The Cerre line of your mother's family has been difficult to trace. No one named "Cerre" appears either in the records of early Louisiana or among the refugees fron Saint-Domingue.
The name "Serre" does appear with the arrival of Susan Elizabeth Joublet dit "Serre" from Port au Prince c 1809. She had been born in 1791 and died 8 Dec 1833 leaving one son, Joseph. It appears unlikely that she would have left another living son who would not have been mentioned in her succession.
The first record, thus far discovered, is the listing of Theodule Cerre as a cigar maker at 144 Dauphin Street in the 1851 New Orleans City Directory.
Oral history indicates that the Cerres lived either in St. Bernard Parish or in Gentilly, a suburb of New Orleans. Since the girl he married lived on Bayou St. John, Theodule most probably lived in Gentilly. The distance from the heart of the city and from the St. Louis Cathedral may account for the failure of this family to record vital records.
The best reconstruction I can make, at this time,is that Theodule Cerre was born c 1820 and married Marie Mathilda Rivard c 1842. Both were about twenty-two years of age.
They had at least eight children:
Death records do not reveal when Theodule died. Marie, as previously stated, died 8 Feb 1892.
Louis Cerre, the fourth child of Theodule and Marie, was also a cigar maker. On 12 Jun 1880, he married Zuline Terrade who died 9 Sep 1884. They had three children:
| Births | Marriages | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Louise, 1880 | ---Latoria | 7 Oct 1913 |
| James Felix, Dec 1880 | 7 May 1881 | |
| Joseph |
Louis then co-habited with Felicie Pujol, who bore him nine children. During that time, he also fathered another child, Reta, born on 8 Nov 1882. Her mother was Rosalie Ferrouillet.
The children of Louis Cerre and Felicie were:
Both Louis Cerre and Felicia Pujol were ill with tuberculosis when then decided to legitimize their relatioship. They were married 17 Jan 1900. Louis died two months later on 17 Mar 1900 and Felicie died a year later on 22 Mar 1901.
The Cerre family had resided at 2419 Dumaine Street with Felicie's mother, Sophie Soudé and step-father, Ernest Durel. It is not known how long after Felicie's death the children remained there, but an aunt, Ann Marie Cerre, agreed to take the five children.
Ann Marie may not have been married when the children went to live with her. She married Louis Fouché on 5 Dec 1908. The children remembered her as overly strict and even mean.
Finally Elvina took her younger sister, Anna, to the Holy Family Orphanage to see about placement there. The orphanage was so cold and forbidding that she took Anna away and arranged for her to live with some elderly "cousins" named Nicholas.
The Nicholas family was headed by the father Colin Louis Nicholas (1837- 11 Oct 1902) who died shortly before Anna came to live with them at 1618 Ursuline Street. Mrs. Eulalie Nicholas, aged 52 in the census of 1900 and her children remained. The children consisted of Louis Colin (30), Etienne (28), Angelina (25), Joseph (22), Louise (24), Mathilda (23), George (20), and Philomaine (14).
The oldest son Louis Colin died 27 Oct 1908. Only Philomaine got married when she was of age. The other adult children remained in the house until, one by one, they passed away.
Olivia Cerre married Charles Walker on 2 Dec 1905. Shortly thereafter, Leonore arranged to rent a room for herself, Elvina, and Louis to get away from the repressive atmosphere of their aunt's home. She got a job to support them. She married Medelice La Bostrie on 24 Oct 1908 with the understanding that she had to support her siblings.
Anna's life with the Nicholas family was quite an improvement. They lived in a large French-style house. Most houses were built on lots with a 28 or 30 foot frontage. The depth of the lot was 150 ft. Therefore, the houses were built in a shotgun fashion. The rooms in this house were larger than usual, about fifteen feet square. The ceilings were ten feet high. A porch ran along the depth of the house with a door leading into each room.
Another large building was in the rear. This building housed the main kitchen, several bedrooms, and on the second floor a huge library. A small kitchen was also located in the front building.
After your mother and I were married, she took me to meet the family - or rather she took me to be presented to Louise. Although some of the furnishings had been given to the church, it was the first time that I had seen such massive furniture and, indeed, I have never seen such furniture since except at Hearst Castle and in European castles.
The beds were regular sized beds but stood high enough to accomodate tundle beds beneath them. Steps were required to reach the main bed. The huge, ornate, four-posters almost reached the ten foot ceilings. Great armoirs, exquisitely carved, provided storage. The dining room table could easily accomodate twelve people with high-backed, carved chairs for seating. Along the walls, great groaning boards provided space for huge meals. All the furniture in the house was made of oak.
When I made my visit, the books in the library were gone - donated to the seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Your mother had seen the library when the books were still there and said she was so impressed by the thousands of books on shelves which reached the ten foot ceilings. She said it was the first private library she had ever seen with a ladder which rolled along the shelves. The books in the library were largely written in French, although some were in English.
It was into this environment, as an only child, with nine doting adults that Anna moved from the overly strict cruelty of her aunt to a princess status.
Anna completed high school and became a teacher in a parochial school. Anna married Ferdinand J. Montegut, Jr. on 5 Jul 1921. They had one child, Annette Rose Montegut, born 13 Dec 1921. Anna died 4 Jul 1930.