The Ancestors of Louis Joseph LaGrange

Louis Joseph LaGrange is standing on the right. His brother Joseph is next to him. In front of them are their sisters and mother Mary Margaret Bell LaGrange (center).

100% Belgian

Although Everitt LaGrange’s father Louis was born in Perry County, Indiana, every single one of his traceable ancestors lived in Belgium - most of them in Florenville, a town in Belgium’s Luxembourg region located less than two miles from the French border. His maternal grandparents were Jean Thomas Bell and Marie Victoire Pierrard. In 1851, these two boarded a ship called the Attala in Le Havre, France along with Marie’s father Pierre and the Bell children. Among them was a ten year-old girl named Mary Margaret, who is Louis LaGrange’s mother.

Jean (John) Joseph LaGrange and Mary Margaret Bell LaGrange, Louis LaGrange’s parents

The Attala arrived in New Orleans on December 10, 1851, and the rest of the Pierrard family came to New Orleans in April of 1853. It appears the first Pierrard-Bell group probably stayed in New Orleans until the arrival of the rest of the Pierrards because there’s no record of either family in Perry County, Indiana until the birth of a Bell baby in Leopold on May 30, 1853 and then the birth of a Pierrard baby in the same town six days later.

Florenville, Belgium

Louis LaGrange’s father John (Jean) Joseph was also born in Florenville, Belgium. At age 41, John boarded a ship called the Heidelberg in Le Havre, France with four other guys who appear to be his friends as opposed to family members. The Heidelberg made it to New Orleans on December 5, 1854, making the LaGrange line the last of my ancestry to migrate to America. It’s hard to say for sure when John made it to Indiana, but he married Mary Margaret Bell on August 13, 1861. Mary gave birth to Louis LaGrange in 1866, the year after both of her parents died, meaning Louis never met any of his grandparents. Then in 1880, when Louis was fourteen, his father John Joseph died as well.

Le Havre, France - Many Belgian families of Perry County, Indiana came here to board a ship for America.

No one seems to know who John Joseph LaGrange’s parents were. For what it’s worth though, one of his friends with him on the ship to America was Auguste Blaise. There is a woman named Josiane Blaise living in 2021 near the French-Belgian border who has put together an extensive family tree which is peppered with Perry County, Indiana names like Goffinet, Flamion, LaGrange, and Jacques, the last of which became “James” in Indiana.

Here’s Leopold, Indiana in about 1905. The town was founded by Belgian immigrants and named after the King of Belgium. At the back of the town you can see Saint Augustine Catholic Church and Cemetery, where John Joseph LaGrange was buried decades before this was taken.

One of her ancestors was a LaGrange from Florenville, Belgium whose family used the male first names Jean and Louis for generations. I have no doubt our John (Jean) Joseph LaGrange and Louis LaGrange are a part of the same family. Unfortunately, it’s still hard to say which LaGrange couple in the small town of Florenville were John’s parents, but one way or another, it’s extremely likely that our John (Jean) Joseph is either the grandson or great grandson of Jean Baptiste LaGrange and Anne LeMaire, both of whom were born in about 1729 in Florenville.

At this point, it’s probably worth noting that many people were born with French first names in Belgium and then used the English versions of their names in Indiana. Jean Thomas Bell became John Bell. Marie Victoire Pierrard Bell was recorded as Victoria Bell on one census, and her grave says Mary Bell. Mary Margaret Bell LaGrange was recorded as “Marguerite” in Le Havre, where John Joseph LaGrange’s first name was recorded as “Jean”.

Although all Perry County, Indiana LaGranges (by birth) and their descendants come from Louis LaGrange’s parents, the story that’s been recorded about their marriage isn’t the most heartwarming. It’s been written that at age 19 or 20, Mary Margaret Bell planned to marry a young man in Indiana, but her parents forced her to marry the much older John Joseph LaGrange. I don’t think that’s too unusual for the time, but apparently Mary Margaret would often cry later in life about not being able to marry the man she loved. John Joseph was eventually buried in Leopold, Indiana and years later Mary Margaret a few miles away in Appalona. When the old Catholic church in Appalona burned, the story goes that Mary Margaret’s grave had to be moved to rebuild the new church and that when her casket was opened, only her hair and the buckles of her shoes remained.