LISA HENDERSON TO BETTY CHARBONNET REID SOSKIN

September 29 , 2002

Hi, Betty.  It’s a pleasure to hear from you and to share my research.  I began researching for Gina back in ‘98, but hit a wall with Louis and Victoria.  I was in New Orleans in June, however, and she showed me a copy of an obituary for Louis that someone had given her.  It named his father as Dorson Charbonnet.  That bit of information was a floodgate!  Eventually  I obtained a copy of Dorson’s marriage license which lists his parents.  Amable Charbonnet and Marie Beaulieu.

I’m attaching a copy of my multi-generation Charbonnet file.  Please feel free to sent me additional or corrective information  I’ve got a lot of  documents to send  you as well.  I’ll try to get them off before I head for Sweden for a week’s vacation on Wednesday.

In the meantime, here’s the Charbonnet history (as I gather) in a nutshell:

Marie Louise Melite Beaulieu was born a slave in New Orleans around 1782.  She was manumitted in 1l16.  She had at least two daughters, Marie Lucas (1823) and Marie Louise Beaulieu (1824), before bearing Dorson Louis Charbonnet circa 1825.  Dorson was the son of Amable Barthelemy Charbonnet, who was born in St. Jeremie, Ste. Domingue in 1790.

In 1849, Dorson married Malvina Jeanne Leflaud in St. Tammany Parish.  They had four children:  Charles (1850), Scholastique (1851), Theogene (1853, and Agnes (1861).  Malvina Charbonnet died in 1865.

In 1868, Dorson fathered Louis Charbonnet with Nelly Chause (or Charvet).  The couple did not marry until 1886, but they were cohabiting at the time of the 1880 census.  At the time of Louis’ birth, Dorson was living on Ursulines Street, Street.  Louis and his mother lived on Roman between Ursulines and Hospital (now Governor Nichols).

Louis married Victoria Morales, daughter of Fregus and Estelle Morales in 1887.  (I  know little or nothing about the Moraleses, other than they appear to have been Islenos from St. Bernard Parish.

Melite Beaulieu died in 1883, aged 101.  Fregus MORALES died in 1885, and Estelle in 1901.  Dorson and Nelly Charbonnet died after 1900, on dates unknown.

Gina’s aunts are indeed Phyllis and Barbara, and her father Armand is the eldest of Louis and Myrtle Zeringue Charbonnet’s children.  Armand operates Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home on Claiborne.

Feel free to email any files that you’d like.  I  look forward to hearing from you.  Enjoy!

Lisa Henderson