Louise Boudreaux Carrow

My Great-Great-Grandmother

Daughter of Jerome Boudreaux and Adelaide Delaune 

Wife of Cyprien Carrow 

Mother of David, Willie, Cyprian, Mary Ann, Adele, Alexandre (Dutch), Henriette, and Eloise and one unknown child 

A few weeks ago you met Laura Walker Carrow and her mother Camilla Dooley Walker. Today you will meet my great-great-grandmother Louise Boudreaux Carrow, Laura’s mother-in-law and Camilla’s counterpart  

What is the real name of Cyprien Carrow’s wife? There were many ways in which her name was recorded over the years. Is it Anne Anais, Heloise, Louisa, Eloise or Louise? My mother, Emily Claire Provost Broussard Dobbs knew her name to be Louise Boudreaux as that is how her mother, Velma Mary Carrow Provost identified her paternal grandmother.^[1]Telephone call between Emily Claire Provost Broussard Dobbs (Port Arthur, Texas) and daughter Sindi Broussard Terrien (Seekonk, Massachusetts), 26 October 2017. And so, that is how we shall identify Cyprien’s wife: Louise.  

Louise was born 26 September 1856 and baptized 31 January 1857 at St. Philomela Catholic Church in Labadieville, Louisiana. Her parents were Jerome Boudreaux and Adelaide Delaune. Her godparents were Villier Hebert and Marie Scholastique Metra.^[2]Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records (1853-1857), 22 vols (Baton Rouge: Diocese of Baton Rouge) 8:81. The citation reads: “Anne … Continue reading How were her godparents related to her? They do not appear to be the brother or sister of her parents as was the custom. Nor do they appear to have lived nearby. Since Louise was the ninth child, maybe her parents ran out of brothers and sisters to ask for this honor. 

Louise’s maternal grandfather, Alexander Delaune lived with her family in 1860. In this household of nine children, he probably sat in a corner of a room bustling with activity just outside the kitchen telling stories of his past.  

Envision Louise, a little girl of three with a partially eaten apple in her hand. Her unruly hair is frizzy from the humidity and she’s wearing a lightweight cotton pinafore, a hand me down from one of her older sisters. She’s sitting on her grandfather’s knobby knee. He’s a grizzled old man of sixty-eight with few teeth. He is telling her a story about her great-grandmother when she arrived in Louisiana in 1785 from France and how she had to leave her home because the British had forcefully removed her family from Nova Scotia.^[3]”Passenger List for La Caroline,” Acadian-Cajun Genealogy and History, acadian-cajun.com (http://www.acadian-cajun.com/7ships.htm, viewed 1 December 2017). Louise’s face is an awe as she listens to her grandfather intently. Earlier he had told her older brothers stories from his days as a soldier in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.^[4]“War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files,” database and images, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/307849761 : accessed 3 December 2021); image of abstract card … Continue reading The family hated the British as British soldiers bludgeoned Alexander’s grandmother to death and then scalped her in 1759, long before Alexander had been born.^[5] Alexander’s great-grandfather described the death of his daughter when making a statement to the French Crown “Joseph Godin,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Godin : … Continue reading

The Boudreaux family lived near the Attakapas Canal in Assumption Parish, Louisiana in 1860. Louise’s father was a farmer and his estate was valued at $2300.^3[6]1860 U.S. census, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Attakapas Canal, p. 163, dwelling 391, family 384, Gerome … Continue reading But like the Dooleys and Walkers, much changed between 1860 and 1870 because of the Civil War. In his sixties, it is unlikely that Louise’s father would have actively participated in the Civil War; but several of her older brothers may have participated in the Civil War. 

More than likely Louise’s father died before 1870 because he was not enumerated in the 1870 U.S. census. Another major change was that Louise, her mother and five of her siblings moved almost forty miles to Centreville in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.^[7]1870 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Centreville, p. 33, dwelling 336, family 326, Adelaide Boudreaux household; National Archives and … Continue reading Her grandfather stayed in Assumption Parish and lived with his daughter Seraphine Peltier.^[8]1870 U.S. census, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Napoleonville, p. 18, dwelling 139, family 168, Carville … Continue reading 

Louise and her siblings did not learn to read and write which is confusing when ten years previously their father seemed to be prosperous? Louise’s mother could not read or write, so she could not have taught her children. Why were the girls not in school in 1870? How were they being supported? Were they employed as servants in other households? 

What was the reason Louise’s mother moved the family to Centreville? It appeared that there are no family connections that would have influenced Adelaide’s decision to move the family to this location. The neighbors were farmers and laborers, Black families and mulattos with no assets. Antoine Escureiux who married Louise’s sister Nemie lived nearby.^[9]1870 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Centreville, p. 30, dwelling 322, family 312, Antoine Escurese household; National Archives … Continue reading It is probable that her oldest brother, Adam Adelard died in the Civil War. ^[10]Compiled service record, Adelard Boudreau, Pvt., Co. B, 1 Louisiana H. Art’y.; Civil War; Record Group 109: Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate … Continue reading

In 1877, at the age of nineteen Louise married Cyprien Carrow. He was probably twenty-three years old at the time. They had both lived in Centreville since 1870, if not before. Cyprien had been a domestic servant in the household of Kate Berwick.^[11]1870 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Centreville, p. 13, dwelling 143, family 133, Kate Berwick household; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm … Continue reading Did Louise and Cyprien meet at church or through a friend or family member? Did friends and family witness their nuptials? They married 13 April 1877 in Franklin, Louisiana, at Assumption Catholic Church, not far from Centreville.^[12]Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1877-1878, 13:57. The citation reads “BOUDREAU, Louise m. 17 April 1877 Cyprien CARROW (Frank. Ct. Hse.: v.10, p. 154) BOUDREAU, Louise … Continue reading  

The following year, Louise’s grandfather, Alexandre Delaune died in 1878 at age eighty-one along with his daughter Seraphine Peltier, her husband and at least two of their children.^[13]Décès au Brûle Labadie,” Pioneer of Assumption (Napoleonville, Louisiana), 30 November 1878, p. 1, col. 3, Chronicling America Historic American … Continue reading They probably died in the yellow fever epidemic. Did Louise have a relationship with him when he lived with her aunt’s family, even though it was some distance away. Did she have the chance to introduce him to her first child before Alexandre passed on at the end of the year? Did she attend his funeral or did the yellow fever epidemic stop her from traveling? Louise must have loved her grandfather very much because she named her seventh child after him, Alexandre (Dutch) Carrow.  

