Histories

New Orleans family mysteries:

• John McMillen, the second husband of Barbara Klipfel. Her first husband (Charles Fields) was apparently a drunk who died young. And then John McMillan died relatively young as well. He was from "State of New York," according to several vital records. According to his daughter Ellen's 1880 census, he was from New Jersey. In any event, who was his family? (Query updated 2025)

• Caroline Rebecca Simmons. It was hard just to find her maiden name. One of the only places it seems to occur is on the death certificate for her son Alfonse Gamard Jr. Her own death certificate says that she was from Charleston, South Carolina. Did her family move to New Orleans when she was young, or did she move there after being married? (Query updated 2023)

• There are two different Couret families on the tree: might they be related? One, the family of Jean Bernard Couret, is traceable back to France (thanks to the work of a Couret relative). But there is a second group, the family of Jean Louis Couret, who was also born in France; his daughter Marie Octavie Couret married into the Gelpi family, who are related to the DeGranges. Were Jean Louis Couret and Jean Bernard Couret at all related? (Query updated 2023)

Mysteries in Acadiana parishes (and westward into Texas):

• Who were the parents of William Chisholm Tomlinson? According to a history of his son the Civil War veteran Augustus A. Tomlinson (who moved over to Texas), he "came from Georgia." There are Tomlinsons and Chisholms who lived in Jefferson Co., Georgia? William's sons were born in Louisiana. (Query updated 2025)

• Can anyone fill in the story of Jacob Knight and Catherine Infeld? They were the grandparents of William Tomlinson's wife Tabitha Knight. Jacob Knight died in St. Mary Parish Louisiana, but both of them seem to have been German. Merle Ganier's work on the family theorizes that they migrated from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Many names in the Bucks Co. 1790 census and Bucks Co. histories are certainly similar, but I have seen no clear evidence that Bucks Co. Knights and St. Mary Parish Knights are the same people. Did Pennsylvania Germans migrate to southern Louisiana? (Query posted 2025)

• And reaching back to immigration: who were the ancestors of Charles (Carl) Brossman? He immigrated to Texas in 1859 from Germany. A passport for a return trip 1886 says that he was from "Auma." No Brossmans seem to be evident, however, in Auma. (Query posted 2025)