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- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130673814/michel-emonet
- No Grave Marker Available
Married Adelaide Aglea Duplechin June 18, 1846 in St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana - Church Record Volume 1 Page 162; St. Landry Parish Courthouse Marriage Records #222
Buried in St. Francis Regis Catholic Church Cemetery, Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, USA - Church Record Volume 1 Page 24
Source - Southwest Louisiana Records by Rev. Donald Hebert
- Michel Emonet was born in Megeve, Savoie, France in 1816. He was the last of seven children of Gabriel-Marie Emonet (1777-1835) and Marie Francoise Conseil (1774-1844). Siblings were M. Lucie, M. Melanie, M. Febronie, Eleonore, Placide, Prosper A. He had the urge to travel and wrote to his cousin, Joseph Conseil, in America. He waited in Bordeaux, France for the ship, La Zone, which was due to leave 1 June 1842. The crossing of the Atlantic was expected to take two months. This great urge to travel to America for a better life had him leave without saying goodbye to his mother, a widow, which would haunt him throughout his life. The ship arrived in Tampico, Mexico and after awhile there he made his way to Louisiana. He wrote letters through the years to family in France, detailing his life in Louisiana (marriage to his Creole wife, Adelaide "Aglee" Duplechain, births of his 9 children and the loss of one, the strife of the Civil War, the floods that devastated the farmlands and ruined the farmers lives and the diseases that took so many lives as well). His brother, Prosper, joined him in Louisiana ~1850, leaving his wife Rosine in France. Prosper's health was not good however, and he died in 1856.
Michel always had hopes of making enough money to travel home to France, but the desperate times he lived in did not afford him that luxury. As his family grew, he needed to be there for them, always trying his best to earn money. He was a teacher, and also ran a dry goods store in Pecaniere, Louisiana, building a home on the Bayou Teche (which was on higher ground fortunately). He was the postmaster in Leonville, Louisiana per his letter dated 2 May 1859. He was a farmer, raising cotton and corn, and sometimes other crops as weather conditions permitted. Life was very hard for all of them but they persevered, because they had to.
Michel was never able to return to France to see his family. He exchanged letters and pictures, often sending via others that traveled back. But mail by ship alone took a long time and he lamented in his letters about not hearing word from his siblings.
Michel died at the age of 60 in September 1876.
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1816 - 1876 (59 years)