Where The Crais Got Their Creole
Natalie Cockey ’25
Like my uncle Clifton says in his memoir, my family has a tendency to “forget” our complicated family tree. “The Crais family is French” is all I could ever get out of my grammy even though she knew that wasn’t necessarily the truth. The truth is we are white Creole Ashkenazi Jews who were forced to flee to Haiti to escape anti-Semitism at the end of the 18th century. Complicated, right? What does Creole even mean? It means a lot of things actually; by definition, it is a person of mixed European and black descent, specifically Caribbean. Mixed European is a really broad visual, though. I wanted to really dive into the specifics of my family and find out where we originated and how we got spit out in New Orleans.
Starting from the beginning is Joseph Lange Crais and his father. Josephs’s father left eastern France during the second half of the 18th century. His father was a shipbuilder (most likely), but in 1871 he and his one-year-old son had to relocate again due to the enslaved peoples of Haiti rebelling against the French government. This put Joseph and his father in New Orleans like most other people fleeing French rule. After his father dies, Joseph marries a woman named Emilie Doucet, who is also an exile of Haiti. Emilie was black and she was fleeing as an enslaved woman searching for freedom. The two of them started a life in New Orleans, Joseph being a shipwright and Emilie staying at home with their 4 children. Joseph gained a small fortune due to the rise of traffic up and down the Mississippi river. 
I’ve also decided to speak to some of my family members down in New Orleans and ask them if they grew up knowing their true Creole background or if it was hidden from them.
Gannie Beanna (Sabrina Crais) – My great aunt said, ” When we were kids we had no idea, nor did we ever really have the desire to find out about our background. My father was a racist and anti-Semitic man, which is ironic because he was a Creole Jew. Anytime I asked about my heritage for a school project or something like that I was always told we were born and bred in New Orleans.”
Aunt Kyla (Sabrina’s Daughter) – Aunt Kyla said, Mom always said we were Creole and I knew what that meant so I never had the urge to dig deeper into it until Clif wrote the book. I disregarded all the whiney stuff and became really interested in the historical parts of our family that I never knew about.”
Aunt Angela (Clifton’s niece) – Aunt Angela said, “When I found out we were Creole, I fucking knew it. Our cooking is way too good for us to not have a little Creole in us.”
My family has been down in New Orleans for a very long time and they don’t plan on ever leaving. Having such a deep-rooted history in a city like New Orleans means something to us. Even for the family members that don’t still live there or never actually lived there, we will never stop visiting. Our history keeps us drawn in.
I enjoyed both reading and hearing this project. I think that hearing the story and cadence of your tone in class really helped bring everything to life and better tell the story.
Your project by far was the most interesting one of the finals! I love that you offered so much information, especially with the fact that you are a white Creole which is rarely what the public sees. It honestly must be so cool to come from such a diverse background!