Where does the surname Comeau in Haiti come from? I know its French or Canadian but I need more specifics?

Question

to help my friend do a geneology search to her past. And was their a specific African tribe that was brought to Haiti that was given that surname?

Answer 1

Ohhhh, so many misconceptions in your question.

The name Comeau came to Haiti after the Acadians were exiled in a very nasty scene called "Le Grand Dérangement". The British were exceptionally cruel and killed hundreds of people and enslaved hundreds more in the American colonies. Some were even put on a ship that the Brits knew wasn't seaworthy and they were sent off to drown in the Atlantic.

Those who could escape went to the French colonies in the Caribbean, which were the only ones that France hadn't lost to the English. Some stayed behind while others were given refuge by the Spanish King in the colony of Louisiana. The Spanish king was a Bourbon and the nephew of the French king. The Louisiana colony eventually was turned over to the French and then was sold to America in 1803.

The name Comeau did not exist in Haiti before the arrival of the Acadians. The slaves who were given the name came at many times and were rarely from the same tribe. There are records of the slaves' arrivals, sale and ownership that are still on the island. What you'll have to do is become a very good researcher and spend your time going through all the records to match up each of them with parents and keep going backwards until you find the original slaves who were brought over. Then you go through library books on the ships that brought them over and find out where they picked up slaves in Africa on each of their trips. Match up your ancestors' arrival with the dates of the trip of the ship and find out where that trip originated.

Again, the records exist. But here's where you have to approach this like an historian. Those records aren't really well organized. They're not on the internet. They're not in nice trees waiting for you to walk in and find the information. You have to take the approach that you're the first people looking for it and that your're going to find all the records wherever they exist. Don't jump to any conclusions. Don't be quick to grab someone and just assume that's your ancestor. You need proof on every person who you put on the tree. The more information you can pull together on each person, the more you'll actually learn. The biggest mistake that researchers make is that they're rushing so hard to get back to the beginning that they forget to find the stories of each person they find along the way.

The good news is that the name only goes back to the period between 1755-1760 when the Comeaus arrived. So you only have 250 years of research to do before you can tap into another 135 years of Acadian research. As people around here will tell you, knowing that you only have to go 250 years to get 135 for free is a nice present.