Gorr

Fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony. One of our ancestral surnames comes from the word for the pig, our least favorite animal. Our source, Morlet's Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille includes several variants of the family name, although the spelling of Gaury does not appear. It seems to be a lesson common surname nowadays.

3 Victoires

Somehow we neglected to mention the existence of another Victoire related to the Gory of 18th century Bainet. A quick persual of ANOM's Baynet parish registries clarified the matter, somewhat. In addition to Victoire Suzanne Monteise and her godmother, Marie Victoire Gory, there was a Marie Victoire Pitiot (incorrectly written as Pichot by the parish priest). Baptized in 1765, this Marie Victoire could also have been the mother of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury. Again, like Victoire Suzanne, there is a problem of why her name was recorded as Gory by the parish priest but that could have been an error on his part, just like the parish priest who wrote Pichot instead of Pitiot. We know Marie Victoire Gory was married to Michel Pitiot and thus the mother of Marie Victoire Pitiot. Marie Victoire was also the aunt of Victoire Suzanne Monteise. In other words, the mother of the Anne Marie Joseph baptized in 1793 was likely one of these three women. 

It seems that Anne Marie Joseph's parents were still alive when she passed away in 1859, so it was probably one of the younger women (the daughter or the niece of Marie Victoire Gory). Marie Victoire Gory was still married to Michel Pitiot in the 1780s and we were unable to find any mention of his death before 1793. Moreover, we know that Victoire Suzanne Monteise's first name was obviously Victoire, strengthening the case for identifying her as the mother. We could only find one instance in which Marie Victoire Gory's name appeared as just Victoire Gory, and that was when her sister's illegitimate child, Marie Louise, was baptized in 1769. Marillac, who married a sister of Victoire Suzanne Monteise, was also the godfather to the son of Marie Victoire Gory born in 1781. He must have known all three of these women but all the evidence remains slightly in greater favor for Victoire Suzanne. 

Our Louis?

We are still trying to uncover the origins of Louis Gory of Bainet, the first Gory. We think his sons were born in the late 1710s or early 1720s, so it is possible that this Louis above, a quarteron libre born in 1699, could have been their father. Our evidence is slim, but it is interesting to note that the godmother of this Leogane-born Louis was a Montard. The Montard, spelled as Montar, were also in Bainet by the 1720s and 1730s. Indeed, in Bainet was a Louis Montar living in Baynet in the 1720s who fathered children with a free black woman. Perhaps this Louis, whose father was not named, was the same Louis Gory or Gorry (also spelled Gaury) who was identified in the Bainet parish registries in the 1720s-1740s? He was a "quarteron" instead of a "mulatto" but we have already seen how flexible those terms were. Unfortunately, if his son Jean Baptiste really was born in or around 1711, this Louis would have been too young to have been his father. Of course, by 1791 there were few people around who would have known Jean Baptiste's actual age when he died. It is more likely that he was born in the late 1710s or early 1720s, around the same time as his brother, Francois. Perhaps a young Louis and Marie sired them when they were in their late teens or early 20s. Either way, we need more proof and identifying this Louis's godfather might point us in the right direction. Who was Guy L'Eroudelle?

Dit Cangé

Due to our obsession with their dit name that has survived among many Haitians, we have completely overlooked the original family name of a large family of free people of color: Celin. The founders of the lineage in Haiti were actually a white man from Galice (Galicia) named Pierre Sellin (Celin, or perhaps a Gallicized Salinas?) and a woman of color named Marie Therese Damillide or Damilide. The latter may have been from Veracruz, taken in a French raid on that part of Mexico. It is difficult to read the surname of Marie Therese's mother (Orada? Orara? Arara?) and the place of origin seems to be Vella or Novella Cruz isle espagnolle, but Veracruz the ville might have been the intended place of origin. Regardless of her exact origins, Pierre Sellin appears to have married a woman of color since their children were identified as such in later records. Their daughter, for instance, married a Jean Baptiste Souché who was a "mulatto" and habitant of Jacmel.  

