« ...-Jean-Marc, you who are consulting the municipal archives of the Rhuys Peninsula, could you find me some cousins in St-Gildas in the 1850s?

-Yes, Yannick, but you have hundreds of cousins in Saint-Gildas ! As a native of Saint-Gildas and having done research myself for about twenty years, family names often come up: LE HESCHO, COQUEN, LE GALLIC, RIO, KERIGNARD, LE BIBOUL...»

And when I discovered the document relating to the sinking of the Shooner

 "La Blanche-Marguerite", Captain LE BIBOUL, transcribed further in this document, I make the connection with Félix LE BIBOUL, great-great-grandfather of Yannick, my first cousin.

Extract from the minutes of the Registry of the Court of First Instance of Vannes, fourth district, Department of Morbihan.

To the Presidents and Judges, composing the first civil chamber of the Court of First Instance of Vannes.

Judgment which establishes the place and time of the death of Félix and Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL of Kerfagot.

The Imperial Prosecutor at the Tribunal has the honor to present;

From the extract from the Register of Merchant Ships of the Vannes district, it appears that the schooner Blanche Marguerite was lost on the coast of Norway on the twenty-sixth of September, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three and that the following persons:

LE BIBOUL Félix, Captain of the ship

LE DOUARIN Joachim Marie, sailor

MADEC Jacques Magloire, sailor

BLANCHO Jean Marie, young sailor

LE BIBOUL Vincent Marie, young sailor

Perished in this disaster.

This document is confirmed especially with regard to Messrs. LE BIBOUL father and son by several other documents.

A letter from the French Vice-Consulate in Stavanger (Norway) dated October 1, 1853, states that five men from the crew died, including Captain LE BIBOUL and his son.

On the same date, the named GICQUEL (Jean Vincent) sailor of the Blanche Marguerite crew wrote "that he had just lost his ship on the point of Klepp, Norway, that five men of the crew had perished and that the sailor LE GUERANNIC and he alone had saved themselves; that Captain LE BIBOUL, LE DOUARIN and MADEC had been buried and that the two other bodies had not been found."

On October 30, 1853, a clergyman from Klepp, near Stavanger, informed Lady LE BIBOUL that the body of the young Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL, found after that of his father, had been buried in the same tomb by the signatory of the letter.

Finally, it has been learned by the Mayor of the commune of St Gildas (editor's note: Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys, Morbihan, Brittany, France) that the sailor LE GUERANNIC (editor's note: Louis-Marie), who returned to this commune since the disaster of September 26, was able to recount the details of the shipwreck in front of numerous witnesses and in accordance with the preceding information. Mr. (editor's note: Louis-Marie) LE GUERANNIC and (editor's note: Jean Vincent) GICQUEL are currently at sea and that it was necessary to await their return, to carry out an investigation before judicially establishing the death of Messrs. LE BIBOUL father and son, this delay would harm serious interests.

The proof of the death of Messrs. LE BIBOUL father and son is, moreover, certain and complete from the documents analyzed above. I, the undersigned, therefore conclude that, as you please, I declare by a judgment which will be transcribed in the civil status registers of the commune of St Gildas and mentioned in the same registers in the margin of the closest document by the date of September twenty-six, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. That the named:

1_Félix LE BIBOUL, master of coastal shipping, born in St Gildas, on April 23, 1804, residing in the same commune, husband of Marie Louise Barbe MAHEAS.

2- Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL, Sailor, born in St Gildas, on May 6, 1841,

residing in the same commune, son of Félix and Marie Louise Barbe MAHEAS,

Died on September 26, 1853, on the coast of Norway, near Klepp.

At the public prosecutor's office on January 25, 1854. For the Imperial Prosecutor, signed Galles Substitute. We will report to you at tomorrow's hearing.

Vannes on January 26, 1854, the President of the Court signed Terrier de Laistre.

Napoleon, by the grace of God and the national will, Emperor of the French, to all present and future, Greetings.

The Civil Court of First Instance of Vannes delivered the following judgment:

From the twenty-seventh of January one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four,

Public hearing held at the Vannes courthouse, by the first chamber of the court of first instance in Vannes, where the following were present:

MrTerrier de Laistre, Président, Rialan et Loysel,judges, present Mr. Galles, deputy of the Imperial Prosecutor and Master Bardin, clerk.

Having considered the application and the supporting documents; the Court, having heard the President in his report and the Deputy Prosecutor in his oral submissions, and having deliberated in accordance with the law. Whereas it is clear from the documents provided, and without the need for an investigation, that

1° Mr. Félix LE BIBOUL, Master of Coastal Shipping, born in St Gildas on April 23, 1804,

residing in the same commune, husband of Marie Louise Barbe MAHEAS

 2° Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL, born in St Gildas on May 6, 1841, residing in the same commune, son of Félix and Marie Louise Barbe MAHEAS,

died at sea on September 26, 1853, on the coast of Norway, near Klepp, following the sinking of the Goëlette Blanche Marguerite, of which they were part of the crew.

For these reasons,

Said and judged that the said Félix and Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL died on the coasts of Norway, near Klepp, on the twenty-sixth of September one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. Orders that this judgment, which will serve as the death certificate of the said Félix LE BIBOUL and Vincent Marie LE BIBOUL, be transcribed in full in the current registers of civil status acts of the commune of St Gildas, by the civil registrar, as soon as a copy thereof has been delivered to him and that mention of this judgment will be made in the margin of the nearest act dated September twenty-sixth, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three in the duplicate registers of the said commune.

Orders that this judgment be registered free of charge, pending the indigence of the interested parties. Thus judged and pronounced in public court on the said days and year. Signed Terrier de Laistre and Bardin.

Registered free of charge in Vannes on February 10, 1854, f° 57 box 4, Signed Philippe, transcribed in St Gildas on March 1, 1854; by us, the undersigned Mayor. Two words crossed out approved plus one interlined word.

Le HECHO, Mayor.