Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Védrines arrived in the Louisiana Territory in 1743 as Junior Officer of the Compagnies franches de la Marine. Unlike other former Marines, he would never return to France. Instead, he married a native of Kaskaskia, Il, Elisabeth de Moncharvaux while serving at the Fort de Chartres, IL, and they would eventually make their home at the Opelousas Post in Louisiana, where they would both die and were buried, establishing the Vidrine Family in Louisiana.