The two were married in Leogane parish in 1695 and produced at least 3 or 4 children. It looks like their household was enumerated in the Jacmel Quarter and its dependencies in the 1703 Census. We assume Jean Salin or Jean Celin born in Leogane parish was the one who married Marguerite Butet and produced numerous children, beginning with Jean Baptiste in Baynet. In addition to Jean, his sister Elizabeth or Isabelle also married a Souché and his brother Pierre Celin probably also had children. Perhaps Pierre the father or Pierre the brother also acted as the godfather to Jean's children born in the 1720s before they moved to Petit-Harpon. Intriguingly, one of the Pierre Celins (perhaps Jean's father, or more likely his brother?) married the widow of Francois Saugrain, Marguerite Francq. 

Trying to make sense of the numerous Cangé in 18th century Jacmel, Bainet, and Leogane is difficult with only digitized ANOM parish registers. The repetition of Jean and Pierre as names sometimes leads to confusion, although we now understand why Pierre was so commonly used as a first name (after the founder of the lineage and the brother of Jean). We assume the Jean Sellin born in the 1690s was the only one who had children with a woman named Marguerite Butet, perhaps a sister of Jeanne Butet (illegitimate daughter of Rene Butet of Le Mans). However, the Jean Baptiste baptized in Baynet in the 1710s had a mother with a different surname, something like Courville? We are also unsure about deaths of Jean Celin's parents or if most if not all people bearing the Celin dit Cangé name were actually descendants of Jean.

Part of our confusion stems from the 1703 census. According to that source, the Cangé (or Celin) household included 2 males bearing arms and 2 adult women. We are probably safe to assume that by this period Pierre Sellin and Marie Therese were 2 of the adults. Who were the other ones? Was Pierre Celin accompanied by some unknown cousin or brother we are ignorant of? His sons would have been children and too young to be counted as men bearing arms. 

What makes sense to us is that Jean Celin, born in the 1690s, was the "mixed-race" child who started having children with Marguerite in the late 1710s and 1720s. He was probably illiterate and by the late 1730s or 1740s, had established himself at Petit-Harpon. Some of his children stayed or moved back to Jacmel and Bainet, spreading their Celin Cangé name around the area. Some of their descendants ended up in the valley of Bainet, such as Jean Pierre and Jean Louis in the late 1700s. We assume the "Calit Cangé" habitation in the valley of Bainet was named after one of them and that some remained in the area after the Haitian Revolution. 

Since Celin disappeared and Cangé survives in the Bainet and Jacmel area, and the Cangé were a numerous family in the 18th century, we assume that some of us are descendants of them. Our earliest known ancestor with the name was probably born in c.1829 in the valley of Bainet, but we are missing too many years of the 19th century Bainet civil records to positively identify his parents. However, we earlier pointed out a connection between a Jean Charles Cangé and an Alexandre who acted as godfather to his child in the 1820s. There were also other Alexandre-Cangé ties in the valley of Bainet and Jacmel during the early 19th century. In nearby Jacmel, for instance, one Jean Baptiste Alexandre was married to a Cangé and had a child in the 1818. We think the parents of our great-great-grandmother may have been from close Alexandre and Cangé backgrounds, perhaps living in or near Bergin (Begin) but lack the required documents to prove it. Nonetheless, we're willing to bet good money Jean Michel Cangé was somehow related to Jean Charles Celin Cangé or another one of the Cangé living in the valley of Bainet during the 1790s. After all, the valley isn't that large of a place and many people must have remained in the area after independence. 

Saugrain in Martinique and Haiti

Saugrain and Faste were the parents of Alexis, Charles, and their brother, Francois. ANOM's Leogane records are priceless for trying to track down some of the later Bainet and Jacmel residents.

So it turns out that Alexis Saugrain, born in c.1696, in Saint-Domingue, was actually the son of parents from Martinique and Saint-Christophe. According to the 1694 Leogane parish register, Alexis's parents were married in that year. His father, whose parents were from Caux and Rouen, was probably born in Martinique or perhaps his family moved there relatively soon after his birth. It is interesting to note that the mother of Francois Saugrain was named Marguerite Tremonie in Martinique, but Tresorier in Saint-Domingue. Her name also changed to Magdelaine in Saint-Domingue, perhaps through errors of the parish priests in Leogane and Jacmel? Francois Saugrain was illiterate and couldn't have corrected them. Perhaps Marguerite Tremonie is the most likely candidate for his mother's name.

