When Fraçois Donato, the son of Martin Donato and Marianne Duchesne, died in late 1837 or early January 1838, he left an estate containing a tract of land four arpents front by eighty arpents deep with a dwelling and sugar house, as well as six slaves. The estimated value of his estate was $8,739.95. At the sale of the slaves which resulted from this succession, all but one were purchased by relatives. Donato's first cousin Evariste Guillory purchased a thirty-six-year-old male slave named Ben for $1,000.His father, Martin Donato, purchased a thirty-six-year-old female slave named Céleste, together with her three children, Valin, aged seven years, Philip, aged five years, and Valcour, aged six months. The price bid for the entire family was $1,670 (St. Landry Parish, Probate #845).

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LaTour Genealogical Collection

This is a different Céleste as the mother of Sabin and Olympe.

Document Date: 9/15/1816
Notary: St. Landry Book 8
Depository: Patrick Manning, Sacramental Records at Catholic Church in Opelousas, LA.
Location: St. Landry (Opelousas Post). [Calcasieu 1840, Cameron 1870, Acadia 1886, Evangeline 1908, Allen 1910, Jefferson Davis 1912, Beaureguard 1912]
Master: Martin & Wife Donato
Master's Gender: 3
Master's Race: mulatto
Name: Sabin
Name Type: African
Gender: male
Race: mulatto
Age Category: infant
Freed: at baptism
Relationship of freer to the freed: probably father
The manumission did not involve cash payment.
Slave was freed.
no prices at all
Comments: Father unknown. Master and his wife declare the child free.
Slave's mother is listed in the document
Slave's Mother: Celeste
Master's Mother: Donato, Martin
Mother's Race: black

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1850 United States Federal Census

Name: Sabin Donatts
Age: 37
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1813
Birth Place: Louisiana
Race: Mulatto
Gender: Male
Home in 1850(City,County,State): St Landry, Louisiana
Household Members: Name Age Sex Color
Sabin Donatts 37 M M
Magdelaine Donatts 30 F M
Olympes Donatts 31 F M
Marie Jeane Donatts 6 F M
Theresa Donatts 4 F M
James Donatts 13 M M