Excerpted from "Colonial Mobile", Peter Hamilton (Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1897) Chapter XVI: Some Old Families Part 3 of 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- And yet there is good reason to believe that the romantic story is true, and the family tradition is wrong We have seen that Captain Joseph Christophe De Lusser was killed at Akia in 1736, and there is nothing to point to any other De Lusser in Mobile except his wife and children, unless a Captain Joseph in the baptismal records be other than his son. His wife, and widow, was Marguerite Bouras. They had three children. Of these, Marguerite Constance was born and baptized September 10, 1750; Marie Joseph was another child, but her baptism has not been noticed in the church records. She, like her sister, was old enough in 1734 to attest the baptism of a son of engineer De Vin. On June 4, 1724, was born the third children Jean Baptiste. He was ondoyé by Father Claude at the time of his birth, but for some reason the baptismal ceremonies were no supplied until February 4, 1735. Then they had a great time of it. Governor Bienville was godfather to the boy, who bore his name of Jean Baptiste. Dame Barbe Bienville was godmother, and among the dozen witnesses were La Sueur and Beauchamps. Captain De Lusser was a a large slave-holder, and every now and then the register shows he had one baptized. After his untimely death, his widow continues to acquire slaves, and Mme. De Lusser had them baptized. Sometimes her daughters act as godmothers or witness the ceremony, - - as October 1, 1736, where Constance signs as godmother, and March 7 of the next year, Marie, who always writes her pet name, Manon. By 1737 we find J. B. Lusser, officer, witnessing a baptism in 1742 again as ensigne d'infanterie. Constance became the wife of Captain Pierre Nicholas Annobal Chevalier, Sieur De Velle, and April 17, 1740, we find young Lusser, his mother, and several others witnessing the baptism of the first De Velle child. Marie soon afterwards married Lieutenant Francis Marie Joseph Hazeur, and their first child was baptized in 1742. Both lived to raise large families, and ultimately moved to New Orleans. We find no mention of children of Jean Baptiste, and the children of his sisters Constance and Marie were to claim his property on the ground that he left no direct heirs. But it would seem that the property he was to leave was acquired of his mother, Marguerite Bouras, for the land was given to the owner of the slaves, and the owner of the slaves was the Akia widow, mother of Constance, Manon, and Jean Baptiste. How he inherited from their mother we do not know, but may well have bought out his sisters' interests when they moved away. Suffice it, however, that the Mme. De Lusser, from whom came the De Lusser Tract and other hands, was probably the mother, not the wife, of J. B. De Lusser. Another prominent family was that of Francoise Cesar Bernoudy, long garde magasin and royal attorney (procureur) at Mobile. His wife was Louise Marguerite Belzagai. He was dead by 1757, when she signs as Veave Bernoudy, but they seem to have had a large family. A daughter called for her was wife of Captain J. B. Aubert, Francois is named as cadet Suisse, and at the same time Mlle. Margeurite and Mlle. Francoise Bernoudy also appear in the church records. "Endless genealogies" could be made of many city families, some noble, some bourgeois, but these will suffice. Of families that will later meet us, however, may be named Charles Rochon and his son Pierre, Landry, Delalande, Jean and Simon Favre, Durand Duret, Jusan and H. E. Krebs. Colored offshoots of the Bernoudy and Favre families were to perpetuate those names in land grants. The Pechons, Beauchamps, Mandevilles, and others of rank were to disappear with the French flag. End