Thanks to ANOM, we know that a sister of Francois Saugrain died in Case-Pilote in 1727, around 80 years old. If accurate, she was probably born in the late 1740s or early 1750s. Another source, Personnes et familles à la Martinique au XVIIe siècle: d'après recensements et terrier nominatifs includes a roll or census from1680, suggests Jeanne Sogrin (Saugrin) was born in 1655.

From what I could gather from Martinique rolls, censuses and other documents, one of Francois's sisters was born in or around 1655. One document from 1671 also mentions the Saugrin, indicating they were definitely established in the Case-Pilote area of Martinique by 1671. I cannot tell if Francois Saugrain's sisters were born on the island, but I suspect he was. Like the Marin who married the first Marillac in Jacmel, Francois Saugrain appears to have been another example of a Martinique Creole who relocated to Saint Domingue. And like other early French colonists in the Antilles, the Saugrain were from Normandie. We wonder if their descendants in Martinique know that they have black Haitian cousins through Alexis Saugrain and Suzanne?

In 1682, a cousin of Alexis Saugrain was baptized in Martinique.

In addition to Martinique, Alexis Saugrain could also claim origins in Saint-Christophe, the other old French colony in the Caribbean. His mother, Barbe Faste, was a native of that island who, like many others, ended up in Saint Domingue in the late 1600s. I could not find any trace of her mother, Jeanne Gourdel, unfortunately. Her father, Guillaume Faste, may have been the Guillaume Foster listed in a 1671 census shared by the good people of Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe. This is just a theory, but Faste and Foster could sound similar to a Francophone person. Besides, there was no other Guillaume with a surname similar to Faste. Perhaps the Foster surname is an indication of English origin, unsurprising in Saint-Christophe. At least we have a better idea of the origins of Alexis Saugrain in terms of the longer history of French colonialism and slavery in the Antilles. It is a long, sordid history and insidious legacy which still affects Haiti, Martinique, and Saint Kitts. 

Saugrain Habitation in Bainet, c. 1720

The Saugrain habitation in early 18th century Bainet is actually one of the indigoteries for which we have some data on its enslaved workforce. Much of our interest in the Saugrain comes from Alexis Saugrain, the son of Francois Saugrain and a woman named Barbe. Alexis, Charles, and Francois were the sons of these two and all three appear to have been born in Saint-Domingue (in Grand-Goave). Their father, who remarried a few years before his demise, expired in 1719. Their father was presumably from Normandy, as the Jacmel parish registers indicate in his marriage to a Marguerite Francq. The parents of Alexis and his brothers appear in the 1735 testament of Francois Saugrain, naming Alexis as his heir. Charles Saugrain also gave some of his property (including 3 slaves) to Alexis in that same year...

Alexis Saugrain's brother's testament from 1735 names their parents. Yes, I know...3 different generations of men named Francois Saugrain. Alexis had a brother named Francois, father called Francois, and a grandfather named Francois...

In 1720, the property of the Saugrain habitation was listed and can be found on among the Saint-Domingue Notariat from Jacmel in the 1720s. Luckily, FamilySearch's website included it among their limited Saint-Domingue Notariat records. We have produced a crude table illustrating the enslaved population by its "national" origins. The Creole predominance this early in a Bainet plantation is a little striking.

Nation		Quantity
Arada		5
Creole		20
Senegalois		1
Minne (Mine)		4
Nago		1
Mamou		3
Mondongue		1
Loango		1
Samba?		1
Adouri?		1
Jouda		1
Oueda		1

From 1703, when the Saugrain household only included 8 slaves in the census, their habitation increased to 40 enslaved laborers by 1720. Half of their human "property" consisted of Creoles, mostly children and born in the colony. Suzanne, the woman we suspect to be the same slave of the Saugrain who gave birth to a daughter who married a Gory in 1738, was the only Creole born outside of Saint-Domingue. The other notable feature of the data is the weak presence of Central Africans. The ubiquitous "Congos" are only represented by 2 Central Africans, 1 Mondongue and 1 person who probably came from or via Loango. The Senegalois presence is also limited, despite the Senegambia region probably providing a more sizable portion of Saint-Domingue's slave population than in later decades.

