Although most Castille families of southwestern Louisiana probably consider themselves to be part of the ''Cajun"

community, the surname is not Acadian or even French in origin, but appears to be the Gallicized form of the Spanish patronym Castillo. The main progenitor of Louisiana's clan was Joseph Castille (José Castillo), native of Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands off the east coast of Spain.* In the mid-eighteenth century, however, Joseph was living in Maryland.

There, prior to 1763, he had married Rosette (Osite) Landry, an Acadian refugee, and in 1767 arrived in Louisiana with his family and several Acadian exiles from Maryland.

Given a farm on the Mississippi at St. Gabriel (Iberville Parish), Joseph remained there probably until ca. 1776, when he moved with his wife and several children to the Attakapas.

Settling at La Pointe, near present Breaux Bridge, Joseph and his three sons firmly established their surname in the Teche country, where today more than half of the state's Castille households still live.

In the early 1800s a Sébastien Castille (Castillo), native of the province of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, also settled in the Attakapas, probably on Bayou Vermilion near present Lafayette; later he obtained land at Cypress Island, northwest of St. Martinville.

His only son Edmond (m. 1813 Marie-Louise Gonsoulin) may have left descendants, but their numbers could in no way compare with the large progeny stemming from Joseph and his sons.

Typical of the time, Castille families were large, 10 to 15 offspring being the norm for most households.

Available church records reveal that by 1890 the descendants of Joseph Castille's elder son, Joseph, Jr. (m.

1785 Scholastique Borda) consisted of 5 sons, 13 grandsons, and 12 great-grandsons, all married and with families; those of Joseph's younger son, Jean-Baptiste (m.

1797 Judith Stelly): 4 sons, 11 grandsons and 9 great-grandsons; but from son Manuel (m. 1800 Félicité Stelly) came only 2 sons and 1 grandson.

For much of the nineteenth century most of these descendants remained as small farmers and possibly sharecroppers in the upper Teche area, near Breaux Bridge, Grand Coteau, and Arnaudville.

However, at least two Castilles became planters of medium wealth near Grand Coteau during antebellum days, both sons of Jean-Baptiste: Jean-Baptiste, Jr. (m. 1827 Azelie Stelly), who by 1850 worked 20 slaves on his plantation, and Alexandre (m. 1827 Joséphine Stelly), who owned 42 slaves.

Apparently, not until the 1880s did some Castilles begin to move out of the upper Teche area to settle in the western prairies, principally near Church Point and Rayne in Acadia Parish and beyond. For instance, at that time two great-grandsons of Jean-Baptiste, Sr., Joseph-Léonce (m. 1890 Eugénie Gautreaux) and Louis (m. 1889 Corinne Cahanin), had migrated into the Rayne are. Earlier two other great-grandsons, Hypolite (m. 1882 Léontine Brown) and Alcée (m. 1882 Eulalie Richard) had obtained land near Church Point.

Still another great-grandson, Paul-Fernand (m. 1885 Eunice Jewell) had moved southward to Fausse Pointe on the Teche near New Iberia.

As was the case with other "Cajun" families, the western migration of Castilles into the Lake Charles area and southeastern Texas probably did not begin until the 1920s