ANCESTORS of IRVIN JOSEPH ROME
My
father-in-law, Irvin Joseph ROME, was one of the inspirations for this
genealogy. Born in Lutcher, Louisiana,
in 1918, he came of age during the Great Depression, saw action in Europe
during World War II as a Group Supply and Engineering Officer with the 406th Fighter Group,
and experienced the untimely deaths of six of his eight children from a variety
of illnesses and accidents. Yet he still
managed to retain the generous spirit, kind heart, and above all, faith in God, that he was known for throughout his life. He started me on the path of both making wine
and studying family history and genealogy.
He spoke often about his years growing up in Louisiana, and I visited
his sisters in Destrehan with my wife Linda, and learned to love Louisiana
cooking. When I started learning about
the history of the pioneer families of Louisiana, I was fascinated by their
stories of survival in the completely foreign environment they were thrown
into. They were survivors, and when I
thought about these families, I often pictured Irvin as one of them. I think he would have fared well.
Irvin Joseph ROME died in
Madison, Wisconsin, on Nov. 18, 2000, at the age of 82, with his two children
beside him. His ashes were interred
alongside his wife and two children on Memorial Day weekend, 2001, at the Calumet
Park Cemetery in Merrillville, Indiana.
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OTHER
ROME and ST. CYR FAMILY PICTURES
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I’ve always
loved history. I studied European
History at Allegheny College, and got a
minor to go with my major in chemistry.
But I never had looked at personal history much. Then one day in 1999 my 9th
grader, who was studying World War II at the time, asked me if he was related
to Erwin Rommel, the great
German general. “It’s possible,” I said,
“but I don’t think we can prove it.”
That started me into the hobby I have enjoyed since then, genealogy. I started with the family of my
father-in-law, the ROMEs of Louisiana.
Knowing some of the general history - the story of the John Law
colonists and their settlement in Louisiana - I searched the Web, asked naïve
questions, and then went to the local Historical Society
Library. Just about a year later I
had a genealogy of the extended ROME/ROMMEL family from Louisiana. About 2 years later I had done considerably
more to recreate a picture of the communities through the marriages and
children of these families. I have never
answered the question about Erwin Rommel.
From everything I have seen, it is unlikely
that the families of the field marshal and Johannes ROMMEL were closely related
in the 16th century. Perhaps
that will come later. Today it is
possible, through DNA mapping, to demonstrate relationships through the male or
female lines of families. I would love
to have a male ROMMEL who can trace paternity to the male ancestors of Erwin
ROMMEL submit DNA for a comparison to a male ROME descendant.
I can
demonstrate relationships of the Destrehan ROME family to several people who
were reasonably famous in the sports world.
My children are 9th cousins to the father of Brett FAVRE,
long-time quarterback of the Green Bay Packers; and 10th cousins to
the mother of Jake DELHOMME, a journeyman quarterback who played quarterback
for the Carolina Panthers in the 2003 Super Bowl.
Along the way
I received help from a number of people, and I’d like to acknowledge some of
them here. I am sure there were others
whom I haven’t listed - be assured no slight is intended. Besides the authors of numerous texts and Web
sites, I would like to thank Darlene Becnel Schnatz for helping me to get started in this endeavor;
Steve Fleming for his excellent site and discussions concerning the wives of
Antoine LEROUX; Joe Hebert, Tim Stuart and Tim Hebert for their advice,
information, and websites about the Acadians; Dwayne Montz and Jay Schexnaydre for
discussions of the Louisiana sacramental records and other aspects of family
history. I met Jean-Jacques Prenoveau in 2006 in Montreal; Jean-Jacques has done extensive
work on the descendants of Mathieu ROUILLARD and Jeanne GUILLET. I have found that most genealogy researchers
are willing, even eager, to share what they know, and I have benefited
enormously from this exchange.
My primary
source of published information has been the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
and I would like to acknowledge them and thank the many donors who have made
this library possible.
Organization - The ancestors of Irvin ROME in
Louisiana can be grouped into several broad categories, and that’s how I’ve
presented them below. There were the
early German Coast and New Orleans area colonists,
many of whom came to work on the John Law
Concession and other enterprises in Louisiana. This includes the ROMMELs, from whom the
ROMEs take their name. I’ve grouped with
the John Law colonists some other early colonists in the New Orleans and
Mississippi River area. There are a few ancestral families who are only found in Europe,
ancestors of the German Coast families.
