About Our Family
Contact Information - contact@familyMCD.org
History of the Mirault Cuyler Dowse Family
Our family arrived in Savannah, a city built on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River in the late 1700s and early 1800s as free people of color, West Indian immigrants. Fleeing Saint Domingue (Spanish controlled Dominican Republic today) and French plantations (known today as Haiti).
A few ancestors came as French-Haitian soldiers fighting the British in the American Revolutionary War 1778-1776 and others came during the Haitian Revolution 1791-1804. According to Whittington B, Johnson in his book Black Savannah 1788-1864 “Most of the Black Catholics were immigrants from Saint Domingue, but their American-born children joined other churches, Protestant and Episcopalian."
Ellen Catherine
DuBignon
Elizabeth Faro
Hawkins Mirualt
To clearly illuminate our historical journey we start with the relatives that connect our family. You're either related through Ellen Catherine DuBignon (1848-1898) or Elizabeth Faro Hawkins Mirualt (1820-1895) whom Ellen Cecile Dowse (Simmons) referred to as the Spanish one, Mama Betsy. Many of us are related through both ladies.
Our History and Genealogy Chairs (Emma Moses & Susan Curtis-Rivers) have collaborated and written a detailed narrative of the Mirault Cuyler Dowse Family early starts and it is available on four page PDF (see below).
Here is the detailed review of the history designed by Susan-Curtis presented at the 2017 Family Reunion.
We need your help to continue gather information about our family to maintain our record on members.
Please download the interview sheet and return the information to Susan Curtis Rivers