Bordelon History
A chance encounter started it all?
I am a descendant of GABRIEL LAURENT BORDELON, a French immigrant merchant seaman who came directly to New Orleans, and his wife, ANNE FRANCOISE ROLAND, who also came directly (against her will) to New Orleans from France. They ultimately met in the new settlement of New Orleans, married, and the whole Bordelon story started. She lived on Chartres Street, and he worked for the Indies Company, whose building was right across the street on Chartres Street. Anne had been married a couple of times already and had many kids when she ultimately met and married Gabriel.
At the time, New Orleans was a very new, undeveloped colony where trees had to be cleared to make land and property livable for its inhabitants. It is hard to visualize this today given how we know modern New Orleans. I walked down Chartres Street many times near St. Louis Cathedral and never knew this was where my lineage began. Did Ann and Gabriel see and meet each other for the first time on Chartres? Was he going to work one day when he noticed Anne, who was living across the street? We will never know, but if you're a Bordelon, Chartres Street in New Orleans is where it all started!
If you are a Bordelon with roots in Louisiana, you came from these two pioneers, and we are all related and descendants of GABRIEL LAURENT BORDELON and ANNE FRANCOISE ROLAND.
Beyond New Orleans, I have strong roots in Point Coupee and Avoyelles Parish, where predominantly French Immigrants and their descendants settled. These settlements were built long before the Acadians came to Louisiana. The Avoyelles French settled first in Pt. Coupee and New Orleans then made their way to Avoyelles by 1781. Names such as Bordelon, DeCuir, Laborde, and Normand are unique to the Greater Avoyelles area. The first families were from France, either directly or through Quebec, except the DeCuir family from Macon, Hainaut, Belgium, and the Scallan family from Ireland. Only two early families who came to Avoyelles, Jeansonne and Moulard, have ties to Acadia, with Jeansonne being an Acadian version of Johnson, a Scottish name.
The Bordelon name is very common in Louisiana today, and Bordelons can be found all over the country. Everything from a U.S. Naval Ship (USS Bordelon) to a Medal of Honor recipient can be traced to the Bordelon name. The name Bordelon is, of course, a French name derived from Old French bordel ‘hut, smallholding, small farm ’, a derivative of Borde. Ironically, this surname is now very rare in France.
The history of the Bordelon family has been written in several books over the past several years, but like most amateur genealogists, I was explicitly interested in my branch of the huge Bordelon tree. I started this research many years ago in college but kept hitting brick walls. With the help of computer-generated census data, church, death records, and countless interviews, I have solved the mystery that has plagued me for years.
Interestingly, a few of my ancestors owned slaves; one was a Revolutionary War Patriot, and a few close cousins fought in the Civil war. Some were rich and held government offices, but most were poor.
Most married more than once, and the story of my ancestral grandmother, ANNE FRANCOISE ROLAND, was that she was kicked out of France and forced to move to New Orleans because of her " lawless and criminal behavior in France," which is most interesting!
I was amazed at how much inaccurate information is out there. People make plenty of assumptions and then post them on the internet, which proves inaccurate. Also, the census data, which was very valuable in most cases, often contained incorrect birth dates. Ancestry.com has great information, but it does contain half-accurate information from anyone who wants to post. I posted my tree on Ancestry.com, but beware because there is a lot of inaccurate information about my family on other trees.
My facts are backed by proven documentation as much as possible, and little or no “assumptions" were made. I can now connect all the branches of my tree and trace my ancestry back to Le Havre, France (1690s).
Wait, I thought we were Cajuns???
We are, but not in the classical sense. As I mentioned above, I am a direct descendant of GABRIEL LAURENT BORDELON and ANNE FRANCOISE ROLAND, who came directly to New Orleans from France.
On my mother's side (Mauras Family), there is a more direct link to the Cajuns, or Acadians, who came down from northeastern Canada.
The famous “Cajuns” or "Acadians" were of entirely French ancestry, left France, took a detour to Canada, and then were forced to settle in southern Louisiana.
So, if you’re looking strictly at the Bordelon side, you’re not an authentic "Cajun" but still a French descendant of that time. Ultimately, we have the same background, culture, and beliefs as Cajuns, which still exist today.
Avoyelles Parish is still considered the northernmost area of rich French culture and heritage in Louisiana, even though today, this spotlight is usually on the Lafayette area and surrounding parishes.
My DESIRE TO KNOW ABOUT MY PAST
I started this journey with my father, Charles, and then to my grandfather, Walter Ones Bordelon, whom I vaguely remember because he passed when I was only ten years old, and then to his father, Ones F. Bordelon. Beyond that, nobody knew or had any knowledge of my Bordelon family. So, this mystery intrigued me, and I continued to research my lineage. See my full tree here.
This project is the culmination of decades of research and fact-gathering so current and future generations can know our story. I am still in the process of updating pictures and names as I receive them. We must continue this journey and never forget!
I am married to Kimberly Chenevert (b. 1970), and we have one son, Peyton. My son Peyton (B. 2002) is the current, and hopefully not last, in the line of direct male descendants from Walter O. Bordelon’s tree. Enjoy!!