This information was mostly obtained from the very helpful German Coast Families by Albert J. Robichaux Jr. There
are many Acadians, ancestors of Francina DUHON, Irvin’s paternal grandmother. Other French
Canadians from Quebec were ancestors of Elia ST.
CYR, Irvin’s mother. The LECHE, KELLER
and PERCLE families were Alsatian immigrants of the
1750s. There were a few families
from early Mobile, AL, and a number of 18th century Louisiana and Mobile soldiers
are to be found. I have not been able to
trace the origin of several families.
Help with the ancestries of Pierre ARROUETTE (Nantes, France?), Nicolas
BAUDOIN (France), Catherine BEAUPAIN (Germany), Jean MILLET (Quebec), Francois
DESCARREAUX (Quebec), Louis GREGOIRE (Malta?) and Noel WELLS (Pennsylvania?)
would be particularly welcome.
References - Nearly all my
“facts” are referenced to sources. To
avoid repetition and save space, I have used abbreviations for many of the
sources I consulted. The references
document contains most of the publication information that should allow you to
find the data I used in constructing my genealogies. Where no references are given, the fact is my
own speculation, or I have lost track of the source.
In the files,
ancestors of Irvin Joseph ROME are marked with IR,
ancestors of Juanita Rita FREDERICK are marked with JF, ancestors of Joseph Emile BLUM are
marked JEB, ancestors of Buddy Keller are marked
BK.
European Ancestors: Allemand, Altorfer, Byler, Cardineau, Debes, Edinger, Garnault, Geisser, Giraud, Glasser, Grill, Haberling, Hoffine, Hoffstetter, Kirschner, Langler, Nicasie, Rousonne, Schnarberg, Schneider (Marx), Seidler, Ulrich, Weidler
German Coast/New Orleans Colonists: Arrouette,
Barbier, Bayer, Beaupain, Brou, Callender, Castan, Champion, Cuvillier, Diederich/Frederic, Dreyer, During, Fabvre, Foltzloger, Fronberger, Gregoire, Heidel/Haydel, Huber/Oubre, Kautzen, Keime, Larmusiau, Marck/Marx, Matterne, Mayer (George),
Mayer (Martin), Omstead/Amstead, Philippeau, Picou, Poche, Poupon, Rausch, Rommel/Rome, Rous/LeRoux, Schauff
(Anne-Barbe),
Schoff (Adam), Sevenin, St. Paul, Steeger/Steiger, Trager/Tregre, Volmar, Weber/Webre, Wells
Mobile AL French: Alexandre/Chenet, Assailly/Assayer, Brette, Perrot, Praux,
Roy
Louisiana and Mobile
Troops: Barbay, Baudoin, Baumgartner/Panquerne, Billouin, Brignac, Conioin, de Villiers, Fonteneau/Fontenot, Gerlach, Gotolais, Guth,
Henry (Jan), Katterer, Lavigne, LeBouvdonne, Martin (Jeanne), Perigaud, Perioux/Perillou, Pradeau/Prido, Steiger/Stayer, Straub, Tienne, Turpin
1750s Alsatian
Immigrants: Belspetren, Burckel/Percle, Heil, Keller, Leche/Laiche, Vanhausin, Waguerly
Quebec French
Canadians: Cartignier, Chaviot, Colombiers, Couteau, Daniau, Descarreaux, Gripon, Guillet, Hardy, Hery, Menard, Millet, Morant, Planton, Rouillard/St. Cyr,
St. Pere,
Trottain, Vanier
Acadians and their Parents: Aucoin (Jeanne and Michelle), Bernard (Marie), Blanchard (Jean), Boudrot (Michel)/Boudreaux, Bourgeois (Jacques), Canol, Carsonne, Chaumoret, Chebrat, Clemenson, Corbineau, Cormier, Corporon, Desloges, Doiron, Doucet (Germain I), Dugas (Abraham I), Duon/Duhon, Gaudet, Gauthier, Gautrot, Girouard, Gougeon, Guyon, Hebert, Lambert (Radegonde), Landry (Rene the Younger), LeBlanc (Daniel), LeFranc, Lejeune (Catherine and Edmee), Peraud, Peyrieu, Rau, Savoie, Soland, Theriot, Trahan, Vincent
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Research
for these genealogies was done largely at the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Library in
This
page was last updated on 06/06/2011.