Three Signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia Honored with Stone Markers, Oct 9, 2012

Award Winning Georgia Society Sons of the

American Revolution
Color guard

(L-R) Compatriot  Michael N, Henderson, LCDR USN Ret.
President -
 Button Gwinnett Chapter,
 Compatriot Edward Rigel,
 President
 Lyman Hall Chapter
 and
 Compatriot William Dobbs, 
President
George Walton Chapter

Be Sure To Double Click Highlighted Areas in RED for additional Information.

The Coastal Heritage Society held its annual Battlefield March to commemorate the 1779 Battle of Savannah this weekend.

Participants gathered at 7:15 a.m. in the parking lot of the Savanna Visitor's Center, and marched behind re-enactors to Battlefield Memorial Park. The route followed that of American and French soldiers who attacked British fortifications in the battle.

On October 9, 2012, many turned out to honor those who fought and died at the Battle of Savannah.  A brief ceremony took place on the battlefield, and included remarks by Coastal Heritage Society, a cannon salute from the 3rd Infantry Division salute battery and the placing of wreaths at the foot of the memorial.

Welcome and Introductions by Coast Heritage Society

Laying of Wreath by Various Lineage Societies

Afterwards,  a ceremony was held to honored the three signers of the Declaration of independence from Georgia, Button Gwinnett , George Walton and Lyman Hall with stone markers on Battlefield park in Savannah, Ga.

Compatriot N. Walker Chewning
Chairman
Historical Sites and Celebration Committee,
Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution

Compatriot Bruce Maney,
North East Region Vice- President
Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution
Holds a Proclamation Signed by
Georgia Governor
Nathan Deal

Presentation of Proclamation signed
 Governor Nathan Deal
and presented to
the Coast Heritage Society of Georgia
Chairman
Mr. Scott Smith

Compatriot   Michael N, Henderson, LCDR USN Ret.
 President -
 Button Gwinnett Chapter,
 Compatriot Edward Rigel, President - Lyman Hall
Compatriot William Dobbs,President - George Walton Chapter 

and the

World Class Georgia Society Sons of the

American Revolution 

Color guard

(L-to-R) Compatriots N. Walker Chewning, Michael N. Henderson,
Charlie Newcomer and Bruce Maney
Members of the Button Gwinnett Chapter SAR
onhand at Ceremony 

Compatriot   Michael N, Henderson, LCDR USN Ret.
 President -
 Button Gwinnett Chapter, Georgia Society Sons of the
American Revolution

 Later that morning I ventured over and visited Franklin Square to view another honored group of men  at the Haitian Memorial Monument.  While there, I was able to take a moment to remember the unselfish sacrifices for the cause of Liberty and Independence these men rendered to a country not theirs own.

"Chasseurs Volontaires"
Free men of color who
sailed from Saint Domingue

 

Learn more here: Savannah Under Attack 

Compatriot Michael Henderson
"A Living Memorial" and Descendant to
 four Louisiana Patriots of
the American Revolution

 As a descendant of American Revolutionary War Patriot, named Mathieu Devaux dit Platilla, who served in Spanish Colonial Louisiana under the Command of Governor General Bernardo de Galvez. I was honored when the Button Gwinnett Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution asked me to render honors by placing the wreath at a memorial, which honored those who fought and died at the Battle of Savannah, Ga October 9, 1779, 233 years ago.

It was great to also see on battlefield park, a stone marker.  Learn more here about: the Spanish Colonial Governor General, Bernardo De Galvez.

Stone Marker 

Button Gwinnett

Oct 9, 2012

Less than two weeks ago, I participated in a another Plaque unveiling ceremony for another Revolutionary War Patriot.  See here:  Galvez Plaque Unveiling in New Orleans, La 

      

While in Savannah, I visited the Old colonial park .

Entrance to Colonial Park
in Savannah, Ga.

Michael Nolden Henderson LCDR USN Retired

President

Button Gwinnett Chapter, Georgia Society SAR

A descendant of a patriot of the

American Revolution

Mathieu DEVAUX dit Platillo

    To learn more about my Louisiana Patriot of American Revolutionary War Mathieu DEVAUX dit Platillo, Click on his name.

