Born in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, in 1856 and 1862 respectively, Ernest Alexandre Delahoussaye and Cecile Dore grew up in farming communities. They were married in 1879 and bore eleven children.
In the early 1900’s, the world's economy was very unstable, but Biloxi was enjoying a booming seafood industry. This opportunity at a better life for their family brought the Delahoussaye’s and many other Cajun laborers from the strawberry fields of Louisiana to the shores of Mississippi in 1914. The Barataria Company provided housing for their factory workers in the “camps”, consisting of a line of 2-4 room shotgun houses or long buildings with 2 room apartments.
In Biloxi, the whole family worked hard as they did in Louisiana, with the men and older boys working on the factory boats and the women and younger children in the factory. Thus, Ernest and their one surviving son worked the boats while Cecile and nine of her daughters, ranging from 30 years to only 9 years old, would work peeling shrimp and shucking oysters; the eldest had married and remained in Louisiana.
Having lived and worked in Biloxi 11 years, Cecile Dore Delahoussaye passed away in 1925. Ernest and nine of their children called Biloxi “home” and continued working in the seafood industry for their remaining years. Ernest passed away in 1940.
Ernest and Cecile provided a long legacy of Biloxians devoted to the Maritime & Seafood Industry, among whom is local historian, Edmond Beaudreaux, their great grandson.