Generally, genealogists insist that at least two evidences be produced to establish any fact. Some genealogists use a five point requirement for proof of fact.
The points are awarded as follows:
a. Primary evidence (eyewitness) 3.
b. Secondary evidence (usually supplied after the fact) 2.
c. Circumstantial evidence (often inferred) 1.
d. Lack of conflicting evidence 1.
Use of either process does not eliminate conflicting data, although the evidence produced soonest after the event generally is most accurate.
If we take as an example the birth of a child, the only eye witnesses are the mother and the midwife or attending physician. The birth registration is usually considered primary evidence even though the person reporting the birth was not an actual witness, but possible the father or other relative. Births were not always reported immediately after the occurrence. Midwives might wait until they had several births to report and mix the fact. Parents frequently reported two or more births at the same time, so that the older child might be three or four years of age.
Death certificates were almost always inaccurate in stating the ages of elderly people. They were also frequently inaccurate in stating the country or state of birth..
In Louisiana, church records of the nineteenth century placed saint names first and frequently omitted given names.
The researcher must examine all data and must use the most reasonable conclusion he can make.
The Duvernay name was associated with Louisiana from the founding of the colony. Paris Duvernay, one of five wealthy brothers who financed the armies of Louis XIV, was granted a concession in the colony in the area of White Castle. There is no evidence that he came in person to the colony.
The first Duvernays of record to come to Louisiana were Louis Joseph Duvernay, dit Dauphine, who was born at baye Evnirarost, Valencia, and who died in New Orleans on 23 May 1729 and Louis François Duvernay, who may have been Louis' son or brother.
Louis Francisco fathered a son, Antoine, by an Indian woman named Roseta (se ignora su appelida). He later married Anne Marie Faque and fathered a second son named Louis. All the Duvernays in Louisiana are descendants of Antoine and Louis.
Antoine, who was born in 1719 at the Natchez Post, came to New Orleans, where he married Louise La Prade (see Appendix F). They had six children.
| Born | Married | Died |
|---|---|---|
| Antoine, fils, 6 March 1756 | ||
| *Louise, 25 April 1758 | ||
| Andre, 17 June 1760 | ||
| Joseph*, 17 June. 1760 | 12 May 1834 | |
Louis married Rose Girardy. They had eleven children 1:
Joseph, the fourth child of Antoine and Louise LaPrade, never married, but he fathered a son by a slave woman named Rose, belonging to Marie Connard, widow of Jean-Louis Rixner. On 13 June 1794, Marie Connard sold the nine year old mulatto, named Joseph Moliere, to Joseph so he might free him..
Two months earlier, on 26 Apr. 1794, Marie Connard had sold Rose to François Fatime, a free man of color, for 500 piastres. On the same day, Fatime freed Rose and married her. On 9 June 1795, Rose purchased her eighteen year old daughter, Hyacinthe, from Marie Connard and freed her. It is believed that Joseph Duvernay was Hyacinthe's father. At any rate, he stood bond for the sale.
The manumission of Joseph Moliere did not occur until three years later on 6 Jun 1794 2. Joseph Moliere continued to live with Joseph in St. Charles Parish, where several documents attest to his involvement in the buying and selling of property.
Shortly after 1806, Moliere moved to New Orleans to live in a rear house on Joseph's property at 27 Rue Poydras.
Moliere later moved to a house in the rear of one owned by Aimee Duvernay and her husband, Mathieu Lartet in the fauburg St. Marie on the corner of Girod and Carondelet Streets.
He never married but had a number of children in common-law relationships with several women, none of whom is identified. At least one of these women was a slave.
Several documents list various of his children.
The first document was filed with the police jury seeking permission to free three of his natural children named Molliere, aged twelve years, Molliercine, aged fifteen years and Mary Rose, aged nineteen years. This document was filed in 1830.
The second document was a contract with Jean Glandon, a cigar maker, to apprentice Moliere, fils, his brother Antoine, and a griffe slave named John to him to learn the cigar making trade. The boys were to attend school and were to work for Glandon in their free time. This document was dated September, 1834 and was signed by Aimee Duvernay and Mathieu Lartet.
The third and fourth documents were the will and codicil of Molliere, dated 31 May 1845 and 11 Jun 1845 filed with Octave de Armas, notary public.
In these documents, Molliere recognized his five natural children name Marie, Marie Rose, Joseph, Jean, and Alzire, and named Mathieu Lartet as testamentary executor.
It is possible that Molliere, Mollierecine, and Antoine were other names for those cited in the will.
Moliere, fils, was born ca 18 Jul 1820 and died 12 May 1891.
On 6 Mar 1848, Molliere, fils, married Marie Gerese Brown (1821-28 Mar 1877).
Antoine Duvernay married Theresa Drouet.