UNVEILING OF NEW HISTORICAL MARKER - BERNARDO DE GALVEZ 27 Sept 2012

Spanish Colonial Louisiana
Governor-General
Bernardo de Galvez
(Photo by Michael Henderson)

On Thursday, September 27, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. many gathered for an Unveiling Ceremony of the New Historical Marker for The Statue of Bernardo de Galvez located at the foot of Canal St in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana.  

Various Organizations and representatives in attendance were as followed:  Button Gwinnett Chapter, Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution, New Orleans Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, General Philemon Thomas NSSAR, Louisiana Society NSSAR, Lady Washington Chapter, NSDAR, Canary Islander Heritage Society of Louisiana, Canary Islander Descendants Association, San Antonio, Granaderos y Damas de Galvez, TX, Houston TX, Galveston, TX, Jacksonville, Fl, Pensacola, Fl, San Antonio TX, Washington, D.C.

This day celebration was especially significant for both me and my mother Mrs. Frances Jane Henderson a (member of the New Orleans Chapter DAR) because of the important role Governor General Bernardo de Galvez played in our family’s ancestral history.  That story can be seen here in the PBS segment of the history detective titled:  the Galvez Papers

Here are a few photos captured of the day's event.

Michael Henderson, LCDR USN Ret-President Button
Gwinnett Chapter Georgia Society Sons of the American
Revolution and Mr. and Mrs. Joel Escamilla,
 Granaderos Governor-General and
Members the Granaderos y Damas de Galvez
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

Joel Escamilla,
 Granaderos Governor General
Addresses those in attendance
Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson

Mrs. Frances Jane Henderson, Member of the
New Orleans Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution
Mother of Michael N. Henderson, LCDR USN Ret.
President Button Gwinnett Chapter Georgia Society
Sons of the American Revolution shares with those in
 attendance the significance of Galvez's Contribution
 to his Louisiana Creole Ancestry
Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson 

Bernardo de Galvez
 played by
Mr. Robert Freeland
shares his appreciation of the
nearly forgotten Governor-General
Contribution to the American Revolution
Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson

(L to R) Compatriot Ike Edwards,
 President of the Gulf port Mississippi Chapter SAR
Mr. Bertin "Bert" Esteves, (Center)
 member of Canary Islands Heritage Society of Louisiana
and
Compatriot William Allerton,
Past State President of the Louisiana Society
Sons of the American Revolution
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

(L to R)Compatriot Clif Normard, LASSAR Registrar,
Compatriot Michael N. Henderson, LCDR USN Ret.
President Button Gwinnett Chapter Georgia Society SAR
Mrs. Frances Jane Henderson, Member of the New Orleans Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution,
Mr. Joel Escamilla, Granaderos Governor General
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

New Historical Marker
for the Statue of
 Bernardo de Galvez,
New Orleans, La.
(Photo by Mr. Michael Henderson)

Michael Henderson, his mother Frances Henderson
and several members of the
Canary Islands Heritage Society of Louisiana
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson) 

As We all Gathered
So to We all Remembered
The Contributions of the Spanish Colonial
Governor-General
Bernardo de Galvez
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

Michael Nolden Henderson, LCDR USN Ret
President
Button Gwinnett Chapter Georgia Society
Son of the American Revolution
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

After the Unveiling Ceremony, We all gathered at the Galvez restaurant located in the French Quarter of New Orleans for a few acknowledgments of thanks for the local support and coordination of this successful event.  Here are a few of those photos captured on this day.

Ms. Cynthia Henderson Future member of the DAR and her Mom,
Mrs. Frances Henderson, Member of the New Orleans Chapter,
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
 making their way over to the Galvez Restaurant
(Photo by Ms. Barbara Henderson)

Outside the Galvez Restaurant
(Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson)

A Tribute to Bernardo de Galvez
on the wall of the entry way of
the Galvez Restaurant
(Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson)

Part of the main Dinner room of the
 Galvez Restaurant
Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson

Friends gather at the Ceremony at the Galvez Restaurant
(Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson)

Robert Freeland, Morgana King
of the New Orleans Art Council
 Cliff Normand
Photo by Mr. Michael Henderson

