History of the Ledet Family

Several people have recorded the history of the Ledet's family from Louisiana. I would like to tell you the story my Grandfather (John Daniel Ledet) told me when I was a young boy.

The Ledet's came from France, but lived on the French/German border. This was because my Grandfather was a tall man with blue eyes. He (Antoine Ledet) came to the New Orleans area around the 1780's and eventually ended up in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He had seven boys who spread out over the tri-parish (Lafourche, Terrebonne, and Assumption) area. And all the Ledet's descendants still live in these main areas of the tri-parish.

Although his story is mostly true, in doing genealogy research I have discovered that there were several Ledets who came to Louisiana in the 1700's. One a soldier who died never having children. Another was a plantation owner in the Saint Martinsville area who never had children or married and Antoine Ledet.

Antoine Ledet came to New Orleans from the Diocese, of Launny, France in about 1786. He made his way to Edgard, Louisiana where he married Marguerite Villac in 1788. This was her second marriage but his first marriage. They had seven children (Antoine, Pierre Marcellin, Adelaide, Henry, Marguerite, Jean Pierre, and Augustine. Antoine made his way to Bayou Lafourche (a tributary of the Mississippi River) in Donaldsonville. He traveled South to present day Thibodaux, Louisiana. His first wife died about 1796 and he remarried a Victoria Quimine (Her first marriage) They had 8 children (Isabel Hortene, Marie Clotilde, Auguste, Mariana, Elisa Serphina, Alexis Amant, Francois Claude, and Pierre). Antoine died at 8 PM at his home in Thibodaux on March 28, 1825. He is buried in the church cemetery. His wife Victoria remarried to Jacob Templet.

Antoine's children did move throughout the tri-parish are and settled down in such places as; Thibodaux, Larose, Leeville, Houma, Point Aux Chien, Raceland, Plattenville, and etc. And as my grandfather said most of the Ledet's can trace their roots through these areas. Although my namesake is Ledet, I have Terrebonne, Plaisance, Lee, Griffin, Bromont, Lefort, Albardo, Richaux, Pitre, Hebert, Savoie, Daigle, in my past. Each with a separate story but each just the same poor people who just wanted to make a decent living and raise a proper French/Acadian family.