The children on Molier, fils, and Marie Gerese Brown were::
| Births | Marriages | Deaths | |
| Aimee (Anna) | 8 Mar 1848 | 22 Mar 1876 Rodolph M. Labostrie | |
| Jean Robert | 19 Sept 1849 | 14 Nov 1874 Marie E. Gazut | 5 Jul 1895 |
| Joseph André | 12 May 1853 | ||
| Marie | 22 Aug 1854 | 22 Fed 1877 Isadore Hickey | |
| George Leopole | 12 Jan 1857 | 9 Jun 1881 Louisa Duvernay; 28 April 1902 Mathilda Carriau | |
| Theresa Pauline | 18 Feb 1859 | 25 Oct 1879 Z.W.Crane | |
| Molliere Reyes | 9 May 1882 | 4 May 1892 Octavia Lanoix | |
| Estelle J. 3 | 1864 | 25 Dec 1896 John Delpit | |
| Andrew B. 4 | 1865 | 6 Dec 1890 Leontine Duvernay | |
| Felicie | c. 1871 | ||
An indicated above, on 9 June 1881, George married Lousia Duvernay, the daughter of Henri Duvernay and Marcelin Durand. After Lousia's death on 28 April 1902, he married Mathilda Carriau. Andrew married Leontine Duvernay, another of Henri and Marcelin's daughters.
Charles Duvernay, a son of Moliere Reyes Duvernay and Octavia Lanoix, married Alice Duvernay, a daughter of Mandeville Duvernay and Letitia Louisa Carriau. Thus we find a number of intermarriages between two Duvernay families.
A second family of Duvernays (f.p.c.) was headed by Francois "Bonhomme" Duvernay, who was born about 1790, the son of Joseph Duvernay (the father of Joseph Moliere) and Mariana Decoudreau, a free woman of color. He was born in St. Charles Parish.
On 8 December 1810, he married Heloise Laby (also Labie), the daughter of Magdalene de Villiers. They had eight children, Lucien (7 Jan 1813), Francois (1815 - 3 Oct 1862), Joseph, Louis (12 Dec 1819 - 5 Oct 1871), Charles (9 Sep 1822), Marcel (2 Nov 1824), Louisa and Marie Marguerite (21 Oct 1829).
Francois "Bonhomme" Duvernay died in Sep 1830 and Heloise Laby died 26 Jul 1861.
Our immediate family also originated in St. Chalres Parish and represented a coming together of the two branches of the Duvernay family. Francois, the son of Louis Duvernay and Rose Girardy, married Louise Felicité Duvernay, the daughter of Antoine Duvernay and Louise LaPrade. They had a son, Joseph, born in 1796 and died 15 Nov 1828.
Joseph had two sons, Antoine, born 25 Dec 1822, and Henri Baptiste, born ca 1827 in Plaquemine Parish. The mother of both boys was a slave named Josephina.
It is not known when Henri cam to the New Orleans area. He does not appear in the census of 1850 but does appear in Soards City Directory of New Orleans. He lived on Upperline Street and was a cooper.
The first record of Henri was his application for a marriage license to marry Marcelite Durand, the nineteen year old daughter of Francois Durand and Marie Theresa Ferrand. Francois was dead so only Marie signed permission for her minor daughter to marry. This license application was made on 28 April 1851. The marriage took place the following day at St. Alphonse Catholic Church.
Neither record lists Henri's parents.
Henri, a master cooper, and Marcelite established their home on Upperline Street near Laurel Street, which at that time was in Jefferson City, Jefferson Parish. In 1870 the area became a part of the city of New Orleans.
Henri and Marcelite had nine children:
Also in their household lived Louise, Henri's youngest sister, born in 1844, died 16 Jul 1905.
Henri died on 16 April 1887 of heart disease, at 550 Howard Street in New Orleans. Marcelite died 19 Mar 1906 at 3005 Saratoga Street. Her death certificate gave her age as eighty-three years, but she was actually seventy-five years of age.
Mandeville Duvernay, the second child of Henri and Marcelite Duvernay, was also a cooper. Both men worked for A. Thompson and company for their entire working lives.
At the age of twenty-four years, on 14 Sep 1878, Mandeville married Letitia Louisa Carriau, aged twenty-one. The ceremony took place at St. John the Baptist Church.
Mandeville and Letitia had eleven children:
Letitia Carriau disliked her name because the children of non-French background mispronounced the name badly. No one used the English pronunciation. She therefore dropped her first name and used Louisa.
When mother was born, one of Louisa's friends wanted to be the god mother and asked to be allowed to name her. She wanted to surprise them with the name of a nun she knew. She thought the name was beautiful.
Imagine Louisa's surprise when, after the christening, she found that the baby was name Letitia Leona. Needless to say, mother also dropped her first name and used only "Leona".
Not long after their marriage, Mandeville and Louisa built a double house (duplex) at 3316-18 South Liberty Street with a small rear house. Most of their children were born there and several died at that address. It was also the place of my birth. Mandeville died there on 28 Nov 1917. Letitia Louisa died at 2510 Jena Street on 17 Mar 1927 at sixty-nine years of age.
My mother, Letitia Leona Duvernay, married Frederick Joseph Dumas (Sr.) on 11 Dec 1912. Audrey Mae, my sister, was born 20 Sept 1914 and I was born 23 Feb 1916. Frederick, Sr. died 2 Sept 1916 in Plattesburg, N.Y., where he was working. He was interred in New Orleans.