The Didiers

While I was in St. Louis I had the opportunity to do some more geneaological research.  This time I was on the trail of information about the Didiers.  My mother’s mother’s father’s mother’s i.e. my great-great grandmother’s maiden name was Celestine Didier.  She was born c. 1850, presumably in Carondelet, Missouri (a town later incorporated into St. Louis proper).

My mom met her great-grandmother once when she was very young.  She remembers a small, not terribly pleasant old woman who spoke only French.

Somewhat by accident I located an entry for her recently in the 1860 federal census for Missouri.  In the entry her name was listed as “Celestine Didie” and her father’s name (I had never previously had any clues on her parents’ names) was listed as “Eassant Didie”.  I found that name somewhat unlikely.  French people of that time would, in all likelihood, have names from the calendar i.e. the names of saints who had saints’ days in the calendar.  To the best of my knowledge there was no St. Eassant.

I did a little research at the Jefferson Memorial Research Center and Library.  After a brief orientation on the holdings of the library and how to gain access to them, I began my investigation there.  I was quickly surrounded by a small crowd of researchers, both people who worked there and other amateurs, all offering their assistance.

As it turned out one of the library’s holdings was a city census for the city of Carondelet for the years 1857 and 1858 with an alphabetical index.  Sure enough, in the 1857 census there was Celestine Didier and her father and mother Hyacinth and Frances Didier.  My inference is that the Anglophone federal census taker transcribed the perfectly good French man’s name “Hyacinth” fairly credibly as “Eassant” while the no doubt Francophone Carondelet city census taker on hearing the name wrote it correctly.

Now I’m trying to pursue the Didiers further back through federal, state, and city censuses, city directories, and tax and voter registries.  I may also go to the St. Louis Archdiocese and see what they can come up with in the way of baptismal and marriage records.

The Didiers are interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that, according to family legend, it’s through that side of the family that we’re related to the Lacledes.  Pierre Laclede was one of the founders of St. Louis.