Talk:Alexandre Mouton

Spelling of His Name & His Ancestry

Two observations/questions:

1) Did not Mouton spell his first name in the French manner (Alexandre)?

2) The article states that Mouton was born "into a wealthy plantation owning French Creole family." However, I don't think they were French Creole; I think they were Acadian (albeit aspiring to French Creole pretensions). I.e., Mouton's family was made up primarily of "genteel Acadians," as historians have called them . . . Acadians who broke away from the mass of average, ordinary, impoverished Acadians and became wealthy planters, and who copied the French Creole elite (and later the Anglo-American elite) who lived around them. (See Brasseaux, Acadian to Cajun, passim.)

I have changed Mouton's first name to the French spelling after consulting with historian Carl A. Brasseaux. Mouton and others appear to have used both the English and French spellings of his name, but, given Mouton's French ancestry, I believe his name originally would have been spelled in the French manner. Granted, it is spelled the English way on his tomb, but he may have had no say-so in the matter; it is spelled the French way, however, on the historical marker posted on his Lafayette home.

Moreover, given that his son was named Jean Jacques Alfred Alexandre Mouton, it is not unreasonable to assume that the father also spelled his name in the French manner.

Searches for "Alexander Mouton," however, will still redirect to this article, so I don't anticipate any confusion. I have updated other links to this article. --Skb8721 (talk) 17:22, 5 November 2009 (UTC)