“...The progenitor of the Louisiana Fontenots was Louis Fontenot dit Colon, and his wife Louise Angelique Henry. A Sergeant in the French Army, he arrived in Louisiana about 1720 and was stationed at Fort Toulouse. Translated French documents state that they married in 1726 at Mobile Catholic Church - in present day Alabama.”
        “...In 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, France ceded to Great Britain its possessions in the East. Included in the treaty were Mobile and Fort Toulouse. The French residents of these areas were forced to choose between English rule or abandonment of their homes and relocation in French territory west of the Mississippi River. All but one of the seven sons of Louis Fontenot migrated to the Opelousas, Louisiana area.”
     These descendants now number in the hundred of thousands. The Fontenot family is one of the largest family groups of French origin in Louisiana. This extensive research effort by the Evangeline Genealogical & Historical Society organizes original documentation by many historians over many years. First reprinted by Wise Publications in 1999, the 117 page index details approximately 9,500 persons of Fontenot and associated families.