Thanks to ANOM, we know Francois Saugrain married a Marguerite Francq in 1717, whose father was from Jamaica. Baptisms recorded for other children of Jean Francq refer to him as a slave of Francois Saugrain...

In this sample, clearly the Slave Coast and Gold Coast were the major sources of Africans. The Minne or Mine represented 10 percent of the total. If one combines Arada, Jouda, Nago, and Oueda, then 20 percent came via the Slave Coast. Allada, once the dominant kingdom in today's Benin, claimed suzerainty over Ouidah during the period before 1720 and powerful Oyo to the north also contributed to the provision of captives through its slave trade. Of the African-born population on the plantation, 40 percent appear to have been from the Slave Coast. If the identification of the ambiguous "nations" could be confidently asserted, then the Slave Coast proportion might have been even higher. Unfortunately, we have no idea what to make of the Mamou, Samba (?) and the other unknown nation. Google searching brings up a Mamou in Guinea, which probably isn't what we are looking for. The other 2 are unknown to us and Debien has not provided any clues. It is interesting to note that none of the adult males were Creoles. Supposedly the Saugrain did own an adult Creole a few years before 1720, a native of Jamaica named Jean Francq. But he must have been freed since his children were freed by the Saugrain. 

We cannot decipher the "nation" or ethnic background of Andre.

Naturally, we cannot ascertain how representative the Saugrain habitation was for Bainet or Jacmel in the 1720s. Indigo plantations must have differed from other types, and we know the Compagnie de Saint-Domingue was still the main (legal) source of slaves. Perhaps smuggling (such as a slave from Jamaica and a slave from Curacao) provided much of the laborers? We would have to find inventories, deeds, and testaments for other parts of Bainet or Jacmel for a more representative sample of Bainet's African population in the early 1700s. Yet it is still interesting to know what one early Bainet plantation looked like and the world one of our (probable) enslaved ancestors experienced. 

Suzanne Libre of Curacao

At least Suzanne, an enslaved woman of the Saugrain, was eventually emancipated. According to our tentative family tree of the Gory and Marillac in Bainet and Jacmel, Suzanne was the mother of daughters who married a Gory and a Marillac. It looks like another of her children with Alexis Saugrain married a Barreau in 1738. Suzanne and Alexis Saugrain's name appeared on the 2 marriage contracts found in the Notariat of Saint-Domingue for Jacmel, available on FamilySearch. 

Apparently we were wrong about the parents of Alexis, Charles, and Francois (fils) Saugrain. Their father was the one who seems to have been the child of a Francois Saugrain of Normandie. Alexis and his brothers were probably born in Saint-Domingue (Grand Goave or Leogane) to Francois Saugrain and a woman named Barbe (surname indecipherable). The testaments of the brothers of Alexis Saugrain from the 1730s identify their parents and can be found in 1730s testaments in Jacmel.

Suzanne's origins are somewhat clearer now, too. According to notarized documents from the early 1720s involving Alexis and Francois Saugrain, Suzanne was around 30 years old and perhaps the most valuable enslaved woman of the Saugrain. Apparently she was a Creole of Curacao and not born in Africa. Although it is difficult to decipher the word after her name, perhaps she was a ménagère and therefore easily accessible to Alexis Saugrain's attention. 

All we know is that she was at some point freed and her children were recognized by Alexis Saugrain, who was "kind" enough to gift an enslaved child and a horse to his daughter who married a Gory in 1738. Interestingly, she gave birth to a pair of the twins and her daughter who married a Gory also had twins. 

In short, our theory of Suzanne as a common ancestor of several Gory and Marillac was correct, as well as the Alexis Saugrain link. We were incorrect about Alexis Saugrain's parents, but right about Louis Gory and Marie being the parents of the two Gory brothers Jean Baptiste and Francois. Now we need to somehow find documents clarifying the origins of Louis Gory and Marie in the Saint Domingue Notariat. Sadly, FamilySearch does not possess all of the required documents necessary for such an undertaking. But it would be interesting to uncover the origins of the first Gory in Bainet. 

Cherilise?

