Two Zweig families were listed as passengers on the pest ship Les Deux Fréres that arrived in Biloxi in March 1721:
a) Johan Adam, his wife, and daughter. Johan Adam is mentioned in the 1724 census as having died in Biloxi.
b) Johan, his wife, a son, and a daughter.
The surviving Johan became the progenitor of all the LaBranche families in Louisiana. His son Jean married Suzanne Marchand, an orphan living with the Ursuline sisters, and the official records of this marriage reflect the family’s name change to the French LaBranche.
“Legend has it that Johan Zweig could not write his name, but at this wedding he gave French officials an idea of what it meant: Zweig = twig = branch. Voila! LaBranche. So the French notary wrote ‘Jean LaBranche.’ Thus, family tradition says, the family name was born.”
(Dr. Isabel French, St. Charles Borromeo Church)
This text is copyright © material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