Barbara Henderson
 my sisters
and a Future member of the DAR
Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson

Yes we were all glad to be present for this
 historical marker unveiling for
Bernardo de Galvez
Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson

Four Ladies of the
 Louisiana Society Daughter of the American Revolution
(L-to-R) Ruth Autin, Gerry Ryder, Frances Henderson, Carole Gloger
Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson

Ms. Morgana King, Member of the New Orleans
Arts Council who assisted with
Coordinating the unveiling Ceremony is Presented
with a certificate of Appreciation from Mr. Richard Whynot
Member of the Granaderos y Damas de Galvez
(Photo by Mr. Michael Henderson)

Robert Freeland who dressed as
The Spanish Colonial Governor-General
Bernardo de Galvez is presented with a
 Certificate of Appreciate  by Mr. Joel Escamilla,
Granaderos Governor General
(Photo by Mr. Michael Henderson)

Head chef of the Galvez Restaurant
is presented with a certificate of
Appreciation byMr. Richard Whynot
Member of the Granaderos y Damas de Galvez
(Photo by Mr. Michael Henderson) 

Galvez
(Photo by Ms. Cynthia Henderson)

Also as a follow-up was an article published by the Louisiana Times-Picayune Newspaper titled see here: 

See more on my award-winning Memoir titled: GOT PROOF! My Genealogical Journey Through the Use of Documentation  which links Galvez to my 4th Generation Great Grandparent Agnes Mathieu and Mathieu

A Few Reflections on my Discovery of Ancestors in French Colonial Louisiana

The video clip above was made a few years ago before I started documenting my ancestors whom I discovered lived during the French and Spanish colonial periods in Louisiana.  Interestingly enough, I have been successful in documenting many of those that I speak about in this video. One in particularly, was a French national, my 4th generation Great Grandfather by the name of Mathieu Devaux dit Platillo.

My discovery of him happened in a most interesting way and I will sharing part of that story in my new book titled,  Got Proof! My Genealogical Journey Through The Use Of Documentation .   I will keep you posted on the completion of the book which is due to be released soon. 

The Granaderos y Damas de Galvez

The Granaderos y Damas de Galvez  (Galvez Grenadier and Ladies)  is a non-profit, civic-patriot organization founded by Charles E. Barrera and Henry Guerra, San Antonio businessmen in 1975 in preparation for the U.S. Bicentennial Celebrations.  Eric Martel at that time the Spanish Consul General  in Houstan, Tx provided invaluable assistance.  Since then, the group has grown from the founding Chapter in San Antonio to include chaptersin Houston TX, Galveston TX, Jacksonville Fl, Pensacola Fl and Washington D.C.  The Organization welcomes opportunities to establish new chapters wherever there is interest.

The Mission of the Organization is to help educate the public about Spain’s substantial although generally little known contributions to the success of the American Revolution.  Members use every opportunity to expound on the life and accomplishments of  Bernardo de Galvez  , the namesake of the Organization.

Members includes professional and Amateur historians and educators who performed individual research, write articles and deliver speeches at public or private events.  Please see recent event held in New Orleans Louisiana for the Unveiling of the Unveiling Ceremony of the New Historical Marker for the Statue of Bernardo De Galvez on Sept 27, 2012.

 Also participates in civic-patriotic ceremonies and parades.  In most activities, wear Spanish colonial uniforms  and carry  the Betsy Ross colonial American flag  and the Burgundian Spanish colonial flag  to symbolize the collaborative efforts of General Georgia Washington and Bernardo de Galvez during the American Revolution war. 

Other photos of members in various uniforms:

Louisiana Colonial Document Project Underway

French and Spanish Documents
in
Storage boxes

Among the cultural and historical treasures in the custody of the Louisiana State Museum are some 70,000 handwritten records of the proceedings of colonial Louisiana’s French Superior Council (1714-1769) and Spanish Judiciary (1769-1803). Totaling almost a quarter million pages, the records have provided generations of historians, students, sociologists and genealogists with a rich source of data on New Orleans’s earliest days.

