Jean Saucier (1674)

Born 4 Dec 1674 in Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France

Ancestors

Husband of Gabrielle (Savary) Saucier — married Sep 1704 in Mobile, AL

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Louisiane, Nouvelle-France

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Louisiana Families Project WikiTree [send private message] and Michelle Ladner [send private message]

Jean-Baptiste Saucier lived in Louisiana. Join: Louisiana Families Project Discuss: louisiana

Biography

Jean-Baptiste Saucier a vécu
au Canada, Nouvelle-France.

Jean Saucier, né & baptisé 4 décembre 1674 Québec (ND)^[1]

Jean Saucier, son of Louis Saucier and Marguerite Gaillard, was born on 4 December 1674 in Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France.

Recensement 1681 Census: Côte St-Michel
Michel Legardeur 44 ; Marguerite Gaillard (inscrite comme Marguerite Vaillant), sa femme, 42 ; enfants : Claude Provost 13, Madelaine 12, Michel Provost 10, Marguerite 9, Charles Saucier 7, Jean Baptiste 6 ; 2 fusils ; 4 bêtes à cornes ; 2 chevaux ; 30 arpents en valeur.^[2]

Three hundred and fourteen years ago my ancestor, Jean-Baptiste Saucier, made the biggest decision of his life. He signed up as a recruit for d'Iberville, in a quest to colonize the wild new Louisiana territory. He left his family behind in Canada, his mother Marguerite Gaillard Duplessis and a brother Charles Saucier.

I have often wondered why he left. Was it the adventure? Was it that he wanted more for himself? He signed on as a passenger, a free man, not as a soldier. He owned a plot of land in the village outside of the fort in Mobile, his portion being adjacent to Graveline and St. Denis. He married one of the Pelican Girls, Gabrielle Savary.^{[citation needed]}

Gabrielle Savary arrived on le Pelican on August 1, 1704. She was one of many women sent by the king from France to marry colonists in Mobile. The women chose their men and married without delay, except for Gabrielle; she took her time choosing Jean Baptiste Saucier.

Bienville, the brother of d'Iberville, was asked to stand as godfather to the daughter of Jean and Gabrielle Saucier. The priest LaVente refused to baptize the child if Bienville was to be godfather.

Jean-Baptiste died around 1715, leaving behind five children, four of them sons.

Gabrielle married twice more after the death of Jean Saucier. First to the soldier Pierre Vifvareine, with whom she had a son, Jean Baptiste Vifvareine. Pierre Vifvareine died shorty thereafter and she then married the soldier Jean Sansot Lagrange, with whom she had daughter Jeanne Gabrielle Sansot.

Gabrielle later went to live in the village of New Orleans with her children. Gabrielle found life as a widow hard and asked to be able to leave to go to St. Dominigue with her children. She was refused.

She employed herself as a midwife, and had a second-hand goods business in New Orleans' first flea market.

Her sons went on to make names for themselves in the colony. Henry, Jean Baptiste, and François Saucier established a trade business from New Orleans to Illinois, with François settling in Illinois. François designed Fort Chartres in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He was a surveyor and mapmaker.

Henry later moved his family back to the coast and there raised a large family, whose descendants can be found up and down the coast of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama today. All you have to do is to open a local phone book to see the multiple pages that contain the name Saucier.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Bapt. Jean IGD
2. ↑ Wikisource Recensement 1681 Census selon Benjamin Sulte Histoire des Canadiens-français, Tome 5, chap. 4
3. ↑ From my blog: Gulf Coast Lagniappe Michelle Saucier Ladner

• A Lagniappe of Mississippi Gulf Coast Families , Stories by Michelle Saucier Ladner
• Walter Saucier, Gabrielle's People (the author, 1991)