Mike_Fontenot
Member
Are you a Ville Platte Fontenot or a Pointe Coupe Fontenot??
Ville Platte area. My dad was born in Beaver. I only lived in Louisiana (Baton Rouge) while my dad was getting his masters after the war, but I used to spend part of every summer with my cousin in Baton Rouge.
I learned a few years ago that, contrary to common knowledge, the Fontenot's, strictly speaking, aren't "Cajuns" ... i.e., they DIDN'T come from L'Acadie (present day Nova Scotia). Our original ancestor in this country was a soldier named Louis Fonteneau from France, stationed in Alabama. After the British took over Alabama, his widow and grown kids moved to Louisiana, where the spelling was changed from Fonteneau to Fontenot for some unknown reason (there are no Fontenot's in France, but some Fonteneau's and some other spellings). The mother and daughters stayed in New Orleans, and the sons moved to the Beaver area, and got land grants. They were apparently VERY fertile people!