Settlements
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BELGIANS   IN   AMERICA Belgian settlements by State  

 Distribution according
to the State of settlement
: Indiana
Vincennes

Southern Indiana

Perry County

Belgians Settlements in Indiana at the time of the Civil War

Leopold,  Perry County


Belgian families
in Perry County

Index of Belgians family names

 Albert, Allard, Bel(l), Belva, Bigonville, Bodart, Boly, Claise/clesse, Collignon, Collin, Damin, Dauby, Delaisse, Deom, Devillez, Ducat, Duparque, Dupont, Etienne, Evrard, Fanard, Fays, Flamion, Foury, Francois, Genet, Genlain, Georges, Gillardin, Goffinet, Grave, Gringoire, Guillaume, Hanouille, Harbaville, Houlmont, Hubert, Jacob, Jacques, Kergen, Lagrange, Lambert, Lamquin(lampkin), Lanotte, Laurent, Leclere, Lemaire, Marchal, Masson, Marciliat, Massut, Meunier, Morse, Naviaux, Nicolay, Pierrard, Pierre, Ponsard, Remy, Richard, Rogier, Spirlet, Tassin, Thi(e)ry, Tibessart  

 

The Catholic Missions and Perry County

The first Belgians at Leopold

The American Way of Life
The  Belgians of Perry County

The Civil War at Leopold

From Europe to America (by Frank George)

 
indiana: PERRY COUNTY  

If Wisconsin,  in the Green Bay area,  hosted the largest number of our emigrants,  other states in the region (Illinois, Michigan and Indiana) also listed some colonization points.
And,  taking only into account the 30-year period between the independence of Belgium and the beginning of the Civil War,  we can locate the largest Belgian colony (outside the State of Wisconsin) to Leopold, 
in the far south of Indiana,  not far from the Ohio River and not far from the city of Vincennes,  the first white settlement in the area.

Those lists of Belgian settlers along the Ohio River area are based on many sources. First of all is the Jean Ducat book “De Semois en Indiana” published in Belgium in 1992. As he wrote in that book,  no longer available,  the list of Belgian settlers at Leopold,  Perry County,  can be considered as “a working tool”. Twenty years later,  the world as changed and a lot of tools added for somebody searching to establish such a list. The cyber world at least changed. Now,  tools like Ancestry,  Geneanet,  Find a Grave,  Fold3,  FamilySearch,  and others; have put on the web a lot of information available to anybody searching to complete such lists. 
My main source,  after Ducat book,  was the “Family Trees” section of Ancestry. I searched hundreds of those trees,  with good or bad results. Some were very detailed and accurate,  but others were a ramble of data with such things as children death before their father was born,  people listed in censuses after their death,  and all the children with similar family names,  found in the same area,  gathered under the same parents. Brothers or cousin were often intermingled. Men were married twice at the same time with differents spouses. People were born in the wrong place: in Belgium after having emigrated or,  on the contrary,  in the States before emigrating. They were also born,  married,  died at different times and places following the autors of those family trees. The lists of children are the most difficults ones,  as the births place and date,  marriage and death,  vary considerably from a genealogy list to the other.
 
At Ancestry,  the "censuses" and "ship arrivals" sections,  complete each family,  when I was able to find them. With also their defaults: misspellings and "lost" members in families or families who avoided listing themselves. For the ship lists,  some families are uterly not findable. Either because the manifest is lost and was not transcribed or because their family name was so unreadable by the transcribers that linking to them was beyond my abilities. A last list is the draft records taken in Indiana and Ohio during the Civil War. It gives the birth place of the men fit to be enlisted in the Union armies.
 
Belgian sources are also now available on line. The official registers recording the birth,  marriage and death are now  on-line at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927071)  and the Belgin State Archives gives the Parochial Records (http://search.arch.be/fr/tips/98-registresparoissiaux) and somme official registers also on-line (http://search.arch.be/fr/tips/101-etat-civil). It's the recent availability of those Belgian sources that pushed me to begin that work of expanding Father Ducat book to other areas than Leopold,  adding information concerning the birth place and date for the Belgian settlers and their marriage and death,  and adding marriage and death information for their children.
 
On Line,  are also Indiana sources I used: the Southern Indiana Connection (http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?includedb=southerindiana),  the Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church baptisms from 1850 to 1895,  established by Sue Yamtich for the Belgium-Roots Project (http://belgium.rootsweb.com/usa/in/perry/in_leopold_augustine01_1850.html).
 
Other sources are in libraries and archives: Gail Bisbey sent me the list of Declaration of Intent,  found in the Tell City Public Library,  and established by Don Goffinet and Jean Ducat from the Cannelton Courthouse Archives. The "History of Warrick,  Spencer,  and Perry Counties,  Indiana" gives also some biographies of the Belgian settlers. I also added family stories,  obituaries and any information found when doing those searches: extract of letters and  books,  photos,  tombstones photo of those settlers have been added to gives more understanding of the life of those people.
 
The list in "The Belgians of Perry County" is an alphabetical list. I omitted the people arriving in the area after the Civil War,  as they cannot be named “early settlers” any more. They are listed bellow. I tried,  for each family to find their first appearance in the censuses,  date and place. The 1850 census for those arriving before 1850,  and the 1860 one for the others. If nothing else was available,  the first census where they are listed. I also tried to connect the immigrants with their ship and how they were listed in the ship manifest. Not always with success,  for the censuses or the ship manifests either.
 
