Ive been following these forums for two months and wondering if I should register. But unless there was a French mystery, I am not sure what I could add. But then came the French mystery. So I researched a bit and heres my contribution. I apologize for the length.
Im fluent in French (degrees, etc.) and speak Cajun French most every day. Im pretty familiar with language evolution and with Louisiana French.
The short version of what Ive found: Pin Clair is the name of the settlement that is now gone but for the cemetery. Pinseclair is a typo or some similar mistake that happened recently and got multiplied a zillion times by the web. The term pin clair means light-colored pine, probably something different from the longleaf pine that predominates in that area, which is called pin rouge (red pine).
Longer version:
Pinseclair makes no sense in French, as is. It puzzled me to no end when I first saw that on Google Maps. I think it was MissKJN who suggested Pins éclair (éclair means lightning, as she pointed out. Not impossible, but not too alluring as a possibility. And that middle syllable would survive in pronunciations as a strong ay sound. Is it a clearing? A clearing in the pines along the pine/prairie line is called an anse (a cove) in Cajun French, which leads to place names like LAnse Grise and Roberts Cove.
All of the Pinseclair instances on the web seem to come from some earlier web version. I guess that there is an original instance, but it seems to be the web endlessly quoting itself.
Pin Clair (or homonyms Pins Clair or Pain Clair), on the other hand, does figure in a number of historical pieces on the web. I learned that Saint Katharine Drexel actually founded a school at this settlement for children of color (maybe Native American, maybe African-American, maybe both
.). Maybe that was mentioned in the local news. The Catholic church that was there has since been folded into the Mamou church, St. Ann. Their webpage offers an informative paragraph on this page:
http://saintannmamou.org/about/parish-history/.
Ive
heard this pronounced pin clair. (As has been noted, pin sounds like pan without the actual n sound.) That seems right. I live in a different part of Acadiana, though, and am wondering how to call up St. Anns or my lawyer friend in that parish to ask how they pronounce the cemetery name. Tastefully.
Thanks for this amazing network of concern.