The deGruy Family
My family always spelled our surname as above. But through the years, there have been many different spellings of deGruy. Here are some of the deviations:
Degruy, DeGruy, DeGruise, Degruiz, DeGruÿs
The first deGruy that I can trace to the new world was Jean Baptiste Antoine Valentine Dumenil DuFouchard Verloin deGruy. He was a young French officer who came to the Louisiana territory in the mid 1700's. During that time in history, France held a major foothold in North America. The French military officers were sent to Louisiana to keep order and maintain France's presence in the New World.
Antoine was an explorer and is known to have lived in what was called Illinois Country, Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartes, about 50 miles south of present day St. Louis. Records indicate that Antoine had married Marie Therese Aufrere of Illinois, and that they purchased land in that area.
Most of the older records were uncovered by a distant cousin, Bonnie Wood. This link will take you to the information Bonnie has found: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=beebeewood&id=I2067
After Antoine's death (about 1759), Marie Therese remarried and moved to south Louisiana with her new husband and her children by Antoine, daughter, Marie-Therese and sons: Jean-Baptiste, Joseph Francois, Antoine, Hyacinthe and Pierre.
For many years, Antoine's descendants lived along the Mississippi River in the vicinity of the 1st Côte des Allemands (the German Coast), St Charles Parish.
The second generation of deGruy's settled and spread out in Louisiana, across St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and Jefferson Parishes.
Joseph and Jean Baptiste were actively engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Pre-civil war south Louisiana saw many planters accumulate large plantations producing thousands of pounds of sugar a year. The DeGruy plantation, housed one of the most innovative sugar houses of the area, in that it was a round building. There is a drawing from 1834, by John H.B. Latrobe, owned by the Historic New Orleans Collection depicting the round sugarcane mill house believed to be on the DeGruy plantation. "Zimple's Map of 1834", shows the location along the Mississippi River of the deGruy Plantation. I believe Joseph Francois and his brother Jean Baptiste may have owned the property together.
In 2001, I ran across a book in the library in Salt Lake City that contained two hand written letters, in French, from Odille Derbes deGruy, the first to her aunt and the second to a cousin in Toulon, France. I was then lucky enough to be able to find a French club in Texas (the brother of a friend of a friend was a member) who tackled the job of translating the letters. Follow these links to read the translated copies of Oldile's letters.
French Flag
Credits / References:
Historic New Orleans Collection
"Historic Jefferson Parish, from Shore to Shore", Betsy Swanson
"Saint-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands", Glenn R. Conrad
Baton Rouge Diocese and Arch-Diocese of New Orleans Church
Records