Here is a story of one Spanish Colonial  Louisiana document that also provided for a wonderful mystery on PBS program the History Detectives segment titled: click here:Galvez Papers 

In a race against time to save the antique documents, which in many instances are darkening, decaying and being eaten away by the acidic inks used in their creation, the Museum is re-housing the manuscripts and has committed itself to a multi-year, half-million dollar digitization and online publication project.

The project’s ultimate result will be a searchable online database of document scans and extant finding aids, freely accessible to anyone in the world with a web-enabled device. By making a tremendous body of source material readily available to researchers the world over, the project will offer up a fuller, more complete picture of daily life in colonial Louisiana, expand our knowledge of Louisiana history and culture exponentially, and provide new insight into our origins.

Because completion of the project is still several years away, the Museum is partnering with the LOUISiana Digital Library to publish some of the already-scanned documents online beginning in January 2012.

Known as LOUIS, and freely accessible at http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/, the LOUISiana Digital Library is a collection of digital resources—photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, music, oral histories, etc.—from dozens of Louisiana archives, libraries, museums and other repositories. 

Completion of the colonial documents digitization and online publication project will require sustained effort and several hundred thousand dollars in funding over the next few years. The Louisiana Museum Foundation (LMF), the Museum’s major non-profit donor support group, is soliciting supporters and seeking grants to complete the project and to provide for management of the new digital resources to be created.

The French Superior Council and Spanish Judiciary records tell thousands of individual stories which, taken together, document the daily life of Louisiana’s first permanent European and African inhabitants, and of their relations with allied and enemy Native tribes. They are a treasure-trove of information and their publication on LOUIS will put critical source materials dealing with Louisiana’s history and culture at the fingertips of researchers and genealogists and will build support for the larger effort.

For more information about this project or to sign up as a transcription/translation volunteer, contact the Louisiana State Museum’s Director of Collections, Greg Lambousy, at glambousy@crt.la.gov or 504-599-1946. To make a donation to the project, contact Anne Atkinson at the Louisiana Museum Foundation, aatkinson@thelmf.org or 504-558-0493.  You invited to view the Galvez Papers here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1575582583/?starttime=1176060    

My Earliest Known French and Canadian Ancestors

Paternal  Side                                       Maternal  Side

                                                                                                                                                 Gen.

Jean-de Celle Duclos and Collet Lagnot    Pierre LeMoyne  and Judith DUCHESNE                  9th

                          native                                                              natives 

                      Noria, France                      St Jacques, Dieppe Rouen,Normandie, France

                              |                                                                           |

                    (Progenitors                                                           (Progenitors

    Duclos/Poisson family in Canada)                    Messier dit St Michel/LeMoyner family in Canada) 

    Gabriel de Celle Duclos married                                  Michel Messier dit St Michel Married  

                 Barbe Poisson                                                   Ann LeMoyne                               8th                        
                    Nov 19, 1652.                                                        25 Feb 1658

                               |                                                                          |
     Gabriel Lambert Duclos      married            Anne Messier de St Michel                      7th                                         

                                                        Aug 26, 1687

                                                                  |

                                 Alexander Duclos  married  Elizabeth Philippe                              6th

                                                                      21 Nov 1735

Alexander Duclos and his wife Elizabeth Philippe’s see here: 1735 marriage contract was the oldest marriage document I'd recently discovered. The names of their parents listed in that record also provided me another generation of family members that I would be able to use in following back through on both the paternal (Duclos side ) and paternal (Messier de St Michel side).  And once again, I have made an interesting discovery.

  

There appears to be some previously documented special history attached to the Duclos and Messier de St Michel family lines that I hope to learn more about. However, finding my way back to my 8th Generation great Grandparents have led me to understand how these two families first started here in North American, New France (Quebec Canada region) in the Mid-17th century.  

It appears to have started through family ties and contracted marriages to two women who were discovered as being  members of the Les Fillles a marier.   In my previous blog posting, you can read more about these ladies under the tiled: Les Filles à marier 1634 à 1663 

Below are two women in my ancestral line, my 8th generation great grandmothers whose names were Ann LeMoine or LeMOYNE and Barbe POISSON.   A short bio about their lives and the men they married are also proved.

