Happy New Year to the Vidrine Family!

2017 marks the 250^th anniversary of the death of Jean Baptiste François Tisserand De Moncharvaux, the father of Elisabeth De Moncharvaux and maternal grandfather of the Vidrine Family in LA.

He was born in 1695 in the Parish of St. Pierre, Diocese of Langres, France. After serving in the French Marines in Flanders and Canada, he was sent to serve in Louisiana, arriving in New Orleans in March 1731.

He was first given command at the Post of Pointe Coupée, LA in 1731. (Interestingly, this is where his daughter, Elisabeth De Moncharvaux and her husband, Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Vedrines would first settle after the French lost the War in 1763.)

A few years later in 1733, he was put in charge of a small fort just erected at Cahokia in Upper LA (IL). At some point, he met Marie-Agnès Chassin (granddaughter of Marie Rouensa) and married her on February 11, 1737 at Kaskaskia, IL. (His first wife, Marie-Louise de Vienne and three sons had died in shipwreck on the way to meet him from Canada to IL).

From 1739-1748, he served as Commandant of the Arkansas Post near the mouth of the Arkansas River. While there, his daughter Elisabeth de Moncharvaux was born on April 22, 1744 and baptized on July 10. In 1748, he was appointed Captain and was given command of the royal convoy up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, LA to the Illinois country, which he also led in 1749. In late 1751, he was commanding at the Kaskaskia Fort. In 1757, he was stationed on the Missouri River. (It was during this time that one of his officers, Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Vedrines, married his daughter, Elisabeth De Moncharvaux on October 10, 1758 at the chapel of St. Anne of Fort Chartres, IL.)

After the French loss the War in 1763, he returned to France. (This was the same year his daughter Elisabeth de Moncharvaux and her husband, Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Vedrines moved to Lower LA at the Pointe Coupee Post.)

Jean Baptiste François Tisserand De Moncharvaux died June 14, 1767 at the Hotel Dieu (Hospital), Paris, France. (One irony is that this is the oldest hospital in Paris, founded by the Bishop, St. Landry in 651. The same year De Moncharvaux died at the Hotel Dieu, his daughter and son-in-law and their children were living at the Opelousas Post in LA, which just a few years later would be known as St. Landry Parish.)

You can read more about Jean Baptiste François Tisserand De Moncharvaux from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography:

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tisserant_de_moncharvaux_jean_baptiste_francois_3E.html