Am I related to Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen?

Several years back, my cousin, who I call Peanut, sent me a Facebook message with incredible news. And I don’t mean incredible in a good way but in a “Yeah, right” unbelievable one.

She’d recently gotten into genealogy and thought she’d discovered that we were related to Marie Laveau.

Uh huh. Sure.

Thanks to Haunt Jaunts, she knew my affinity for the paranormal. But I thought she was just trying to get me to call her.

Back then, I hated talking on the phone. Didn’t matter who it was. Even my husband. If the call was going to be over a minute long, it was too lengthy for me. The call with Peanut could easily stretch into an hour or more.

I’ve since sort of grown out of that phase. Maybe thanks to cell phones? At least I can fold laundry or do dishes or something while I talk.

Which, even back then, we had a cordless phone, but I felt like whoever I was talking to needed my undivided attention and I would’ve never thought of multitasking.

Anyway, I briefly allowed myself to dwell on what it would mean to say we were related to Marie Laveau. How cool would that be? Especially considering Haunt Jaunts. That could be a game-changing claim to fame.

But the likelihood of it being real…didn’t seem very likely.

As Life does, other things distracted me and I left it at the “what if” stage.

Until a couple of years later when I got my 23 or Me report back.

I fully expected to be predominantly European. I figured German and Polish because my dad’s side is heavily that. I was hoping for more French, and expecting it too, because my mom’s side is French. I was also wanting some Irish or Scottish. There was no reason to hope for those other than I feel drawn to those countries.

86.9% of my ancestry was European, but there was a surprise: I was also 7.9% Sub-Saharan African too.

Say what? Where had that come from?

Had to be my mom’s side. I immediately thought of Peanut and her claim that we were related to Marie Laveau.

I didn’t know much about my mom’s roots. I knew my grandma was from New Orleans and my grandpa was from Mexico. The 23 or Me broke it down to show the African part had been introduced into my line sometime in the 18th or 19th centuries.

I started wondering seriously if it could it be from Marie Laveau.

Nah. That was just silly. Or maybe hopeful is a better word.

Because, again, how cool would it be to say I was related to her? Besides, doesn’t everyone secretly hope they’ll discover a long lost connection with someone famous?

Some hope for royalty, politicians, musicians or movie stars. Any of those would’ve been interesting too, but for me? Someone like Marie Laveau is much more exciting!

It also might explain so very much, like various ghostly encounters I’ve had and my many precognitive dreams.

Am I sensitive? Who knows. Sometimes I think I am. Sometimes I doubt I am. It just depends on the day. I can’t prove it one way or another so I mostly just leave it be.

Until today I didn’t think I could prove I’m related to Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen either. However, with the click of a few hints, I discovered my lineage leads right to a Marie Laveau.

But is it THE Marie Laveau?

My grandmother’s maiden name was Dorothy Mohurter. I never met Gram’s mom. She had died long before I was born. My mom and Gram had always just referred to her a Ma Mere. However, her name was Laura LaCroix. Until she married my great grandpa, Ernest Mohurter. Then she became Laura Mohurter.

We’ll come back to Ernest, though. He’s got a story too. The Mohurter side may hold the key to where the African part of my heritage comes from.

Anyway, Laura’s mom was Marie Philomene Augustin, who married Ernest LaCroix.

Marie’s parents were Adolphe Augustin and Marie Laveau.

I can’t even describe the feeling I had when I discovered that. All I could think was, “Holy shit, Peanut wasn’t pulling my leg!”

That would mean the Voodoo Queen is my great-great-great grandma!

However, that’s probably not the case. She is my great-great-great grandma, but she was born in 1827. Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen was born in 1801.

The 1801 Marie Laveau did have several children, but only two daughters lived into adulthood. One was born in 1828, another in 1836. Is my Marie Laveau possibly one of her children?

I don’t know. However, I have another way to find out.

A friend, Jeffrey Holmes, who’s the proprietor of Strange True Tours New Orleans, recommended a friend of his, Carolyn Long Morrow, who’s an authority on Marie Laveau. I’ve shared the ancestry I have with her so far. Hopefully she’ll be able to tell me if my great-great-grandma was just one of the many people named Marie Laveau born in New Orleans in the 1820s or if she could actually be a descendant of the more famous one.

Although, back to the Mohurter side of the equation. A cousin found a document for a man named Placide Mohurter. A Robert Mohurter comes up on our ancestry too, as does Placide. Are they one and the same? Was his full name Robert Placide Mohurter?

It appears Placide was married to a woman named Malvina. Our great-granddad, Robert Mohurter, married a Malvina Berris. They had a son named Ernest, who married Ma Mere, a.k.a. Laura LaCroix, my great-grandma. Malvina isn’t that common of a name.

On a document another cousin found, Placide’s occupation is listed as blacksmith and his race is listed as Mulatto. This may explain where our African roots came from.

The quest for answers continues because this mystery just keeps having twists!

It’s why I’m now madly working on a book, Haunted By Marie Laveau: Am I Related to the Voodoo Queen? It’s shaping into a great story!