DEBORAH CORRAO / L’Observateur / October 20, 1999

A family feud in 19th century France has sparked a 20th century friendship that spans the Atlantic Ocean.

Lynn Louque, 47, a former resident of Reserve and descendant of the Luminais family, became very interested in tracing his genealogy back to its French origins a couple of years ago.

Louque, son of the former Joan Luminais of Reserve, is now a chemist living in California. His aunt, Helen Luminais Williams, had traced thefamily tree to Bouin, France, the home of her ancestor Anacharsis Luminais, the first sheriff of St. John Parish. Louque wanted to know why his family had left France.

Little did Louque or Helen Williams know but, across the ocean another woman, Claudine Francheteau, a historian from Pomic, was also researching the Luminais family – but for a quite different reason.

Francheteau, a professor of music, had discovered her ancestors were Royalists who violently oppressed the Republicans, among them the Luminais. She became interested in the Luminais’ part in the revolution ofVendee (Pays de Retz, 1793-98).

It was started as a reaction to the draft imposed by the French revolutionary government and it’s policy of replacing Roman Catholic priests with clergy loyal to the Republican cause. After the execution ofLouis XVI, Loyalists took this opportunity to incite a general revolt which would eventually take the lives of about 300,000 people, as much as one- third of the population of Brittany.

It was one of the factors which caused a large immigration from that area to the Americas, both during the war and then during the Restoration’s White Terror reaction to supporters of the Republic and Napoleon’s empire.

One of Napoleon’s first tasks as First Conseil was putting down this revolt. The term “guerilla war” is derived from the french “guerre laVendee,” which meant to fight in the hit and hide tactics of the “brigands” there in western France.

Laurent Alexandre Luminais (1756-1813), father of Anacharsis, was a lawyer, revolutionary judge and Mayor of Bouin. He built the first publicschool in that town and also built a series of levees, canals and roads. Heand his wife were imprisoned by an ancestor of Claudine Francheteau after the fall on Napoleon.

When Claudine Francheteau visited the town hall in Bouin about four years ago to research the Luminais family she was given the letter written by Helen Williams. It wasn’t long before she contacted Williams and hernephew to find out what they had discovered about their ancestor.

Helen Luminais Williams’ great-great grandfather, Anacharsis, had left France in 1816, along with his two brothers, three years after the death of his father. One of his brothers settled in Boston, another in Martinique.Anacharsis Albanne Luminais, the forefather of the Louisiana Luminais family, settled in St. John Parish. He married Jeanne Clara Trouard, andthey had 18 children, nine of whom survived. Seven of them were known tohave married and had children.

A lawyer, Anacharsis Luminais spoke and wrote English, Spanish, French and Breton. As a result of an inheritance he owned many estates in Franceuntil his death in 1867.

He was appointed deputy sheriff of St. John the Baptist Parish in 1826 andelected sheriff in 1828, where he served for 26 years.

His uncle, Rene, a friend and contemporary of General Lafayette, was honored by the general and made Chevalier of Honor for his service in defense of Nantes against Royalist counter-revolutionary forces.

When Lafayette visited New Orleans in 1824 he played cards with Anacharsis until the wee hours of the morning, reminiscing about France.

The card table where they played is part of the museum collection in New Orleans.

Anacharsis, once challenged to a duel, chose the double-bladed French war ax as his weapon. A man who stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, he was animposing presence at a time when the average height of most men was a little less than a foot shorter. The challenger never showed up.Four of his sons served the Confederacy during the Civil War. FrancoisLuminais married the niece of P.G.T. Beauregard, the general who took FortSumter, thus starting the Civil War. That war spread the Luminais familyaround the United States.

Alexander married the great-granddaughter of Pierre Trepagnier, builder of Ormond Plantation, who disappeared mysteriously after breakfast one morning in 1794. Alexander is the direct ancestor to most of the localLuminais family.

Louque set off for France to meet the French historian and visit the home of his ancestors. He traveled to the Retz country and met the Mayor Bouin.where he discovered that Geraldine Francheteau, Claudine’s daughter, was painting a portrait of his grandfather Raoul “Happy” Luminais.

Louque also discovered that Claudine had traced the Luminais family back to 1602. The first Luminais to come to the United States, a merchant andslave trader, came in 1699 and was involved in the Trade Triangulaire between France, the United States and the Caribbean.

Anacharsis’ uncle, Rene Luminais, was the last in the line of slave traders.

That side of the family became commercial farmers.

Claudine and Geraldine visited the United States this summer, beginning in California to meet Lynn Louque. Louque drove them to Louisiana to meetmembers of the Luminais family in Reserve.

Claudine Francheteau has finished her research and plans to publish a book next year on the Revolution in Bouin and the Luminais’ part in the fight.

Lynn Louque is writing a book on the commercial interests of the Luminais from 1720 to 1860. He had planned to publish about mid-summer of 2000,but has met the grandson of the famous French painter, Everite Luminais, so he says he’s rewriting with a different outlook.

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