Joseph Valentin Moreau

Marriage 1 Marie Catherine PORTIER

Married: 19 MAR 1735/36 in Fort de Chartres, Illinois Territory 3

Marriage 2 Marie Jeanne ANDRE dit LAFLEUR b: 1733 in Fort Toulouse, Des Alibamons, Mobile, Alabama

Married: ABT 1747 in Mobile Post, Alabama 1

Children

Suzanne MOREAU b: ABT 1752 in Mobile, Alabama

Joseph MOREAU b: 1759 in Mobile Post, Alabama
Marie Therese MOREAU b: ABT 1762 in Mobile Post, Alabama
Pierre Antoine Celestin MOREAU I b: ABT 1764 in Mobile Post, Alabama
Eustache MOREAU b: 1767 in Opelousas, St Landry Parish, Louisiana
Rosalie MOREAU b: 15 APR 1770 in New Orleans, Louisiana
Marie Louise MOREAU b: 1774 in Opelousas Post, Louisiana
Francoise MOREAU b: 21 MAR 1777 in New Orleans, Louisiana

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Joseph was the first Moreau to settle in America. During his early years, he worked as a crewman on trading canoes that traveled from Quebec to outlying settlements in Canada and Louisiana. These canoes transported passengers, trading goods, supplies and other cargo on the streams and lakes of the region. They were also a principal means of transport at the time. Sometime between 1765 and 1770, he and Marie and their family moved from Mobile to the Opelousas Post, to avoid living under British rule after the French and Indian War. Other families, including the names Fontenot and Guillory, moved to Opelousas from Mobile for the same reason about the same time. Moreau is a common French name: there were Moreaus at New Orleans, Pointe Coupee, Mobile and other points in colonial Louisiana. Joseph is of special interest to Avoyelles Parish because his descendants can be found in large numbers there.

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Baptized 2July 1709 at Sillery, Quebec, Canada one of 12 children of parents Louis Moreau and Catherine Bonhomme taken from Some Early Families of Avoyelles Parish by William Nelson Gremillion and Lucille Edwards Gremillion.

Also parents Louis Moreau and Catherine Bonhomme taken from Tanguay
Dictionnaire Genealogy Families Canadiennes Quebec Volume 1

Died 11 March 1782 age 80 years old. ( Opelousas LA Ch. OA Folio13 #2)
Father Donald Hebert Southwest LA Records Vol.1 416-418.

Joseph Valentin Moreau was first married to Catherine Potier daughter of Jean Baptiste Potier and Francoise la Brise in a civil contract at Fort Chartres, Illinois on 19 March 1736. Born was one known child Charlotte.

Joseph Valentin Moreau is next heard from as a resident of Mobile, Alabama. No marriage record was found for him and Marie Jeanne Lafleur, but the Catholic Register of Marriages for the period 1750-1759 is missing from the Archives of the Diocese of Mobile. Information taken from Some Early Families of Avoyelles Parish in Louisiana by the Gremellions.

10 children listed with his wife Marie Jeanne Lafleur Moreau.
Children:
.Susanne: Born 1754. Alabama. 1771 Census record of Opelousas
Married 15 January 1765 New Orleans, LA Donato Bello
Heb Vol 1 pg416-418
.Eustache: born 1767. 1777 Census record of Opel, LA
Married 29 Jan 1794 Opelousas, La Heb vol. 1 pg.416-418
Dorothy( Perine) Roy ( Bordelon)
.Celestine: Born 1764 Mobile, Alabama Heb vol 1 pg. 416-418
Married 23 Jan 1792 Opel, LA Heb Vol 1 pg 416-418.
Adelie Godeaux
.Rosalie: 1770. 1777. Census Records of Opel, LA
Married 28 March 1788 Opel, LA Heb. Vol. 1 pg 416-418
Guillume Barjo ( Bergereaux)
.Pierre: Born ca 1764. Married Eulalie Godeaux ( may be the same as
Celestine and Adelie Godeaux.
.Marie Louise: Born 1773. 1777 Census Records of Opel, LA
Married 31 January 1792 Opel, LA Simon Fontenot
Heb Vol 1 pg416-418
.Francoise (Franchonette) 31 March 1777 Opel. Ch vol 1 pg 12 Heb Vol 1
Pg. 417. Born 1774 named Franchonette in 1777 Census of
Opel., LA
.Therese: Born 1762. 1777 Census Records of Opel. LA. Married
Francois Marcantel. Heb . Vol 1 pg 416-418
.Joseph: 1759. Heb Vol 2 pg. 665 unmarried Died 29 February1816.
Opel. LA age 57 Heb Vol 2 pg 665
.Joseph: 1774. 1777 Census Record of Opel, La.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: May 13 2022, 4:29:18 UTC