I’m a direct descendant of Philippe Hébert dit Milan. I think I have this right. I’ll start with me and move up: Mike, Roland
(Dad), Adan, Hypolite, Joachim, Joachim, Francois, Philippe. I saw some of the names spelled differently
but I’ll go with that. My Hébert line
came from Martigny le Compte, Burgundy, France.
I wondered about the nickname Milan.
It sounds like me-la(n). Dad told
me people used the nickname often and our family was called the Milans. Where does that come from? Why did people use nicknames like that in the
past? Why did the sons of Philippe come
to Louisiana? What ship did they come
on? Dad told me one story told by
Hypolite to Paw Paw Adan was that they came to the colony because they didn’t
want to fight in some war going on at the time.
So they came over and married into the Créole society in the St. Landry
parish area. Dad has no Acadian ancestry
at all. It’s an example of the genealogy
of our area. I read about Burgundy and
colonial Louisiana and thought about all sorts of things. I thought about how family stories are not
being passed down, the French language not being taught and how really ignorant
we are about our history. It does seem
like my parents' age group are truly the last of a particular people.