For each family,  I indicated they date and place of birth,  marriage and death and the date of their Declaraton of Intent (DIN). I limited the search of their children at those having immigrated with them and those born in the USA. For the single people,  I limited the list to their wife or husband they married in the USA,  and their children. Not all the information was always available,  and the one available not always accurate or even reliable. So,  you’ll often find a lot of question-mark.

 

 

Arrivals at Leopold in later years
Name                                                     born                    arrival                                                                             DIN
 
ANTOINE               Leopold                                                   1883/03/15              Antwerp - New York                               1884/10/27
AUBRY                   Henry                      1830 Jamoigne         1880/04/07                                                              1882/04/03
CLAISSE/CLESSE   Albert                      1847                        1886/05/18              Antwerp - Philadelphia            1888/11/03
DELAISSE              Jacques joseph                                         1881/10/01              Antwerp - New York                               1882/11/07
DEOM                     Jean Nicolas                                             1885/10/20              Antwerp - New York                               1886/11/01
DROUARD              Charles A                                                 1878/11/27              Le Havre - New York                              1882/11/07
DROUARD              Joseph                                                     1877/10/26              Le Havre - New York                              1880/10/09
DUPONT                 Nicolas                    1848                        1880/04/07              Le Havre - New York                              1882/04/03
GOFFINET              J Alphonse                                                               1882/12/20              Le Havre - New York                              1888/11/02
GUILLAUME          Jacques Hippolite                                     1880/04/06              Antwerp - New York                               188 /04/05
JACOB                     Joseph                                                     1886/04/25              - New York                              1888/11/05
KAUFMAN                                                                             1867/06/27                                                              1868/10/07
LAVAUX                 Joseph                     1838                        1884/05/18              From Le Havre to New Orleans               1888/10/27
LECLERE                Constant                                                  1870/03/05              Antwerp - New York                               1880/05/27
LECLERE                Jean Baptiste                                            1870/01/20              Antwerp - New York                               1874/10/08
LEMAIRE               Francois Xavier                                       1878/04/03              Le Havre - Philadelphia           1878/10/08
LONGLY                 Aubert                                                     1872/05/23              Antwerp - New York                               1880/10/21
LOUIS                     Nicolas                    1826                        1880/04/07              Antwerp - New York                               1880/05/04
PAUPORTE             Emile                       1839                        1870/02/23               Liverpool - New York           
THIRY                     Joseph                     1843                        1872/03/19              Le Havre - Detroit                    1880/08/28

 

SHIPS with Belgian emigrants for Leopold
 
Gironde Le Havre – New York August 16 1837 Draime
Saladin Le Havre – New Orleans January 4 1839 Bezy
Salem Le Havre – New Orleans November 28 1839 Gillardin
Mayflower II Le Havre – New Orleans January 17 1842 Goffinet, Pierre
Louis Philippe Le Havre – New York April 14 1843 Houlmont
Oregon Le Havre - New Orleans May 2 1843 Belva, Meunier
Austerlitz Le Havre - New Orleans June 8 1847 Kergen, Clesse
Elena Le Havre - New Orleans August 1 1847 Allard
Viola Le Havre - New Orleans August 1 1847 Belva
Windsor Castle Le Havre - New Orleans October 19 1848 Goffinet
Hargrave Le Havre - New Orleans February 5 1849 Lanotte
Austerlitz Le Havre - New Orleans November 26 1849 Marchal
Gallia Le Havre - New York May 9 1850 Lamquin
Charlemagne Le Havre - New Orleans October 17 1850 Collignon, Dazy, Flamion, Genet, Guillaume, Hanouille, Meunier
Lancashire Le Havre - New Orleans October 14 1851 Devillez
Belle Assise Le Havre - New Orleans December 23 1851 Etienne, Thiry
Attala Le Havre - New Orleans December 8 1851 Albert, Bell, Collin, Damin, Evrard, Fanard, Fays, Harbaville, Lambert
Elizabeth Le Havre - New Orleans March 31 1852 Goffinet, Graves
Zunch Le Havre - New Orleans February 3 1853 Marciliat
Isnardon Le Havre - New Orleans April 21 1853 Devillez
Belle Assise Le Havre - New Orleans April 23 1853 Devillez, Lambert, Pierrard
Athens Le Havre - New Orleans May 13 1853 Leonard
Athens Le Havre - New Orleans November 28 1853 Hubert, Spirlet
Samuel Radger Le Havre - New York December 5 1853 Georges
Globe Le Havre - New Orleans March 29 1854 Duparque
Moser Taylor Le Havre - New Orleans May 25 1854 Etienne, Evrard, Goffinet, Lanotte, Rogier, Tibessart
Monmouth Le Havre - New Orleans June 26 1854 Leclere, Lemaire, Leonard, Nicolay
Belle Assise Le Havre - New Orleans November 8 1854 Dupont, Etienne, Goffinet
Heidelberg Le Havre - New Orleans December 5 1854 Gringoire, Lagrange
Mary Le Havre - New York August 3 1855 Georges
Buena Vista Antwerp - Boston April 17 1856 Ducat
Lancaster Le Havre - New York March 15 1864 Georges

 
Names not found: Dauby (1854) Deom (1854) Foury (?)  Houlmont/Holman (1843) Jacques (1833/36)  Jacques (1854) Laurent (1854) Masson (1850/1854) Meunier (1850/1853) Morse () Naviaux (1852)


 

 

 

Tell City in the 1870's