French Ancestors

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

     Ste. Genevieve is a small town on the Mississippi River about sixty miles south of St. Louis. This town was settled by the French in the 1700s and is the oldest European settlement in Missouri. Francois Charles Valle, Sr., my 6th great grandfather settled in Ste. Genevieve around 1750. Francois Valle was born in Quebec in 1716.

     Below is a video giving more background on the history of the town of Ste. Genevieve and shows examples of architecture from the French and Spanish colonial periods. At 2:45 is the home of Jean-Baptiste Vallee, the brother of my 5th great grandfather.

Louisiana

     While I knew that my French ancestors had been among the earliest settlers in Ste. Genevieve, I did not realize that there was a branch of that family tree going back to Louisiana. Jean Baptiste Bossier dit Le Brun, my 7th great grandfather, was born in Casselsagrat in southern France in 1676. He was part of an expedition sent to explore the Louisiana colony in 1718 and he ended up settling in Natchitoches, the oldest French settlement in Louisiana. Bossier had numerous descendants, many of whom still live in Louisiana today. Jean Baptiste Bossier, my 4th great grandfather, moved to Ste. Genevieve sometime in the early 1800s. He lived in Missouri until his death at age 59 in 1842.