Another problem for our interests in Bainet genealogical research is the rather large Alexandre family. Our great-great-great-grandmother, Cherilise Alexandre, probably born in the late 1820s or early 1830s, was a native of Bainet's valley section. Since the Bainet 19th century civil records are missing several years, we could not find any record of her birth. However, we know that in 1825, a Desiré Alexandre was the godfather to a son of Jean Charles Cangé. Cherilise Alexandre had at least 2 or 3 children with a Jean Michel Cangé, so we wondered if Jean Michel was a son of Jean Charles Cangé and perhaps Desiré was the father of Cherilise? 

Unfortunately, we could not find any more information on this Desiré Alexandre. There was one person with that name who lived in nearby Jacmel, where the birth of his son was recorded in 1849 (record accessible thanks to Family Search). Described as living by the Grande Riviere of Jacmel, rather far from the valley of Bainet, we find it unlikely he was the same person we are looking for in 1820s Bainet. However, he was around the right age to have been the father of Cherilise: born in or around 1791. Moreover, he produced a Francois Pierre as a witness, albeit one too young to have been our Francois Pierre, only 29 years old.

Since the years covering Cherilise's birth appear to be lost, we did check for other Alexandres in Bainet. In fact, one of them registered the birth of his son in the 1850s, and a Cherilis Alexandre appears in the document as a witness. We assume this Cherilis Alexandre was somehow related to ours. And the father of the child, Saint Firmin Alexandre was perhaps also related to our Cherilise. Sadly, we lack adequate documents to confirm. However, it might be safe to many or most assume the Alexandre in the valley were related, perhaps descendants of Desiré. We also found a number of Alexandre related to us or other Bainet families related to us. 

Pierre Celin dit Cangé?

The signature of Jean Pierre Cangé appears here, when he became the godfather to a Jean Joseph Stanislas in 1781. 

What makes trying to piece together the origins of the Cangé in the 18th century so difficult is their large numbers and the repetition of the same names (Jean, Pierre, etc.). One glaring example is the appearance of at least two people with Pierre Celin as part of their full name. Both were supposedly the sons of Jean Cangé and Marguerite Butet, but they married different women and were not the same person. Our tentative reconstruction of our great-great-grandmother's father's family assumes descent from one of them, the younger one not born in 1729. 

In 1755, Pierre Louis Celin Cangé married Marie Therese Petit.

Our Cangé ancestry appears to derive from the Pierre Celin dit Cangé, who was the father of Jean Pierre, baptized in 1760. That Jean Pierre went on to marry a Saugrain and became the father of Jean Charles, the man we suspect was the grandfather of our great-great-grandmother. From what I could gather, the Pierre Louis Cangé who married Marie Therese Petit (the woman whose family suddenly became "Indians" later in the 18th century) was actually the father of the general who went on to fight at the Battle of Savannah and became a general during the Haitian Revolution. That Pierre Cangé later fell in disgrace after the 1805 Santo Domingo campaign and was killed by order of Henri Christophe in 1806, according to Histoire de Toussaint Louverture by Pauléus Sannon.

So, there appear to have been two men brothers named Pierre, children of the free people of color Marguerite Butet and Jean Cangé. Pierre Celin dit Cangé had a number of children with a Françoise or Marie Françoise Geoffroi or Geffroy, before he married her in 1770. The other one, Pierre Louis Celin, married a Petit and sired a number of children. If our theory is correct, our great-great-grandmother was a descendant of the Pierre Celin dit Cangé. As mentioned in our previous speculative posts about her origins, we are still lacking a birth record for her father and would like some information on her Alexandre mother. However, it does seem likely that her father was a descendant of the Jean Charles born in the 1780s. We also know that Jean Pierre Cangé was still living in the Valley of Bainet in the 1790s, and it is likely that his son remained in the same area. Unfortunately, we still couldn't identify any of the African-born forebears of these free people of color or figure out the origins of the Geoffroy before Pierre Geoffroy.

Pitiot of Port de Paix Connection

Another family related to the Bainet Gory in the 18th century was the Pitiot. A swift perusal of ANOM's Bainet materials revealed that the first Pitiot in Bainet, Jean, was a native of Port de Paix who died in 1761. His son, a "grif" named Michel, married Marie Victoire Gory. Their child, Jean Joseph Pitiot, was baptized in 1781 and had the same godfather as our Anne Marie Joseph Gory. 

