Chief Chief Opehaw Pierre Panyouasas

Chief Chief Opehaw Pierre Panyouasas (1645–4 June 1747) is identified in this family line as Barbara’s 8th great-grandfather. Family-tree notes associate him with the Choctaw and state that Mobile Cathedral recorded him as a Choctaw chief in connection with the 1724 approval of his daughter’s marriage.

Chief Chief Opehaw Pierre Panyouasas was born in 1645 and died on 4 June 1747. He is identified as Barbara’s 8th great-grandfather.

Family-tree notes state that Mobile Cathedral recorded him as a Choctaw chief in connection with the approved 1724 marriage of one of his daughters. The same notes say that approval was delayed and attribute the delay to restrictions on marriages to Native people in the French colony.

The notes identify Opehaw as Choctaw, while also observing that his name has been considered linguistically Algonquin. They speculate that his mother may have been Mi’kmaq based on location, but this proposed maternal identity is not documented in the supplied material.

The supplied relationship path descends through his daughter Marie Suzanne Sauset dit Panyouasas, then Magdelaine Panyouasas Baudreau, Marie "Marthe" Paquet, Jacob Hankel Bang II, Emanuel I Bang, Emmanuel Bang, Matilda Bang, Ruby Armena Maples, and Doris Helen Sherrell.

Historical context

The supplied family-tree notes place the reported cathedral record within the French colonial period and describe restrictions on marriage to Native people. No dated colonial law, parish entry, or other supporting record was provided for this statement.

Sources & research

No citations or source references were supplied.