in 1781 had the same godfather as Anne Marie Joseph, suggesting that he knew Victoire Gory and Marie Victoire, who were also relatives (aunt and niece). We are inclined to believe Anne Marie Joseph Gory's mother was probably child of Monteise and Marie Francoise Gory.

In 1749, Marie Victoire was baptized. Her mother was  a Saugrain.

All of this confirms that Beresfort Francois's mother was from an ancien libre lineage linked to L'Islet. Beresfort's father, however, does not appear in any records we have searched. As we already assumed he was a former slave or child of former slaves, so finding any trace of him will be exceedingly difficult. But we at least know what part of Bainet Beresfort's mother came from, and some of her family connections. Perhaps his father was from the same section of Bainet? 

In 1781, the widow of Francois Gory, Marie Francoise Saugrain, died. Note that one of the witnesses was Jean-Baptiste Marillac, who was the godfather of Anne Marie Joseph Gory in 1793.

It is probable that the Marie Saugrain baptized in 1718 was the same woman who married Francois Gory. She was an illegitimate child of Alexis Saugrain and freed by her Saugrain grandfather (Francois Saugrain?).

We will take a break from our obsessive Bainet historical and genealogical rantings at this point. We are more interested in the African and Creole slave population and do not have the sources needed to really begin to explore that aspect of our region's history.