(1840-1918)
Part 1 – The First 20 Years
My Great Great-Grandmother
Daughter of Antoine (Theodule) Judice and Marie Amelia LaBarthe
Wife of Nicholas Provost (1831 to 1893)
My paternal grandfather, Emile Louis Provost (1902 to 1991), knew his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother. I heard him once say and then document in a short biography that he was afraid of his grandfather, Leufroy Provost (1843 to 1909).[1] In fairness, my grandfather was about seven years old when Leufroy died, so maybe the few interactions he had with his grandfather skewed his judgement. However, my grandfather was about 16 years old when his grandmother, Marie Armide Judice Provost died. I never heard a story about her from him though Armide lived with his family the last four years of her life. I do recall hearing the name “Armide,” but it could have been my grandfather’s cousin.[2]
Family Origins and Early Louisiana
Marie Armide Judice’s family descended from an old and established Louisiana family. The Judice family arrived in Louisiana around 1730.[3] They were a cornerstone of early Louisiana before the American Revolutionary War. Armide’s great-great grandfather, Louis Judice was commandante of the Acadians at Lafourche, Louisiana in 1765.[4] The Louisiana Purchase would take place in 1803 with Louisiana entering the United States as a state in 1812.
Armide would marry into the Provost family who arrived in Louisiana around 1755.[5] Pierre Nicholas Provost of France had owned the land that would become Jeanerette, Louisiana. Several Provost men represented Jeanerette in political offices from its incorporation throughout the 1880s and 1890s. Provost men owned sugar houses, sawmills, and other businesses in the area. Both the Judice and Provost families were members of the Catholic religion, and they were entwined over several generations as will be explained later.
Childhood in St. Martinville, Louisiana
Steamboats were plying Bayou Teche by 1821, and trains were moving commerce and passengers in and around Louisiana beginning 1830. Armide was born to Antoine (Theodule) Judice and Marie (Amelia) LaBarthe in 1840 in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana.[6] Southern women of her day were trained to be and expected to be submissive and produce children. As Catholics, women would be expected to be pious and educate their children in the religion.
St. Martinville was a somewhat progressive town with sugar cane and cotton industries surrounding it. A boarding school employed Madame Berault to educate young girls in the early 1840s.[7] The Catholic Church, St. Martin de Tours, had been built in 1838. Though hurricanes, thunderstorms, and tornadoes were common in Louisiana, Armide would have been a toddler when an unusual earthquake hit St. Martinville on 7 May 1842.
She had three sisters, Nathalie, Emma[8], and Rosa who lived to adulthood; [9] known siblings who did not survive childhood were Antoine, Madelene, Felix, Catherine, and Jacques.[10]
Armide’s father, Theodule, was a planter and enslaver like his father Jacques Judice.[11] In 1850, they were living in St. Martin Parish near Pointe. Her father’s estate was valued at $600 while her grandfather’s estate which was nearby was valued at $2,400. Theodule enslaved four people while his father enslaved six.[12] The value of eleven nearby planter estates ranged from $0 to $4,000.[13] The family lived near Acadians and Creole planters (during this era, Creole was defined as “European descendants in Louisiana”)[14] though the census enumerator recorded no other Judice families nearby. Additionally, a blacksmith and three carpenters were living in nearby.
Armide and her sisters may not have attended school in 1850, but her parents could read and write.[15] Of the four enslaved people in the Judice household, two women and the two children (possibly the children of the enslaved women) probably assisted in the running of the household while the children did odd jobs.[16] There were many children Armide’s age who lived nearby. Would she have ventured out to meet friends her age?
Loss, Inheritance, and Responsibility
Armide’s grandfather, Jacques Judice died in 1851.[17] Four years later, Armide was 15 years old when her mother died in 1855.[18] Her brother, Felix died shortly after her mother’s death.[19] There had been an outbreak in yellow fever in St. Martinville around September of 1855, so they may have succumbed to this deadly disease.[20] Most likely, they were buried in the cemetery that was near St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church. Yellow fever (also known as yellow jack) was spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms of yellow fever are headache, high fever, vomiting, and jaundice. At the time, people did not know how yellow fever was contracted. When someone came down with yellow fever, quarantine policies were put into place in the surrounding areas.