Marie Victoire Gory, the mother of Jean Joseph Pitiot, was also the godmother of Victoire Suzanne Monteise, the woman who appears to have been the mother of Anne Marie Joseph. Unsurprisingly, in a small place like Bainet, along the L'Islet River, every knew each other and those from the same family likely lived on the same habitation or nearby. The Pitiot connection surprised us in that Jean Pitiot came to Bainet from Port de Paix, on the other side of the colony. 

Hunting for Drouillac

Our current theory assumes this Françoise Drouillac, who passed away in 1761 in Leogane, was the mother of Marie Françoise Paponet, who married Joseph Gory in 1771.

As part of our quest to trace the origins of the forebears of Anne Marie Joseph Gory in our tentative family tree, we decided to attempt to tackle the issue of the Drouillac. According to our theory, Anne Marie Joseph's father was the grandson of a Paponet who married Joseph Gory. Her mother, a Drouillac of Leogane, appears to have died in 1761 and was presumably born in the early 1720s or late 1710s. Paponet had a son from a previous relationship who married Agathe Gory. The product of that union, a Joseph baptized in 1776, seems like the best candidate for Anne Marie Joseph's father. Even if we are wrong, at least we are further establishing the familial network of the Bainet Gory in 18th century Saint-Domingue.

The 1771 marriage entry for Joseph Gory and Paponet appears to indicate that Françoise Drouillac was deceased, which supports the idea she was the Drouillac who died in 1761. 

So, who were the Drouillac? Another round of searching Leogane entries of baptisms, marriages and deaths via ANOM's site helped to partly address the question. We found a few individuals who were likely siblings of Françoise, including a Pierre, Ignace, and François. Although I am not sure all had the same mother, they appear to share a Gilles Drouillac as their father. Assuming they were all born in the 1710s and 1720s, we assume Gilles Drouillac was probably born in the late 17th century and was a "mulatto" scion of a Drouillac and a black woman we could not locate. 

Ignace Douillac, who died in 1744, was the son of a Gilles and a woman named Marie Therese. We assume Ignace was a sibling of our Françoise.

What helped make things easier is the number of children Pierre and François had. The baptismal entry for the daughter of the latter, Rose Victoire, actually named Gilles Dujacq (Gilles Drouillac) as the godfather. Interestingly, François was named as a free black, perhaps because he was a dark-skinned grif son of a "mulatto" and a "black" woman. Elsewhere we have noticed the shifting color or racial terms used to describe the population of Saint-Domingue, so we assume the parish priests just recorded what they thought as more accurate "racial" category for nonwhites (or, in some cases, chose to omit any mention of their racial origin). 

We also have established by 1752, Gilles Drouillac resided in Grand-Goave. Assuming Marie Therese was the mother of all (or most) of his children, including Françoise Drouillac, we can probably infer that she was a "griffe" born sometime in the early 1720s or late 1710s. She actually appeared as the godmother to the child of Pierre  in 1743. So we know at least a few things about her origins and her parentage. The Drouillac were still around in the late colonial era in Grand-Goave, too. A Marcel Drouillac, son of a later Gilles Drouillac married in 1794. We assume his father was the Gilles baptized in 1756, a son of Pierre Drouillac. 

A daughter of Pierre Douillac (Drouillac) and Marie Rose was baptized in 1743. Her godmother was Françoise and the child actually bore the same name as Françoise's daughter.

The harder, more time-consuming task that remains is to search for Gilles and Marie Therese early on in Leogane. Who knows, perhaps that could contain a reference to an African-born person or lead to a revelation about other possible Drouillac-Gory connections. We just wish Drouillac had a consistent spelling so we don't have to search for Douillac, Douliac, Dujac, Dujacq, and Drouillac. Alas, we still have to identify the Paponet father of Marie Françoise and the father of her son. That would require a trip to Grand Anse and a more thorough search of the voluminous Leogane parish register.

Marillac Origins

Although we are not descendants of the Marillac (the paper trail is insufficient to establish it), we thought it would be worthwhile to trace the origins of Anne Marie Joseph Gory's godfather. We already discovered that he married what appears to have been the sister of Anne's mother. Moreover, both Marillac and Anne Marie Joseph appear to have been descendants of a woman enslaved by the Saugrain in the 1720s, Susanne. What about the Marillac name, and that part of his past?

