Known Descendants of Jean and Pierre Laffite

This is a "work in progress" and we're now focusing on Cuban Archives and Church records there.

Here's the latest list of descendants:

Known Descendants of Jean and Pierre Laffite (from the New Orleans Sacramental Records)

1.Jean Laffite and Catherine (called "Jeannette") Villars had:

- Pedro (a.k.a. “Pierre”) Lafitte, born Nov 4 1815 in New Orleans. He was baptised on Feb 21 1820 and his sponsors were Pierre Laffite/Laffita and Adela Lafitte (we don't know who this is unless it is a previous wife or mistress of Pierre's known as Adelaide Maselari-Lafitte).

Note: “Jeannette” was spotted in Galveston with JL before he evacuated his base there, but we’re not sure what happened to her. JL had gifted her some real estate in New Orleans’ French Quarter so she probably went back there.

2. Pierre Laffite had a son with Juana Delas (of Baracoa?):

- Pierre Laffite, Jr. (not sure when/where born…probably in Baracoa or Pensacola) who married Maria Berret (sometimes spelled Veret/Verret of Baracoa) in New Orleans on Dec 16, 1820. The witnesses at this marriage were Juan Rodriguez, Christoval De Armas, Simon Cucully and Juan Castenado. These two may have returned to Baracoa (?). Maria's parents were Ambrosio Veret and Maria Mas of Baracoa, Cuba.

3. Pierre Laffite and Marie Louise Villars/ (Maria Luisa) had:

- Joseph Lafitte/Laffit/Laffite, baptised Aug 7, 1821, born May 2, 1821. Sponsors Joseph Aicald and Marie Filiosa (?) Aicalde.

- Juan Laffite, baptised Jan 31, 1820, born Oct 27, 1816... sponsored by Juan Lafitta and Rose Lafitta

- Rosa Villar Lafita, baptised Mar 22, 1814, born Aug 28, 1812. Sponsored by Martin Lafita (“brother”) and Caterina Lafita (“sister”)

We know Rose stayed in New Orleans and we have traced her lineage and found a direct female descendant named Diane Burkette. We know all about this because the descendants of Rose filed a lawsuit in New Orleans in 1922. Because Rose was ¼ black, her descendants were all classified as “black” on their birth certificates even though they all intermarried with whites and they looked totally white. However, Louisiana law said that ANY black blood in the past resulted in a “black” classification for all descendants. The suit was filed against New Orleans Department of Health (who issued the birth certificates) because even in the 1920’s it was ILLEGAL for a black to marry a white. Rose’s descendant wanted her birth certificate changed to say “white” so she could legally get married to a white man. This lawsuit is how we tracked down the descendant Dianne Burkette. I have a copy of this lawsuit in my files.

- Catherine (Caterina) Coralie... I am not sure when she was born but she married Pierre Roup on March 19, 1825) She was the "sponsor" at Rosa's baptism (noted above). Catherine and Pierre had two kids: Marie Roup (2/25/33) and Joseph Roup (11/3/28) and she stayed in New Orleans.

- Jean Baptiste Lafitte, baptised May 20, 1811. He may have died young...

- there was another Jean Laffite born to Pierre Lafitte and Maria Luisa Villars on Oct 27, 1816. We don’t know what happened to him.

4. Pierre had a daughter with Adelaide Maselari (resident of parish of St Louis of Jeremie, St Domingue):

- Marie Josephe Lafite, baptised Jan 16, 1811, born Oct 27, 1810. Sponsor: Louis Badela (from Marseilles) and Louise Le ???, (infant's maternal aunt from Jeremie, Santo Domingo). It was said that this daughter grew up in the home of Pierre's attorney, named Joseph Sauvinet (on Barracks Street in New Orleans). So, Pierre left her in his care but we don’t know what became of her.

All of these records are from the Sacramental Records of St Louis parish of New Orleans. The names were sometimes recorded in the “Spanish version” if they were written by a Spanish-speaking priest. So, “Pedro “Laffite would have never been known as “Pedro” but as “Pierre”, as he was named by his parents.

The Death of Jean Laffite

Concerning the death of Jean Laffite ... I translated an article from two Colombian newspapers from 1823.....The first article appeared in the GACETA DE CARTAGENA, where Jean Laffite's ship returned after it's privateering voyage of September 1822-March 1823. The article was then reprinted shortly thereafter in the GACETA DE COLOMBIA (published in the capital of Gran Colombia: Bogota) as follows...I have a photocopy of the original article which came from the Vanderbilt University Collection...(my notes are in bold print)

GACETA DE COLOMBIA

No. XXIX Bogota, Sunday April 20, 1823

NAVAL COMBAT

The Colombian corsair GENERAL SANTANDER of 43 tons, under the command of Captain Jean Laffitte gave chase (at 0500 hours on February 4, at 20 leagues off the port of Omoa (modern day Honduras) in front of the Triumph of The Cross (a monument on the coast near Omoa)) to a Spanish brig schooner and another schooner until 2200 hours that night. The schooner brig was close to surrendering after an hour of combat but then made lantern signals to the schooner and they then both turned on the corsair. After this turnabout, Captain Laffitte was mortally wounded but stimulated the ardor of his crew and turned over command to his second-in-command who then suffered the same fate. The third-in-command, Francisco Similien, continued in combat until 0100 hours and when it became impossible to continue he turned the ship about and the Spanish ships did the same as they were very damaged by the shots from the corsair. Captain Laffitte died from his wounds the next day. The loss of this brave naval officer is moving and the boldness with which he confronted the superior forces demonstrates why he is so well regarded after his heroic death. The schooner brig had 12 cannons aboard and the schooner had six cannon with a 16 pounder in the stern.