At least two family meetings were held 26 December 1855 and 5 January 1856 to discuss the estate and how best to take care of Armide, Emma and Rose after Amelia’s death.[21] The eldest daughter Nathalie had recently married Sévigné Bienvenu and was considered emancipated.[22] Theodule would be the natural guardian and tutor. A tutor was a guardian who was responsible for the care of a child and its assets from the parents’ estate until the child was of age or married. Many family members attending the meetings: her grandfather Jean LaBarthe; her father’s twin brother, Théogene Judice of Lafayette; Edmond Provost (probably her uncle by marriage to Theodule’s sister, Marie Claire Zelia and son of Leufroy Provost and Lucille Prevost), Désiré Judice (of Lafayette Parish), possibly Theodule’s uncle; Désiré Judice of Lafayette Parish, possible brother-in-law of Theodule and married to Amelia’s sister; Drauzin Judice, unknown relation; Sosthene Judice, unknown relation; Alexandre Judice, Theodule’s brother; Alfred Bonin (possibly married to Theodule’s niece); and Nicolas Provost of Saint Martin Parish (married to Armide’s cousin, Mathilda). While Theodule was given natural custody of the children, his brother Alexandre acted as under tutor.
The inventory sale after Amelia’s death indicate that Theodule probably grew rice, corn and cotton.[23] They had chickens, oxen, cows, pigs, and horses. Among the furniture listed was a prayer desk that may have been Amelia’s. The sale of the estate brought in just under $4,000. Each daughter was to receive $576.45 from the estate sale.[24]
With Armide’s eldest sister married and her mother dead, she would be next in line to manage the household. Most likely, she was already being trained to manage a household. There may have been enslaved people or servants to manage. It is possible that a maiden aunt or cousin came to live with the family for a while to guide Armide in her responsibilities.
Marriage and Transition to Adulthood
Several members of the Judice and Provost families married over three generations. Brothers and sisters of one family married brothers and sisters of the other family and then similar happenings occurred in the next generations. The entwining of the two Creole families helped secure the economic well-being of both families. When Mathilda Judice, Armide’s cousin, died, she left her husband, Nicholas Provost with at least two children.[25] Mathilde was the daughter of Theodule’s brother, Francois.[26] Armide was the right age and was a logical choice as Nicholas’s second wife.
As mentioned earlier about the entwining of the two families, Armide and Nicholas were first cousins. Theodule’s sister Marie Amelia Judice was married to Nicholas Philemon Provost, Nicholas’s father.[27] Another family tie: Theodule’s sister, Marie Doralise Judice was married to Leufroy Provost, Nicholas’s uncle.[28]
When Armide and Nicholas married, she was eighteen years old and he was about twenty-seven years old. Two children survived from Nicholas’s first marriage, Godfrey Nicholas and Marie Mathilde.[29] Church records cite the year 1858 when they married, but the 1860 census indicates that they had been married within the year of the census. Armide and Nicholas were living in Attakapas, Louisiana, near New Iberia and Fausse Point (Loreauville).
Fashion in the 1850s for women of southwest Louisiana elite went from wearing simple, ankle-length dresses made of linen or cotton for the young ladies to floor-length, dome-shaped skirts with multiple petticoats once they married. Did Armide make this transition as she left her father’s estate valued at $4,000[30] to enter Nicholas’ plantation with real estate valued at $35,000 and thirteen enslaved people? [31] The Nicholas Provost estate was larger than others within the area.
If Armide thought her life had changed tremendously by the death of her mother and the transition from young girl to wife and mother, she was soon to see even more dramatic changes in her twenties and thirties. She was born in a time where trains, boats, horses and carriages were the mode of transportation. By the time she was in her later years, street cars and automobiles would be additional means of transportation where she lived. Telegraphs and telephones would supplement written letters and newspapers for communication. But the biggest disrupter was the War Between the States, also known as the Civil War.
Armide’s life during the Civil War, Reconstruction, and after will be the subject of a second article.
