Follow the trials and tribulations of the de Générès and Allied families on a path that led them to settle in Louisiana during the 18th and 19th centuries in the new book “de Générès and Allied Families,” by Roland Anthony Gravois. The allied families are Abat, Antonini, Claiborne, Daboval, Damare, de Lesseps, Derbes, Druilhet, Gravois, LaCour, Malacher, Mayre, Morrison, Petit, Story and Theriot.
A genealogy of these seventeen connected families, this new book provides an example of the “melting pot” of many cultures in Louisiana, and the events that led them to their future homeland. Many of these families faced tragedy on their respective journeys such as Slave Insurrection in Saint Domingue, the English Deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, the French Revolution, and the Natchez Indian Massacre. Nevertheless, they overcame these complications to gain statehood in Louisiana, and are still there today.
Gravois states, “The hardest thing to do with a genealogy book is to make it interesting as well as factual.” The author has attained this goal by adding notes that describe the various hiccups in history the early members of the families had to overcome.
Gravois was born alongside the Mississippi River in Vacherie, Louisiana in 1927. He enrolled in Louisiana State University, where his education was interrupted by service in the Navy during World War II. He and his wife, Carmen, were college sweethearts and married after graduation. The name, Carmen, has been carried down for generations from ancestor Maria Del Carmen Ribas, Maria’s father, Mariano Ribas, was a Spanish soldier who chose to remain and settle in Louisiana.
“de Générès and Allied Families” is available in hardcover (ISBN 978-1-62137-090-1) from Virtualbookworm.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com. This book can also be ordered from most bookstores around the United States and United Kingdom. More information can be found at the author’s website, www.degeneresfamily.com.