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Joseph Camille Badarous was born in 1806 in the small village of St. Germain, located in the hills just north of the spectacular Gorge du Tarne in southern France. While in his teens, Camille attended college at the Academy of Montpellier, receiving his Baccalaureat es-Lettres degree in 1825. He then left southern France for Paris, where he studied medicine at the Academy of Paris, receiving his Diplome de Docteur en Medecine from that academy in 1830. Dr. Badarous was then 24 years old. While in Paris, he met and married Honorine de Rochefort, the daughter of a friend of His Majesty, King Louis Phillipe. Through this connection, he became Medicin de la Creche du Premier Arrondissement (Physician to the Institution for the Daily Reception and Care of Infants of Poor Working Women of Good Character). In February 1848 Paris rioted, Louis Philippe was dethroned and the Second Republic was declared under Louis Napoleon Bonepart. Camille's status changed instantly from a friend at court to fugitive from the people. His wife, Honorine, had died by this time and Camille left France forever, coming to America and New York City.
Pierre Auguste DeLaunay was also born in France -- in the Protestant enclave of Bolbec, in northern France. As a young man he also left his homeland, moving to one of the French plantations on the island of Haiti. In 1793 a revolt of the slaves who worked the plantations literally drove their French masters, including Pierre and his young family, into the sea where they hastily boarded ships and sailed off -- eventually sailing into Chesepeake Bay and landing at Baltimore. It was here that Pierre's daughter, Louisa Delaunay, met and married William Braderhouse. He worked in Baltimore as a locksmith. They were married at Baltimore's St. Paul's Protestant-Episcopal Church on 5 March 1818. Baltimore at this time was not a healthy place to live. The vast number of ships arriving at the dock each month brought diseases which flourished in the warm, moist climate of the city. A Yellow Fever epidemic swept through Baltimore in October 1819, killing William. Elise Braderhouse was born almost exactly at the time her father died. Loisa next married Francis Cresset in 1821, but he died of a stroke six months after their marriage. This marriage also produced a daughter, Emily Cresset. Louisa was now twice a widow and the mother of three young children. She left Baltimore to join her father in New York City. She died there about 1826, orphaning her daughters, including Elise.
Elise Braderhouse was placed by her grandfather into Miss Mary McClinachan's Boarding School on Bleecker Street in New York City. She eventually became a ward to Mr. Sidney Brooks, a wealthy New York Merchant. On 10 october 1850 the 43-year-old Dr. Camille Badarous and the 31-year-old Elise Braderhouse were married at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension. The following year, they booked passage to Panama and arrived in San Francisco on the steamer Northerner. In San Francisco, Dr. Badarous practiced medicine -- this time as an eye doctor. They became parents to two children, Helene Francoise Badarous and Sidney Brooks Badarous, both born in San Francisco.
Dr. Camille Badarous became acutely ill with pneumonia in the Spring of 1867 and he died in San Francisco on 30 May of that year. Elise mourned the loss of her dearly loved husband for two years. She married Mortimer Robertson towards the end of 1869. Elise Robertson died at the Episcopal Old Ladies Home on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco on 19 June 1918. She was in her 99th year.