A quick perusal of the Marillac of Jacmel and Bainet via ANOM clarified a lot. The first Marillac, or Marillan (?) in Jacmel was a native of Agen, Jean Marillac de Monplesy. He married a Marie Elisabeth Marin of Martinique in 1722. We assume his wife was a woman of color (this remains to be determined), and their children then married or had children with other free people of color. One of their children, Jean Baptiste, was born in 1728, or so. That Jean Baptiste was, in turn, the father of the Jean Baptiste Marillac who married a Marie Louise Monteise (Gory). 

The mother of the Marillac who was closely connected to the Gory was a Saugrain (Sougrain), Marie Barbe. She was, from what we could gather, one of two twins born to an enslaved woman of the Saugrains, Susanne. Baptized in 1725 and declared free, she went on to have Jean Baptiste Marillac in late 1757 or early 1758 with the senior Jean Baptiste. 

Jean Baptiste Marillac, fils in this case, had a Bainet Saugrain (probably also a daughter of Susanne) as his godmother in 1758. This explains how he was related to several of the Gory. Then to further link the Marillac and Gory, he went and married Marie Louise Monteise (or Montes), the daughter of a Frenchman and a Gory. Our theory is that his wife was the sister of Anne Marie Joseph's mother, Victoire Susanne (named after their enslaved ancestor?). 

We know of one other child by the first, white, Marillac. His daughter, Magdeleine, was baptized in 1732 in Jacmel. She had an illegitimate child baptized in 1753, Marie Magdeleine. This daughter, Marie Magdeleine, appears to have been the mother of a child with a Louis Saugrain (or Sougrain, the name was spelled differently from the original), Marie Louise. This daughter, Marie Louise, married Jean-Pierre Cangé. In short, all these families were marrying or having children with the same few families of similar status (no surprise), and in some cases marrying cousins.

Léogâne Parish

Jean Baptiste's marriage to Marie Pichot. According to this document, Pichot was the daughter of a Jacques (presumably the one who died in 1749) and a free black woman, Nanette. There was a Nanette who died in Léogâne that might have been Pichot's mother.

After taking a break, it was decided to peruse Léogâne parish on ANOM's site. It was not unexpected to uncover new information pertinent to the Gory of Bainet we are trying to trace. Indeed, it was in Léogâne that Jean Baptiste Gory married Marie Pichot in the 1740s. Using the record of their marriage, we can see that Jean Baptiste's mother was a free black woman. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to say if her name was Marie or Marine or something else, but at least we know that Louis Gory sired at least one child with her. We operate on the assumption that Jean Baptiste was born in the 1710s or early 1720s, as was François Gory. Thus, assuming the two are both sons of Louis Gory, which seems likely, we believe the mother of François was the same black woman. Unfortunately, there is no obvious trace of her in Bainet or Léogâne, so we cannot speculate as to her origins or how she became free. However, if she was around the same age as Louis, we expect her to have been born in the later decades of the 17th century, perhaps the 1680s or 1690s.

Nanette died in 1744, before her daughter Marie Pichot married a Gory. Nothing of her origins can be seen here, but the man who freed her bore a name which resembled that of Jean Baptiste Gory's (second?) wife. Or did Marie Pichot drop that surname for the one of the man who once owned her mother?

Léogâne also provided some hints as to the origin of Louis Gory. We could not help but notice that the father of Marie Pichot was also the godfather of another mixed-race Gory. Jacques Pichot was a witness to the profession of faith of a Jacques Gorri (Gory), habitant of Nippes, and godfather to his daughter, Marie Rose. Perhaps Jacques Gorri (Gory) was a Protestant and although he was not old enough to have been the father of Louis, the two must have been related somehow. Jacques died in 1736, around the age of 40. Perhaps the two were cousins or siblings of some sort? His daughter, Marie Rose, appeared later on in the parish registers as the mother of illegitimate children. Her race was indicated as "mulatto" but it is possible both of her parents were of mixed-race origins. As for the Protestant background, Jacques must have converted to Catholicism much later than Louis. 

What exactly was the relationship between Jacques and Louis? Both families were connected to Jacques Pichot, and one might get away with thinking Jacques Gory and Louis Gory were somehow related.