When Uncle Dutch visited my grandmother, he would take us for a walk to Nick’s Grocery Store for candy. Sometimes he would buy a Little Golden Book. I remember reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to him while sitting on his lap.

Several people in the family wondered whether Cyprian was really David Marshall Carrow’s father. Recent findings have unearthed David’s baptismal record which cites Cyprian as his father. David was baptized under the name of Marcel 27 April 1878. His godparents were Louise’s brother Alexander and her sister Nemie.^[14]Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (Franklin, Louisiana), baptism record, unspecified volume, Marcel Carrow, 27 April 1878, digital image from 1953 microfilm, supplied 19 October 2021 … Continue reading 

By 1880, Louise was the mother of two, David Marshall and Willie Joseph.^[15]1880 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 169, Fourth Ward, p. 16, dwelling 159, … Continue reading The family of four still lived in the 4th Ward of St. Mary. Louise’s husband was employed as a farm laborer. Louise’s mother lived in the area with her children Alex and Odelia.^[16]1880 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 168, Fourth Ward, p. 2, dwelling 18, family 19, Alx. … Continue reading Louise’s sister Julia, married to Alexander Crawford, also lived in the area.^[17]1880 U.S. census, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 166, p. 9, dwelling 101, family 115, Alex Crawford household; National … Continue reading  

When the enumerator visited the Carrow household in 1880, Louise has malaria. Malaria is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. It is not surprising that Louise would have malaria since she lives in Louisiana which is infested with mosquitos. Symptoms of malaria are reoccurring cycles of fever, chills, sweating, and headache. Did Louise suffer from malaria regularly?  Had she seen a doctor who diagnosed her malady?  Did she pass the malaria onto any of her children while pregnant? 

Between 1880 and 1900, Louise and Cyprien’s family grew from two children to nine, though an unnamed child died.^[18]1900 U.S. census, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 38, Jeannerette, p. 16, dwelling 318, … Continue reading They had been married twenty-three years. The family moved from Franklin to Jeanerette, Louisiana, about fifteen miles away. The household included Willie, twenty; Cyprien, eighteen; Mary, sixteen; Adele (named after Cyprien’s mother), fourteen; Alex, eleven; Harriet, eight; and Pearl, one. Their eldest son David no longer lived with them. He had married Laura Walker and lived nearby and worked with his brother Willie in a factory in Jeanerette.^[19]1900 U.S. census, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 38, Jeannerette, p. 16, dwelling 318, … Continue reading Did life get easier in Jeanerette with Cyprien working as a grocery man? 

Willie Joseph died at the age of twenty-four.^[20]Don Louviere, compiled, Jeanerette-st-john-iberia-index, 2014 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j5S5bqdTti9HaprzuOka3N3kEuGTr1W_rGT7u5eKbxQ/edit#gid=553132523) viewed 3 … Continue reading But there are grandchildren to bring happiness, David and Laura had two children at that time, Carrol Antony and Velma. ^[21]For Carrol Carrow’s birth, see Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1756-1953, 33:357; for Velma Carrow’s birth see Louisiana State Board of Health, Division of Public … Continue reading Did Louise visit David and Laura and play with the children? Or did David and Laura take the grandchildren to visit the grandparents on Sundays after church? 

Louise Boudreaux Carrow died at the age of forty-seven on 6 June 1905 in Jeanerette.^[22]Don Louviere, compiled, Jeanerette-st-john-iberia-index, 2014 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j5S5bqdTti9HaprzuOka3N3kEuGTr1W_rGT7u5eKbxQ/edit#gid=553132523) viewed 3 … Continue reading Could her death have been a result of the yellow fever epidemic that was circulating throughout New Orleans^[23]Laura K. Kelley, “Yellow Fever.” 64 Parishes (https://64parishes.org/entry/yellow-fever-in-louisiana : accessed 11 January 2021). though that was miles away; or was it a complication from a bout of malaria? She is buried in Jeanerette in the St. John the Evangelist cemetery along with her husband and son Willie Joseph. Her son Alexandre and daughter Adele Carrow Landry are also buried in this cemetery.^[24]Ancestry, Find A Grave, database with images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147078906/alex-carrow : viewed 3 December 2021), memorial 147078906, Alex Carrow (1888-1969) … Continue reading

Louise and Camilla Dooley Walker had many things in common. They were born months apart, their fathers married multiple times resulting in half brothers and sisters, and their fathers died about the same time. Like Camilla, Louise moved after her father died, but she moved with her mother and sisters to St. Mary Parish. Neither could read or write. Louise had nine children and Philomena had at least ten and both lost children before their own deaths. Both ended up living, dying and being buried in Jeanerette. 

You are invited to meet Louise’s mother Adelaide Delaune next week. If you are wondering about Louise Boudreaux’s grandmother who arrived in Louisiana from France in 1785, that would be Marie Ann Part. Marie Ann’s mother, Anastasie Godin dite Bellefontaine was the woman killed by British soldiers. Their stories will be posted in the coming weeks.