The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Researching Pierre François Caillot

My initial research into the Cayot lineage was far from complete, particularly since there were few other incidences of French Catholic immigrants in my ancestry. Recent supplemental information (from Annette Lynch, whose ancestry connects by marriage to the Cayot family) has helped fill in quite a few of the gaps, though there is still work to be done.

One of the largest challenges in establishing Pierre’s history was the frequent spelling issues stemming from his surname; the existence of an actual established French spelling is uncertain, and the anglicized phonetic spellings that occur in the records were highly varied and inconsistent. The final Americanized spelling of Cayot seems to have been adopted during the later years of his life - possibly even at the hands of his adult children - but the most likely candidate I have seen for the original French spelling is "Caillot."

Pierre was born somewhere in France in late 1814, and came to America on the ship Sully, arriving in New York on 13 May 1842 with "one trunk and one bed." From there he seems to have headed straight for the French settlement near Louisville, Stark Cty, Ohio, and barely two years after his landing in America married French-born Marie DuPont in Canton, Stark Cty.

I had previously only been aware of three of their children, though Annette's research indicated there were as many as seven. Sometime after the 1850 US Census - when the family was counted in Marlboro, Stark Cty - and prior to the birth of son Joseph Jean in 1852, the family had moved from Ohio to the vicinity of New Haven, Allen Cty, Indiana, with another enclave of French Catholic immigrant families. Here the household stayed for the remainder of Pierre's life - the exact date of his death is not yet determined, but he was buried on 6 Dec 1890.

Pierre's will was probated just six days later, naming his wife "Mary" an heir along with children Peter (Pierre) Cayot, Louise Urbine, Julia Huguenard, Catharine Gremaux, Eleanore Lamblin, Margaret (Marguerite) Vincent, and grandchildren Louis J. and Justin Cayot (known sons of Joseph Jean, who had died several years earlier) and Clarisse and Ellen Cayot (presumed to be daughters of Joseph Jean), and with his youngest son Peter named as executor.

Of Pierre's surviving children, Peter died just a handful of weeks after Pierre, and his daughter Julie died just over six years later (in her early fifties). Pierre's widow, Marie, lived at least some of her last years with her daughter Louise (Cayot) Urbine, and died more than a decade after her husband in early 1901.

The bulk of Pierre's immediate descendants - his children and grandchildren - remained in the Allen Cty, Indiana area, though his son-in-law Alexandre Vincent (husband of Marguerite Cayot) had been born in Crawford Cty, Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of the "Frenchtown" settlement there, and returned there with his wife and oldest children prior to 1868. It should be noted that nearly all of Pierre's children and grandchildren had married into other French Catholic families that were also relatively young in their time established in America.

Of Pierre's seven known children, only the youngest two were sons, and the youngest of those (Peter) appears to have had no children, based on my research thus far. The older son, Joseph Jean, died at about the age of thirty, father of at least two sons but only one of whom (Louis Joseph Cayot) has been confirmed to have had children. Of Louis Joseph's three sons, great-grandson's of Pierre's, one appears to have had no children and another had two daughters, while the oldest (Roy Joseph Cayot, my great-grandfather) had twelve children, half of them sons. At least five of those six had children, giving Pierre at least a dozen third-great-grandsons (out of at least 364 total third-great-grandchildren) that bear some form of his surname.

[Probate report for the estate of Peter Francis Cayot, from the Fort Wayne Sentinel, 13 Dec 1890, p5.]

The last will and testament of Peter Francis Cayot was probated yesterday. He gives his real and personal property to his wife, Mary Cayot, and after her death all personal properties and monies on hand go to his son. The real estate after his wife's death goes as follows: To his daughter, Louise Urbine seven acres; to his son, Peter Cayot, seven and one half acres; to his daughter, Julia Huguenard, seven acres; to his daughterm, Catherine Gremmaux, seven acres; to his daughter, Eleanor Lamblin, seven acres, to his daughter, Margaret Vincent, seven acres; the balance, seven acres, to be equally divided among his grandchildren, Louis J, Justin, Clarisse and Ellen Cayot. His son, Peter Cayot, is named as executor.