Making Sense of the Gory

A Joseph Gaury was baptized in Bainet back in 1748.

Despite our limited sources to identify the origins of Beresfort Francois's mother, we have explored the Gory or Gaury name in Bainet for clues as to her origins. Her 1859 death certificate is highly problematic. The document is partly illegible and the full name of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury's mother Victoire cannot be determined. Fortunately, the estimated age of around 60 was plausible for Beresfort's mother. We know two of his siblings were said to have been born in c.1818 and 1816, which would suggest the mother was probably born in the late 1700s or very early 19th century. We suspect Annie Marie Joseph Gaury was born in the 1790s or so. And indeed we found someone named Anne Marie Joseph Gory born in 1793.

Anne Marie Joseph Gory was baptized in April 1793. Her mother was Victoire Gory, but the father is not named. Note the godfather was a Jean-Baptiste Merillac. Who was the Joseph Gaury named in her 1859 death certificate?

Almaïde François, the sister of our great-great-great-grandfather died in 1888. According to the document, she was 70 and therefore born in c.1818.

We did search ANOM's Baynet files for Joseph Gaury or Gory. To our surprise, there was indeed a Joseph Gory, the son of Jean-Baptiste Gory. However, his baptismal record from 1748 would have meant he was around 45 years old when Anne Marie Joseph was born. It is possible, but there could be other explanations for Anne Marie Joseph's father's origin.

Agathe Gory was baptized in 1758. She had a son named Joseph in the 1770s.

So, if the Joseph Gory baptized in 1748 is not the father we are looking for, what does that leave us with? The Gory or Gaury were mostly free people of color linked to the Bichot, Sougrain, Pitiot and other families of similar backgrounds. Many of the marriages, baptisms, and deaths recorded in Bainet for Gory or Gaury involve the descendants of two men, perhaps brothers: Jean-Baptiste Gory and Francois Gory. Jean-Baptiste's father was named Louis Gory, who was probably also the father of Francois, too. These two Gory fathered multiple children, including the Joseph Gory born in 1748. The other ones include Marie Francoise Gory, Francoise and Francois Gory, Jean Louis, Marie Victoire, Pierre, Agathe, Elisabeth, Jacques, and Guillaume. One person with a Gory mother included a Joseph Guillaume Deslande, son of Agathe. A few others were born in the second half of the 18th century to Gory mothers. Unless one of them fathered a Joseph Gaury that does not appear in the records, we are still in the dark as to the origins of Anne Marie Joseph's father. 

Agathe Gaury actually died in 1788.

It seems rather unlikely that Joseph Guillaume Deslande would have dropped his father's name, although he is of the right age range (born in 1776) to have been Anne Marie Joseph's (very young) father. A 1776 birth would have made him in his late teens when Annie Marie Joseph was born in the late 1790s or early 1800s. Then he could also have still been alive in 1859, residing in the bourg of Bainet. However, as previously stated, it seems unlikely that Joseph Guillaume would have used his mother's name.

Joseph Guillaume was about the right age to have been the father of Anne Marie Joseph and live well into the 19th century. 

In 1794, a Pierre Gaury passed away. He was almost certainly the Pierre Gory baptized in 1761 and a son of Jean-Baptiste Gory. Note the mention of his habitation. This Pierre would have been an uncle to Joseph Guillaume Deslande (or Delande) and a cousin of Marie Victoire.

But can we identify Victoire Gory, the mother of Anne Marie Joseph? The only person with that name is Marie Victoire Gory, who had married a grif named Michel Pitiot in 1765. That man, the son of a Pitiot and a a slave, had a child with Marie Victoire (daughter of Francois Gory and a Sougrain) named Jean Joseph Gabriel Pitiot, born in 1781. Interestingly, the godfather was Jean-Baptiste Merillac, the very same man who served as the godfather of Annie Marie Joseph. Is it possible that Marie Victoire was the same Victoire who gave birth to Anne Marie Joseph in 1793? It it possible, since her baptism in 1749 would have made her in her 40s in 1793. If she had a child with her cousin, the Joseph Gory, baptized the year before, then Anne Marie Joseph was the fruit of kissing cousins in their 40s.

Marie Victoire Gory's son had the same godfather as Anne Marie Joseph. 

Our theory is that Anne Marie Joseph Gory's mother may have been the daughter of a brother or cousin of Marie Victoire. Since there was a plethora of related individuals bearing the name Gory, and all connected to L'islet, like Victoire, perhaps Victoire was born to one of them and we simply have not located any trace of her yet. Otherwise Marie Victoire was indeed Anne Marie Joseph's mother. Either way, her child born in 1781 had the same godfather as Anne Marie Joseph, suggesting that he knew Victoire Gory and Marie Victoire. We are inclined to believe Anne Marie Joseph Gory's mother was related somehow to Marie Victoire or the other Gory (descendants of Jean-Baptiste Gory). 

In 1749, Marie Victoire was baptized. Her mother was  a Sougrain.

All of this confirms that Beresfort Francois's mother was from an ancien libre lineage linked to L'Islet. Beresfort's father, however, does not appear in any records we have searched. As we already assumed he was a former slave or child of former slaves, finding any trace of him will be exceedingly difficult. But we at least know what part of Bainet Beresfort's mother came from, and some of her family connections. Perhaps his father was from the same section of Bainet? 

In 1781, the widow of Francois Gory, Marie Francoise Sougrain, died. Note that one of the witnesses was Jean-Baptiste Marillac, who was the godfather of Anne Marie Joseph Gory in 1793.

It is probable that the Marie Sougrain baptized in 1718 was the same woman who married Francois Gory. She was an illegitimate child of Alexis Sougrain and freed by her Sougrain grandfather (Francois Sougrain?).

We will take a break from our obsessive Bainet historical and genealogical rantings at this point. We are more interested in the African and Creole slave population and do not have the sources needed to really begin to explore those questions. Free people of color in a colonial slave society are fascinating, but we are more interested in Africa and the African origins of the Haitian people.