Léogâne parish also gave a few more details on the families connected to Bainet. The Drouillac mother of the woman who married Joseph Gory appears to have been born in or around 1721. The Marie François Geoffroi who married Pierre Celin Cangé was born in the 1730s to Pierre Geoffroi and Marie Magdelaine. Pierre Celin dit Cangé was supposedly the son of Jean Celin and Marguerite Butet, according to his the entry for his marriage to Geoffroi. People were on the move, and one can find connections to Jacmel and Bainet from this parish.

The Cangé were tied by marriage or other bonds to Saugrain, Barreau, Geoffroi and, via them, to the Gory. 

Despite still being in the dark, we have confirmed some things, figured out a few more, and hope to explore other parishes for additional  information. As to be expected, very little of the information I find has unveiled the African background of the individuals I suspect to be the ancestors of the Bainet Gory. Nonetheless, it is interesting (and disturbing) to imagine what life was like for these people in a hellish slave society like Saint-Domingue. It puts something of a human face to this brutal era to know that some of these people were ancestors.

All Roads Lead to Susanne

The Marie Saugrain baptized in 1718 died in 1756. She was married to a Barreau.

After reviewing the ANOM documents in my attempt to reconstruct the origins of the Gory family in colonial Bainet, I realize that I have likely made a mistake. I failed to identify an enslaved woman of the Saugrains as the most likely mother of the Marie Françoise Saugrain who married François Gory. I initially thought the Marie Françoise who married Gory was the one baptized in 1718, an illegitimate child of Alexis Saugrain and an unnamed enslaved mother. It actually looks like Marie Françoise was the daughter of Suzanne and an unnamed father, presumably another Saugrain (Louis or Alexis?). 

In 1781, Marie Françoise Saugrain died. Aged around 60, she was probably the child of Susanne.

Thus, Marie Françoise was born in 1721 and was the sister of the mixed-race Saugrain mother of Jean Baptiste Marillac, Marie Barbe. This actually explains why Jean Baptiste Marillac's godmother was Marie Françoise Saugrain of Bainet. Basically, several of the Gory children of Marie Françoise Saugrain were actually cousins of Jean Baptiste Marillac. Of course, this means that Jean-Baptiste Marillac was actually related to Anne Marie Joseph Gory, his godchild, through Susanne.

The Marie Françoise who later married was François Gory was baptized in 1721. What makes things even more confusing is the appearance of another Marie Françoise, baptized in 1722, whose enslaved mother, Marguerite Susanne, was owned by the Saugrain.

As for the Marie Saugrain born in 1718, she married a Jean François Barreau. It is difficult to say if Suzanne was also the mother of Marie, but it is possible. A child born to Suzanne later in the 1720s had Jean François Barreau and a Marie as godparents, perhaps the very same Marie Saugrain, daughter of Alexis and Suzanne? And it looks like all her children went on to use the Saugrain name, or later changed it to Sougrain. So the white fathers eventually recognized their children or at least acted as godparents, as Alexis Saugrain did for a child of Marie Françoise.

In 1725, the twin daughters of Susanne were baptized. One of them, Marie Barbe, was actually the mother of Jean Baptiste Marillac, the godfather of Anne Marie Joseph.

Unfortunately, our poor Suzanne appears to have remained in bondage to the white Saugrains. I could not find any trace of Suzanne or indication of her origins. It is possible she was the young "Negress" slave of the Saugrain mentioned in the 1703 census for the Jacmel quarter and its dependencies. Or, perhaps, she was one of the adult enslaved women of the Saugrain indigoterie. However, knowing her as the progenitor of many of the Gory helps explain Victoire Susanne Monteise's name. Her mother or godmother may have named her after their enslaved ancestor, Susanne. So at least they remembered her in a fashion. 

Jean Baptiste Marillac's godmother was Marie Françoise Saugrain of Baynet, and probably the sister of his mother, Marie Barbe, daughter of Susanne.

It would have been interesting to find out where Suzanne came from or what African "nation" she represented, but for all I know she could have been born in the colony. In fact, if she was the young female slave child listed in the 1703 census, she possibly grew up with the Saugrain. Since we have yet to find any record of what happened to her after the 1720s, we are left in the dark about her origins or fate.