[1] Katherine Nelson Hill, The Provost Family Tree, (Goliad, Texas, 2000). Leufroy Provost’s obituary can be viewed at “Leufroy Provost, Jeanerette,” The Times-Democrat, 13 December 1909, p. 2, col. 6.; image copy Newspapers.com by Ancestry (https://www.newspapers.com/image/173228550/?clipping_id=190681685 : viewed 15 March 2026).
[2] Armide Judice Provost had a granddaughter named after her, Armide Elaine Provost (1903-1996), the daughter of her son Louis O’Neil Provost. See Hill, The Provost Family Tree.
[3] “Jacques Judice (abt. 1705-abt. 1747),” profile page, Wikitree, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Judice-138 : viewed 23 February 2026).
[4] Lillian C. Bourgeois, Cabanacey: The History, Customs and Folklore of St. James Parish, (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 1988) p. 20. In Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records (Baton Rouge, LA, Diocese of Baton Rouge, 1980) Vol. 2, p.616, entry for Maria Ennrica Rassicot, Luis Judice is described as “Captain of German Coast Militia.” To view the descendancy of Marie Amelie Judice via Louis Judice see “Marie Amelie Judice (1808),” profile page, Wikitree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Judice-39 : viewed 15 March 2026).
[5] Hill, The Provost Family Tree, p. 7.
[6] Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD edition (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Claitor’s Publishing Division 1975-2019); Judice, Marie Armelie (Theodule & Amelia La Bouf) b. 2 June 1840 (SM Ch. V.8, #1894). See also 1900 U.S. census, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Jeanerette, Iberia, enumeration district: 38, p. 17 (penciled) A, dwelling 347 (corrected), family 349 (corrected), Provost, Armede; NARA microfilm T623, roll 565; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS5W-NZ4: viewed 15 March 2026).
[7] “Maison d’Education, Pour les Jeunes Demoiselles a St. Martinville,” Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Gazette, 10 March 1841, p.1., col. 7.; image copy Newspapers.com by Ancestry (https://www.newspapers.com/image/319285891/?match=1&terms=%22Madame%20Berault%22 : viewed 15 March 2026).
[8] The author’s assumption is that Theresa Aima is Emma. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Claitor’s Publishing Division 1975-2019); Judice, Theresa Aima (Theodule & Amelia L. Abbat) m. 15 Oct. 1866 Lucien Prevost (NI Ch.: v.1, p. 315).
[9] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe (probate date 24 Dec 1855); digital images, Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9067/images/007690003_00266?pId=1270721, images 266-304 of 785 : viewed 15 March 2026), citing Louisiana, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984.
[10] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records CD; Judice, Antoine Hotter (Theodule & Marie Amelia Labarthe) b. 27 Aug. 1838 (SM Ch. v. 8 #1487). Judice, Madelene Useide (Theodule & Amelie La Bart) b. 22 July 1842 (Sm Ch. v. 8, #1987). Judice, Felix (Antoine Theodule & Amelia La Barthe) b. 1 May 1845 (Sm Ch: v. 9#113). Judice, Catherine Thevise (Theodule & Amelie Labarthe) b. 24 August 1847 (Laf. Ch. v.6, p.21). Judice, Jacques Jules (Antoine Theodule & Marie Amelice Labathe) b. 14 Oct. 1852 (SM Ch. V.9. #16). Children born before 1850 are not mentioned in the 1850 census nor are they mentioned in Ameilia LaBarthe’s probate documents.
[11] 1850 U.S. census St. Martin, Louisiana, Slave Schedule, p. 48 (penned) Jacque Judice (line 3) and Theodule Judice (line 7) slave owner; NARA microfilm M432, record group 29, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVZV-JGH : viewed 15 March 2026).
[12] 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules. See also, Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession: the enslaved were a woman named Venus and her daughter Coralie and son Zenon. Venus was sold to Edmond Laplante and Carolie was sold to Theodule Bienvenue while Zenon was sold to Stanislas Bienvenue.
[13] The term “plantation” is not being used here as a plantation is usually defined as a for-profit business with at least 20 slaves as noted in Wikipedia, “Plantation complexes in the Southern United States” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_complexes_in_the_Southern_United_States : viewed 15 March 2026).
[14] Carl A. Brasseaux, Acadian to Cajun Transformation of a People 1803-1877, (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1992, p.4.
