I don’t know much about the Benoits and Bergerons in my family tree.
My g-g-grandmother was a Benoit. Her mother was a Bergeron. G-G-Grandmother Benoit died long before my mother was born. She died of breast cancer, leaving a legacy of that particular form of cancer for her descendants.
What’s also interesting about Eugenie Ella Benoit Hebert (don’t you just love that name!) is her Uncle Jean Baptiste Homere Bergeron.
Homere – as no doubt he was called since his father was a Jean Baptiste – entered the world in 1844 and left it just 21 years later. He died of smallpox. How do I know that?
Homere entered the Union army. He served in the First Calvary. He was known as Omer. He was among 5,000 to 10,000 (http://www.knowla.org/entry/1425/) Louisianans who fought on the Union side during the Civil War.
Homere may have participated in the siege at Port Hudson. Thousands more from Louisiana joined the confederate side, including two men from the family into which Eugenie Ella married.
Exactly what the Bergerons thought of Homere’s choice is unclear. After his death, his mother received a pension from the federal government for her son’s military service.
louisianagenealogygirl 