Why is there a Plauché web site?
And why is it located in Belgium?
How did it get started?
How accurate is it?
How can you contribute to it?
Very simple: the webmaster is Belgian. But what is the connection between the Belgian webmaster and the Plauché family? In order to explain this, I will have to indulge in a bit of personal history.
Back in 1987, while I was working in Paris, I met a wonderful woman who happened to be the (divorced) mother of two Plauché children. Lee Anne was raised in Westlake, LA, where she eventually met the future father of her children. Lee was always attracted by French culture. This is why she chose to get a job and move to Paris in 1987. Once in France, she inquired about the French name of her children. She and Thierry Bingen (the webmaster and her future husband) looked around for the seemingly French but unusual patronym of her children.
Breck Plauché, father of Madelaine and Alec, sent us the little information that he had on the family origins. From a charming, but somewhat inaccurate, leaflet once published in Plauchéville, we learned that THE ancestor, Etienne Henry Plauché came from La Provience Sein. We translated this to La Seyne, in Provence. We wrote to the archivist of this port, near Toulon, and sure enough got the information that Etienne Henry was born there in 1737. We also learned, and this was not so surprising for your francophone webmaster, that Etienne Henry's original patronym was not Plauché but Plauchier. Plauché only appeared after Etienne Henry's move to Louisiana (click here for more comments on this).
One thing that I can guarantee is that all the information published about Etienne Henry, his siblings and known ancestors is as accurate as any serious genealogical research can produce. I cannot of course guarantee that records were accurately kept in La Seyne in the 18th century, but I can guarantee that the research that we did, with Lee Anne and her daughter Madelaine Plauché, first in the basement of the Archives in La Seyne, and then in the Archives Départementales in Draguignan, were faithfully transcribed and eventually published on the web. We unfortunately do not have photocopies of the numerous documents that we transcribed, because the Archives in La Seyne do not own a photocopying machine...
In parallel, we wrote to the Archdiocesan Archives in New Orleans in order to obtain evidence about the early Plauchés in Louisiana. We obtained photocopies of the marriage certificate of Etienne Henry and his kidbrother Jean Antoine. The Archivist was also kind enough to send us copies of the Sacramental Records (abstracts of records) that cover the years 1718 to 1812. They contain several obvious mistakes but are a precious source for further research. All the info concerning the Plauchés that we found in these Records is published on this web site.
The rest of the information either comes directly from those that appear on the web site or was collected from second sources (books, web sites, various personal notes). Scattered info also comes from Avoyelles Court and Church records or indexes. Most of the material is probably correct, but often incomplete. It is offered here as a contribution to a family history that will be perpetually in the making.
First of all, if you find any error or incomplete information, please let the webmaster know. Also, if you wish to have information concerning your branch of the family published, by all means, e-mail it to me indicating where in the puzzle your piece fits. Merci.