Ref: "To Avoyelles with the Couvillons" written by my father, Ira S. Couvillon, may have created some unintended inconsistencies in genealogical research of the Couvillon clan in Louisiana. Understanding that his research in the 1940's and 1950's was based on searches of actual courthouse records, property transactions, church records, cemetery visits, phone calls, and word-of-mouth, it is understandable that errors could occur. There were no computers or internet searches available during the many years he spent researching and recording the data compiled in his manuscript. He did this while running a successful hardware business and raising 9 children. Also, it should be understood that, due to time restrictions, his book was never edited prior to going to the publisher, therefore numerous typographical, spelling, omissions, inconsistencies, and transpose errors could not be caught and fixed.
After spending some time looking at the inconsistency in his use of the name "Louis Amable Couvillon" rather than "Adrien Amable Couvillon", I have concluded that there are several factors that might explain this transpose error. There is a high tendency among early generations to use the same name, especially with male offspring, in naming children after parents and grandparents, thus we find many "Pierre's", "Jean Baptistes", "Adriens", and even a few "Amables" passed on as namesakes in the early Louisiana Couvillon generations, so it would be understandable that a mix-up in similar names could occur.
I have noticed that much of my father's data included property transactions involving "Amable Couvillon", so he may have used the middle name rather than the first name and there was no distinction between the two. Inconsistencies are found in birth dates, marriage dates, and names of children, which may be explained by this one inconsistency, which when passed on creates other inconsistencies.
What is not in question is the children he identifies as those of "Louis Amable Couvillon" are the same as those found in Geni.com as children of "Adrien Amable Couvillon" and Marie Boullerise. Geni.com does not show a marriage or any children for "Louis Amable Couvillon", however Ira's book shows the following children as those of Louis Amable: 1-A: Veronique 1-B: Pierre 1-C: Gertrude 1-D: Marie 1-E: Celeste 1-F: Petite Amable 1-G: Elizabeth (or Eliza) and 1-H: Adrien. He does not identify "Petronille" as a child of Louis Amable, but all of the other 8 children named are children of Adrien Amable and Marie Boullerise Couvillon.
It is clear to me that this one transposition of the name "Louis" instead of the name "Adrien" explains this inconsistency. In his disclaimer on page 563, Ira says: "Thus ends the genealogy, with a brief history, of the Couvillon clan of Louisiana. To be sure, some names were missed, misspelled, and misplaced, none however, were taken out intentionally. As in everything produced by the human mind and hand, errors are bound to appear occasionally so, no matter how hard we tried for accuracy it is to be expected that the average run of errors in the dates, names, and spellings are obnoxiously going to pop up. To this we say, 'Please bear with us and may your pleasure and satisfaction in discovering our people be greater or, at least, on even keel with the discomfort of our errors.'
Charles Wayne Couvillon 9/6/2021
