Tranquille Pitre
1748 Acadia - 7 June 1801 Assumption, LA
Tranquille Pitre was born about 1748, the second son of Amand Pitre and Genevieve Arsement. Three years later, because of the worsening political situation, Amand moved the family to Ile St. Jean in a vain attempt to escape the wrath of the English. They were settled at Grand Anse until their final removal eight years later. On 9th March 1759 eleven-year-old Tranquille arrived with his four siblings and his parents at St. Malo on the ship du Supply. The family settled in St. Suliac. Conditions worsened over the years so, like many other Acadians exiles, they moved on to Nantes in March of 1776.
The only marriage for Tranquille seems to be at the age of about 31 when on 17 August 1779 in Nantes he married Elisabeth Aucoin, aged about 30. She was the daughter of Jean Baptiste Aucoin and Jeanne (Anne) Theriot, and this seemed to be her only marriage as well.
They had two sons in Nantes before the opportunity came to leave for Louisiana. On the 12th of May 1785 Tranquille, heavily pregnant Elisabeth and their sons Jean Baptiste and Jean Joseph Vincent boarded La Bergere at Paimboef, France. Two and a half weeks later their daughter Martine was born at sea on the 31st of May. They arrived at New Orleans on the15th of August 1785, where Martine was then baptized at the St. Louis Church (now Cathedral) two weeks later.
The passenger list gave Tranquille’s occupation as a cooper. He received an axe, shovel, meat cleaver, two hatchets and two hoes upon debarkation. His newly-expanded family of five now settled on the left bank of the Bayou Lafourche. One more child, a son Constant Etienne, would be born to the couple in 1788.
They grew corn, owned a horse, some cattle and hogs, and farmed a fairly standard plot of six arpents frontage on the bayou with a depth of forty arpents. The eldest son, Jean Baptiste, married in 1804 to Marianne Boudrot, another Acadian exile. Second son Joseph died at the age of 24 without marrying. Martine married shortly before her eighteenth birthday to Joseph Fournier, at the same church where she was baptized. Constant Etienne probably died before his 6th birthday as he does not appear in any later census.
Tranquille was only in his forties when he died on 7th June 1801. His widow Elisabeth outlived him by almost seventeen years and died on 15th February 1818. The Pitre surname, through Tranquille, died out a generation later as he had only one grandson who married but who fathered only daughters.
Continuation of tree (2nd child of Amand Pitre/Genevieve Arsement); all known surname descendants:
4 Tranquille Pitre b: Abt. 1748 Cobequit, Acadia; d: 7 June 1801 Plattenville, Assumption, LA
+Elisabeth Aucoin b: Abt. 1749 Acadia; m: 17 August 1779 St. Jacques, Nantes, France [Jean Baptiste/Jeanne (Anne) Theriot]; d: 15 February 1818 Plattenville, Assumption, LA
5 Jean Baptiste Pitre b: 1 June 1781 Nantes, France; d: 19 July 1845 Plattenville, Assumption, LA
+Marianne Boudrot b: 14 September 1783 Nantes, France; m: 15 January 1804 Donaldsonville, Ascension, LA [Marin/Pelagie Barrieau]; d: 29 November 1858 Plattenville, Assumption, LA
5 Jean Joseph Vincent Pitre b: 5 April 1783 Nantes, France; d: 1 December 1807 Plattenville, Assumption, LA
5 Martine Pitre b: 31 May 1785 at sea on La Bergere; d: Aft. 1820
+Joseph Fournier b: Abt. 1784; m: 17 May 1803 St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, LA [Joseph/Marie Ursule Fortin]; d: Aft. 1820
5 Constant Etienne Pitre b: 8 November 1788 Donaldsonville, Ascension, LA; d: Bef. 1795 Lafourche, LA
Back one generation to parents of Tranquille Pitre
Items in RED verified from transcriptions in the following:
- The Acadian Exiles in Nantes 1775-1785 (Robichaux)
- South Louisiana Records: Church and Civil Records of Lafourche-Terrebonne Parishes (Rev. Hebert)
- Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records
- Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
Last updated: 12 April 2008*