Since there appears to be a Gradney related thread, I just thought I might make in inquiry to the origins of my gggg grandmother, Henrietta Gradenigo. She was a free woman of color who lived in Opelousas and later began the LaChapelles of color with a French-Canadian immigrant named Pierre Hubert LaChapelle before the Civil War. I suspect that she was the sister of Honore and Marie Gradenigo(the ones who were freed in the 1830s) and I also suspect that she was free before both of them.
Henrietta's children were Theophile, Joseph, Louis, and Hortense LaChapelle. FYI... Marie Granenigo is enumerated near my ancestor, Henrietta LaChapelle in 1860 or 1850.