From the GACETA DE CARTAGENA issue # 63

Note: I have traced Francisco Similien's family back to the north coast of Cuba and Jean Laffite supposedly had a wife and daughter nearby in Cayo Cristo, Cuba. Research is ongoing to see if there is any merit to this.

When Jean Laffite received his commission in the Colombian Navy in the summer of 1822, it was published in the naval records of Colombia and there was an article in the local newspaper talking about Jean Laffite's presence in Cartagena that summer . Another newspaper article published in New England confirmed that Jean Laffite was spotted on the GENERAL SANTANDER off the coast of Cuba in late 1822. There seems to be no doubt that Jean Laffite was on board this vessel during late 1822-early 1823 and that he either faked his death or he died on board.

There were no subsequent articles published anywhere about Jean Laffite after the Spring of 1823 which leads me to believe that this Death Notice article is accurate.

Jean Laffite Descendants In Cuba?

Rob and I were having a discussion about Laffite descendants in Cuba ....please see the comment below....if anyone has any comments/ideas/questions about this, please reply to this Post...

"....Rob, when I get some spare time I'm going to publish some photos of some other original newspaper articles about JL written in 1823...I'm particularly interested in how Jean Laffite met his demise and want to get to the bottom of it...

Also I want to prove if he had any surviving children and I'd like to know what happened to them,,,,,there are many Cubans today with the surname "Laffite/Lafitte/Laffitte/Lafita" and some claim to be decendants but I've seen no conclusive proof..... some Cuban websites claim he left a daughter in Cayo Cristo, she later moved to Sagua La Grande and her married name became Maria Laffite Rodriguez...others claim he and Pierre bought a ranch in the outskirts of Havana (now inside the city limits) with the proceeds of their espionage earnings and some of their kids settled there later (but were in school in France when their fathers passed away).... the "Laffite House" still stands in the suburb of "Jesus Del Monte" and Ernie Hartmann took photos of it which I will publish later (the laptop with all my photos crashed and it's time-consuming to recover them...don't ever buy a Windows-driven computer...Apple is by far the best!!!!!!!!)...the Catholic Church across teh street from teh "Laffite House" supposedy has some crumbling (baptismal/death/etc) records from the1820's-60's and we want to go through them in detail because if the Laffite children lived nearby they'd probably show up in the records.... I'm trying to trace the title to the "Laffite house" but Fidel and Raul Castro aren't allowing this at the moment because they feel that it will open up American lawsuits to recover seized properties....so we are hoping that Cuba opens up soon....

....thanks for your interest and comments...

Jean Laffite In Niles Register

Rob Peterson writes:

I recently acquired a copy of NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER for April 26, 1823
which has an interesting paragraph of two sentences on page 2 in a
section "The Pirates". Since it's short, I'll quote it here:

"It is stated that a British sloop of war has captured a piratical
vessel that had a crew of sixty men, under the command of the famous
Lafitte. He hoisted the bloody flag and refused quarter, and fought
until nearly every man was killed or wounded -- Lafitte being among the
former."

I wonder what "It is stated..." means. Could it be from from "The
account..." (no source given) in the paragraph above? Does anyone know
of specific references to this report which may have more detail? I
believe someone said the primary source is from a Columbian newspaper
(New Grenada?) but I haven't found anything on it yet.

I'll attach images of pages one and two and see if they show up on the
Yahoo site. If not I'll put them in the files section.

Rob Peterson

Jean Laffite Was A Mason?

Ernie Hartmann writes again: I agree with this man's suggestion. If Pierre and Alexander Laffite were Masons, them there is a high possibility that Jean Laffite was also a Mason and if he was not a Mason, then many of his contacts and associates were Masons and there is a possibility that this is why Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite agreed to work together to defeat the British in New Orleans. Masons are suppose to assist their mason brothers anywhere they are, even if they are from different nations, religions, believes, economic status, educational levels, etc.

He is right about the signature. I have heard this before and I have seen it in books that explain the Masonic graphic symbolism. If this could be confirmed then this would be a different angle to the history, story and biography of the Laffite Brothers.