Maternal  Side:

Anne LeMOINE ( LeMOYNE) from Dieppe, Normandy arrived in Canada in 1657.  She perhaps arrived with her sister, Jeanne.  Her brothers Jacques and Charles Lemoyne appear to have been already in Montréal.  All children of an innkeeper, Pierre Lemoine, in Dieppe, Anne was the youngest of this group of children, being 19 when she arrived in Canada.

Her uncle, Adrien Duchesne (her mother's brother), had been a surgeon in Ville-Marie (Montréal) from the years 1631 to 1648, so Montréal was her destination.  First mention of her in Montreal is 12-29-1657 where she is a witness to her sister's marriage contract.
In February 1658, she married Michel Messier, a fur  trader. 

He seems to have come to New France with Chomedey de Maisonneuv’s contingent, which arrived at Ville-Marie in the middle of November 1653.  Various relatives were already in Montréal.  Although Messiers's name does not appear on the muster-roll of contract workers, he must have crossed the ocean with them, for on the 10th of December, 1653 he signed as a witness to the promise of marriage between his cousin, Catherine Thierry and Charles LeMoyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay, Anne Lemoine's older brother.

In the autumn of 1654, three years before Anne Lemoine's arrival in Montréal, a young Michel Messier was captured by the Iroquois; he was set free the following summer and taken to Ville-Marie by a Mohawk captain named La Grande Armée, in a prisoner exchange of sorts.

Subsequently, Messier became interested in land clearing, and on 11-4-1657, when he was 19, he bought from Charles LeMoyne, his soon-to-be brother-in-law, for 900 livres, a 30-acre piece of land called la provençale. On 2-18-1658 before the notary Bénigne Basset and in the presence of the notables of the town, he signed his marriage contract with Anne LeMoyne.

In 1661, after a short respite, the Iroquois raids on Ville-Marie started up again.  On March 24th, Michel Messier was again captured with a few settlers.  He now was the father of a two-year old daughter, and Anne LeMoyne was pregnant.    On June 22nd, eleven days after his second daughter was born, some Iroquois who had come to Montreal stated that Messier had been burned by the Onondagas and that they did not know whether he was still alive.  Life in Montréal was never simple.

But at the end of 1663, he was back again with his family after having made his escape.  In August of 1665, Anne LeMoyne had a third daughter.  In November of the same year, the Sulpicians signed over to him a 30-acre piece of land above the one that he already owned.  The 1667 census shows him as having 7 head of cattle and 30 acres under cultivation.  On 5-14-1668, Messier and his brother-in-law Jacques LeMoyne de Sainte-Marie received conjointly the fief of Cap-de-la-Trinité, which they divided between them on 8-1-1676.  Messier's portion was called Cap-Saint-Michel.

Above information taken from website Biography Canada, www.biographi.ca

Both Anne Lemoine and Michel Messier died in 1725 in Varennes... both were 87 years old.

Paternal  Side:  

Barbe Poisson was born about 1631 and died on January 7, 1711 in Montreal.  She married Leonard Lucault on October 12, 1648 and they had a daughter Marie born on July 01, 1650.  She grew up to marry Rene Cuillerier and gave birth to sixteen children.  Marie died on December 22, 1727 in Montreal.

Leonard Lucault died of injuries sustained in a raid by the Iroquois, on June 20, 1651; and Barbe then married Gabriel Celles on November 19, 1652.  Gabriel was born in 1626 at Nonant, Caen, Calvados, France; the son of Jean Celles and Colette Pagnot.  He arrived in the colony as a judge.

Barbe made a name for herself when in 1661, her husband was out working in the fields and the Iroquois launched another attack.  All those around watched the advancing Iroquois in terror, when Barbe sprang into action, grabbing an armload of guns and running with them to the men in trouble.  She reportedly said,  "I lost one husband to the Iroquois. I will not lose another".  According to Dollier de Casson's Histoire de Montreal:  "During an attack by 160 Indians in February 1661, only Le Moyne (De Loungeville) had a weapon with which to defend himself. Just as he was about to be captured he was saved by Mme. Celles Duclos, who brought him an armful of weapons."

Barbe and Gabriel had ten children before his death on November 15, 1671.    Return to click here: Finding Ancestral Proof on Paper and in Stone .