The Chauvins were among the first European settlers of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. Three Chauvin brothers, Jacques, Joseph, and Nicolas, all French Canadians, in 1700 accompanied Le Moyne de Bienville to the Gulf Coast settlement of Biloxi, which two years later was transferred to Fort Louis above Mobile. A fourth brother, Louis, joined the rest in 1706. All four were sons of "Grand" Pierre Chauvin, who in 1653 migrated to Montreal in Canada from his native province of Anjou, west-central France. Except for Jacques (who died in Mobile in 1729), the Chauvin brothers moved to New Orleans just after its founding in 1718. There they and their offspring eventually became among the most celebrated of New Orleans eighteenth century society, attaining prominence in military, political, and commercial affairs of early Louisiana.* While in Mobile three of the Chauvin brothers adopted dit names, or nicknames, as was common among some French settlers of the time. Joseph became Chauvin dit Léry; Nicolas, Chauvin dit La Frénière; Louis, Chauvin dit Beaulieu. Later the dit was changed to the more aristocratic de, and eventually many of the descendants dropped Chauvin as part of the surname in preference for the assumed title. For example, the surname of Joseph's descendants became De Léry, or Delery, today a prominent family name in New Orleans.

Today one third of the Chauvin families of Louisiana live in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes and most of these probably descend from a single progenitor, one "Pol" Hypolite Chauvin, a native of the eighteenth century French settlement of Kaskaskia in Illinois.

Several Chauvin families settled in Illinois during the eighteenth century. All were from Canada, the more prominent being descendants of "Grand" Pierre Chauvin, and thus blood relatives of the New Orleans pioneers.

A grandson of "Grand" Pierre, Joseph Chauvin dit Charlesville, was among the first French Canadian settlers of Illinois.

The relation of "Pol" Hypolite to the Illinois clan, however, is uncertain, as is the date of his arrival in Louisiana. His will of 1799 indicated that he settled along the German Coast in St. Charles Parish where he married Charlotte Toups.

Other records reveal that from 1776 until his death in 1799 he was prominent in parish affairs as land owner, tutor, and witness with some education.

Soon after "Pol" Hypolite's widow sold the St.

Charles estate in 1803,6 three of the four Chauvin sons moved to the Lafourche to settle near present Thibodaux.

Each had large families, as did their sons and grandsons, who as small farmers migrated into Terrebonne parish along Bayous Terrebonne and Petit Caillou.

None of these families moved out of that area until the 1880s when a few of the more adventurous settled along the lower Teche near Morgan City and Franklin.

By 1895 three Chauvin families descendant of the Terrebonne branch had reached the vicinity of Abbeville.

The story is further complicated by the presence of Chauvin families apparently unrelated to the French Canadian and Illinois connections. For instance, after the Civil War sons of one Antoine Chauvin (of New Orleans?) began to settle along the Lafourche in the vicinity of Raceland and Lockport. Much earlier, an Acadian refugee, Jean-Baptiste Chauvet dit Chauvin and his wife, Marguerite Braud, by 1773 were living near present Donaldsonville with their family.

Since the dit name was used as surname by the children, possibly the present Chauvins of Ascension and St. James parishes may descend from these Acadians