The Deshotels ou Deshotel came from Montreal in the middle 1700s to settle mainly in the St. Landry Parish area. Jacques Deshotels (Desautels) dit La Pointe arrived in Pointe Coupee in the early 1750s. He was a trader and he traded with the Native Americans around Old River et later became a rich planter. Then I read that some of his sons went to the Opelousas prairie et some went north to Avoyelles et Rapides. The majority settled around Ville Platte-Eunice area and a lot are still here. But I see also that in the 19th century some went to Iota, Rayne, Kaplan, Jennings et other southwest areas for the big booming rice business there.
That is interesting to me. I have some Deshotels/Deshotel ancestry and want to know where all these names came from. I remembered Dad taking the family to Quebec and saying that some of our ancestors came from Montreal and Quebec City. Vieux-Québec is a beautiful place. We even went to Mass in a huge old church in a small town outside the city. The Mass was in French and English – I think. I remember the French. Everything though was in French as we drove around listening to the radio and watching TV in the hotel. He even let me drive a little in Montreal when he got too tired. Then, of course, he got nervous with me behind the wheel and he took over.
The Deshotels/Deshotel info came from Robert C. West’s An Atlas of Louisiana Surnames of French and Spanish Origin.