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The French Origins of Marie Marguerite Arluc
by
Wayne Charles Vial
Marie Marguerite Arluc
and her family appear on the passenger list of the Marechal de Villars prepared on 26 January 1719, before that ship?s departure for Louisiana from the port of La Rochelle. Among the workers for the Company of the West on that list were Jean Arlu, pere, master builder; Jean Arlu, fils; Catherine Bazille, wife of Jean Arlu pere; Marie Marguerite Arlu; Marianne Arlu; and Jeanne Arlu.
By 26 June 1719, the family was established in Mobile: Marie Harlu served as godmother at the baptism of Fran?ois Besson at Fort Louis on that date.
Just a month later, on 24 July 1719, Marie Marguerite Arlu contracted marriage with Andre Carriere.
Their son Andre was bom a year later, on 30 July 1720.
Marie Josephe followed in 1722,
and probably in 1723 came Marie Anne Carriere.
By April 1723, Andre Carriere pere was dead.
Marie Marguerite remarried about September 1724 to Louis Tisserand.
She was to bear him at least two children, Gabriel Adrien and Pelagie.
At some point before 1 January 1726, Marie Marguerite, her husband Louis Tisserand, and her Carriere brothers-in-law Francis, Joseph, and Jacques moved to the bank of the Mississippi river near New Orleans.
Marie Marguerite?s children married into the St. Martin, de la Vergne, Trudeau, and Jousset families.
All of these facts about the life of Marie Marguerite are readily available from standard sources. However, the details of her birth in France, and the origins of her parents, are not clear. In this article, I will describe these French origins and the story of her unusual surname, which in itself surprisingly held a clue to her father?s birthplace.
Few documents from colonial Louisiana give much information about the French roots of the Arluc family. Of the four marriages of Marie Marguerite and Marianne Arluc, only one record apparently survives: that of Marianne?s marriage to Francis Parant in Mobile on 2 December 1726.
That document specifies La Rochelle as her birthplace, and her parents as Jean Arlu and Marguerite Sautrais(?).
Over twenty years later, documents filed with the Superior Council of Louisiana by Louis Tisserand on behalf of his wife, Marie Marguerite Arlu, and her sister Marianne, make it