[15] 1850 U.S. census , St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Pointe, p. 169 (not printed, assumed based page number after viewing next page which is 170), dwelling 445, family 461, Theodule Judice; NARA microfilm publication M432, Roll 240; Ancestry, (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4198713_00343?pId=2913897 : viewed 15 March 2026). Census record for 1850 could not be found on FamilySearch.
[16] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession.
[17] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1313, Jacques Judice (probate date 12 Dec 1851); digital images, Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9067/records/5442063?tid=76901568&pid=382751857706&ssrc=pt images 117-147 of 631 : viewed 15 March 2026), citing Louisiana, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984.
[18] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD edition. Labarthe, Amelia Judice d. 10 Nov. 1855 at age 37 yrs (Sm Ch.: v. 5, p. 243).
[19] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession.
[20] St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court, “Parish History,” St. Martin Parish, smpcoc2.com, https://www.smpcoc2.com/copy-of-parish-historyviewed 10 March 2026.
[21] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession
[22] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession. See also Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD, Judice, Cecile Nathalie (Antoine & Ameline Labatte) m. 21 Aug. 1855 Louis Sevigne Bienvenue (SM Ch: v.9, #144).
[23] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession.
[24] Clerk of the Court, St. Martin, Louisiana, Estate Files, No. 1508, Ameilia LaBarthe Succession.
[25] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD, Judice, Mathilde m. Nicolas Prevost d. 10 Oct. 1857 at age 26 yrs (SM Ch v 5, p. 253).and 1860 U.S. census, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Attakapas, p. 15 (penciled), dwelling 102, family 102, Nicholas Provost; NARA microfilm M653, roll 425; imaged FamilySearch, image 19 of 469 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFPH-66Z : viewed 15 March 2026). Godfrey, 8 years old and Mary M. (lightly penciled and almost illegible; a better copy can be viewed on Ancestry).
[26] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD, Judice, Mathilde (Francois Dolce & Marie Eleonide Pellerin) b. 5 June 183 (SM Ch.: v.8, #448).
[27] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD, Judice, Marie Amelia – native of this parish (minor daughter of Jacques Trois lles Judice – inhabitant of the area around the church & Marie Louise Hyacinte Boutte) m. 26 July 1821 Nicholas Philemon Prevost – native of this parish (minor son of dec. Nicholas – inhabitant of St. Mary Parish & Marie Provost) Wts: Desire Judice, Francois Judice, Hiachinthe Boutte, Hubert Pellerin, Theodule Delahoussaye, Muggah, Jacques Judice. Fr. Gabriel Isabey (SM Ch.: v.6, #256).
[28] Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (1750-1900) CD, Judice, Marie Doralise – widow of Gustave Pelletier Delahoussaye; native of this parish (major daughter of Jacques – inhabitant at le grand bois & Hyachinte Boutte) m. 28 Jan. 1823 Lufroy Provost – widower of Lucille Prevost; native of this parish (major son of dec. Nicolas & Marie Prevost) Wits: Alexandre Judice fils, Jean Baptiste Maicot, Nicolas Loisel, Francois Judice, Hubert Sinetiere, Mien Judice, Eutrope Amede Francois Xavier Pichon, Jacob Henry. Fr. Marcel Borella (SM Ch. v.6, #317-B).
[29] 1860 U.S. census, St. Martin Parish, LA, pop. sch., Attakapas, p. 15 (penciled), dwell. 102, fam. 102, Nicholas Provost.
[30] 1860 U. S. census, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, population schedule Attakapas, p. 87(penciled), dwelling 679, family 679, Theodule Judice, NARA microfilm M653, roll 425; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4231236_00087?pId=38567384 : viewed 17 March 2026). Census record for 1860 could not be found on FamilySearch.
[31] 1860 U.S. census, St. Martin Parish, LA, pop. Sch., Attakapas, p. 15 (penciled), dwell. 102, fam. 102, Nicholas Provost. 1860 U.S. census St. Martin, Louisiana, Slave Schedule, p. 6 (lightly penciled), Nicholas Provost, line 1, Slave owner; NARA microfilm M653, record group 29, imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/lam653_431-0326?pId=93075887 : viewed 17 March 2026). Census record for 1860 could not be found on FamilySearch.