If we have the signatures of Pierre and Alexandre then one could consult with a Masonic historian or an expert scholar in Masonic graphic symbolism and he would be able to tell us. Another way is to do research in Masonic Lodges that go back to the first quarter of 1800 in places such as New Orleans and Santiago de Cuba. I was told that there is a possibility that these masonic records from Baracoa went to lodges in Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba. Some might be at the Bacardi Museum and Historical Archives in Santiago de Cuba. The Hartmans of Philadelphia and Baracoa were not Masons but the Masons have some of their history in their archives for other reasons and I read a hand written document that a Mason in Baracoa allowed me to read with one of the stories written by a Mason about the Hartmann of Baracoa, Santiago and Philadelphia. This has little to do with the Laffite brothers, but the times that the Laffite and the Hartman brothers lived in Baracoa do match. Both the Hartmann and the Laffite lived in or visited Baracoa in the first decade of the 1800s and this is when the Franco-masons, as they are called, begin to come into Cuba and began to found their first Masonic Lodges in Cuba which the Spanish government and church in Cuba did not like but allowed it to a certain point.

In this reply I find another interesting detail that it might be of interest to me personally in relation to my own genealogy. My Hartman genealogy includes the last names Barthelemy and Lafont . Maybe this is a coincidence, but it might worth looking into. The spelling of the last name Lafont or La Font was change to Font in Baracoa but when I researched it I learned that originally was LaFont. The LaFont family came from Saint Domingue to Baracoa and Santiago de Cuba with the hundreds and thousands of French exiles from the Haitian Revolution and settled in Baracoa, Santiago de Cuba and New Orleans and later in Habana. In Baracoa the Barthelemy family, another French family from Saint Domingue, married into the LaFont family as well as into the Hartmann family. My great grand father's last names are Hartman Barthelemy and his mother last names are Barthelemy Font (LaFont). Barthelemy can be a name or a last name and in some families is both. In Spanish is Bartolomeo but in our genealogy has stayed Barthelemy and the spelling has not been change to a Spanish spelling and pronuciation.

This might be important because this Barthelemy Lafont that this person mentions here might had been one of the Mason that came from Saint Domingue to Baracoa to Santiago de Cuba and then to New Orleans which was one of the usual stepping stone for the French immigrant from Saint Domingue to take to escape the Haitian Revolution and there is a probability that this is were Jean, Pierre, Alexander Laffite and even maybe Rene Beluche and Simon Bolivar related to each other. Simon Bolivar was a Francomason and he traveled to France to meet with Francomasons in search of support for his independence movement. So, maybe, just maybe, this is were the link is for all these men: Franco-masons. After all, Free Masons, are a brotherhood of men that usually become influential in political and economic circles. Back in the 1700 and 1800s being a Corsair and a Slave Trader was relatively acceptable.

Maybe this becomes another new chapter to the history, story and biography of Jean, Pierre and Alexandre Laffite.

Was Jean Laffite A Mason?

Ernie Hartmann writes:

Rene Beluche separated from Jean Laffite in 1822 to join Simon Bolivar and by 1823 JL had a Letter of Corso (a privateering license) from Gran Colombia and had become a Captain for one of their corsair vessels. Don't you think that maybe it was Rene Beluche who encouraged JL to join Simon Bolivar's naval force which consisted mostly of corsairs?

One of the ancestors of Rene Beluche once visited the home of my dear friend Dr. Tomas Arias in Panama and told Dr. Arias that he was writing and publishing a biography of Rene Beluche. Dr. Arias knew that I was searching for the armed Colombian schooner 'General Santander' and for Jean Laffite, so he asked this Beluche decendant if he knew about Jean Laffite and he told him "yes" and that he included this in his Beluche biography. This was back in 2005 or so and then a few months later Dr. Arias passed away. Dr. Arias was a researcher for the Smithsonian Institute and an expert in genetic anthropology and genetic pharmacology. He had contacted me because his grandfather Parra of Baracoa had married a Laffite in Baracoa before marrying his grandmother and before reaching Panama. He become aware of Jean Laffite and Pierre Laffite when he contacted me and by coincidence this descendant of Rene Beluche visited him at this home during the time of our correspondence. I do not know if this Beluche ever published this book. His last name is Beluche and he lives in Panama.

Most of the men that become top leaders during Simon Bolivar's movement were free masons and this is why I asked if by any chance Jean, Pierre or Alexandre Laffite were free masons because of the possibility that Rene Beluche becoming the Grand Admiral of teh Venezuelan Navy and even being buried next to Simon Bolivar that was a 33 degree mason, the highest degree in the Masonic tradition. Jean Lafitte was involved in the independence of Mexico and Gran Colombia and in all the independence movements most of its leaders were free masons including the US. Andrew Jackson was a free mason and he was willing to let Jean, Pierre and Alexander Laffite join him to defeat the British in New Orleans.

There were several masonic lodges in Saint Domingue where Jean, Pierre and Alexander Laffite lived. There were several masonic lodges in New Orleans during the time that Jean, Pierre and Alexander Laffite lived in New Orleans. There was one masonic lodge in Baracoa when Jean, Pierre and Alexander Laffite visited Baracoa and Pierre Laffite lived in Baracoa and even married in Baracoa. I was not aware of this until I ran into a couple of articles and book chapter about this just several months ago. So, I wonder and keep wondering if JL, PL or/and AL were masons or had strong relation to masons. I just have this question.

Does anyone have any comments or thoughts about this?