Genealogy has been a passion of mine since I was a teen ager. My curiosity began while watching an episode of The Walton’s. I don’t remember exactly what the storyline was, but someone was trying to find out about their family’s history. I started asking my parents and grandparents to tell me about our family. I asked my Maw Maw Thibodeaux if she would write down all of her and Paw Paw Thibodeaux’s family. Because she couldn’t read or write, I sat with my Ma Mere Breaux and she told me about her family and I wrote them down. I now had a family tree that went as far as my great-grandparents and all their children. This was my starting point.
The next thing I did was join a genealogy club in my area. There I was able to sit with others who showed me the ropes. I was able to get some print outs of family tree charts ( you can find those online and print them for free) I would suggest doing a Google search to find out if there is a group that meets together in your area. The benefit in this is that you will probably have other members who had family coming from the same destinations and they can direct you to a place where you are likely to be successful in finding the information you need on your ancestors. Even better, you might find someone with the same ancestors who has already done a branch or two of your family tree and they will be happy to let you copy it! My family is strongly rooted in south Louisiana. One thing I learned right away is that Reverend Donald Hebert’s books have a wealth of information for me. I would suggest that after you have written down the basics of your family tree from talking to your family members, I would go to Reverend Hebert’s books. If your family has lived in south Louisiana for any amount of time, you should find them there. He puts out a new volume every 10- 20 years or so. So, I am probably listed in there by now. And, if you have been here for any length of time, you probably are too. There are two collections of books. One set is for south Louisiana and the other is for southwest Louisiana. In my experience the south Louisiana set is geared towards Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, Ascension, and St. Mary Parishes. The southwest set is geared towards the Louisiana parishes the west of the Atchafalaya River. To search the Reverend Hebert collections, simply go to the volume that covers the year your relative was born. When you open the book it is ordered alphabetically by last name, then first name. You can usually find: baptism date (where), birth date (where), marriage date (where and to whom), death date (where), and parents. This information is not available for each entry, but it is there if it was available at the time of the entry. Any library will have these books in the genealogy section. The only problem is that you can’t check the books out. You have to stay there and do your research. I was able to fill up a lot of my family tree using these books. One thing you have to keep in mind in finding out when or where a person was born in south Louisiana is to search baptism records in the Catholic Church. For the most part, our ancestors were Catholic. Be it Acadian, German, Spanish, Portuguese; they were mostly Roman Catholic and it was important to baptize their child. So, if you find you can’t find a birth record when doing research, look for a baptism record. You will probably find it there. Another thing to keep in mind is that often times the last name you are searching may have a different spelling from how you spell it now. Sometimes when a child was born and the parent was asked to spell their last name, due to illiteracy, the parent did not know how to spell their name. The person writing the document spelled it as best they could. So, if you see a name and it looks like that could be your ancestor, but the name is off a little. Chances are that it is yours. Once you have exhausted Reverend Hebert’s books, I would look into other books in the Library. New Orleans and Baton Rouge have a huge genealogy section. You can search through old newspapers, microfilm of censuses, anything you want. The library is staffed with personnel that can help you to find specific books that will help you to find the information you need. It is important to know if your ancestors were part of a migration to Louisiana. For example, were they Acadians, were they Germans, were they Los Islenos? To our Acadian family scattered abroad. I would suggest you begin your searching at http://acadian-cajun.com and http://www.afgs.org/acadia/AHS-Links.html When the Acadians were exiled from Acadia, the English took them to some of the 13 colonies. At that time they were owned by the English. Some of the Acadians escaped into the woods and later settled in nearby areas. Many of those Acadians settled down in French Canada, just west of Acadia (now Nova Scotia), and were assimilated into the French-Canadian culture. When the war ended in 1763, some tried to return to their homeland, only to find that it had been given to someone else. Those Acadians who moved to larger towns, like Quebec and Montreal, merged into their surrounding culture. Some Acadia communities remained in New Brunswick and still exhibit the Acadian culture today. Areas settled by Acadians in those early days, that still bear links to the Acadian culture, can be found in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Others were brought to the Caribbean. Others were brought to England and jailed. So, not all Acadians came to Louisiana. One last bit of advice. I loved to hear my grandparents talk about their youth and their family. One thing I regret was that I did not record them when they told me things. The memory fades and I don’t recall all the details. I would suggest you either record or write down things you learn from your family. They are a treasure that you want to keep for future generations. Today, the internet has a wealth of information. I have put together a list of websites you will find helpful in researching your family history. https://familysearch.org/ is the database put together by the Church of Latter Day Saints. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is pretty diligent at researching their family history. I was able to search and find every person I looked up. I could see birth dates, birth place, marriage date, marriage place, death, and death place. I could not see documentation on any of these events. I have found that a membership on Ancestory.com is profitable for finding those things. You can locate them and print them from their site for the most part. http://nutrias.org/links/genlinks/genlinks.htm is a list of good Genealogy reference links from the New Orleans Library http://www.vitalrec.com/la.html is a website for vital records http://nutrias.org/links/genlinks/genlinks.htm is a list of good Genealogy links reference from the New Orleans Library Free research sites http://selu.libguides.com/content.php?pid=56074&sid=516871 https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1674847 Please comment below if you have any questions about researching your family genealogy. There is so much out there that it is pretty impossible to outline it all in this brief blog post. If you would like me to blog on something in particular please let me know and I would be happy to blog on it. I can also do more information on the Acadians who settled in other places other than Louisiana if anyone is interested in that. Just comment if you want more info.
3 Comments
Sissy Adams Michel
9/12/2015 03:07:30 pm
I have been doing my family tree for years.. Little time to do fun things.. Would like to see more posts.. Thanks
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Cynthia Seitz
9/12/2015 03:53:51 pm
Thank you! I will post more...did you have anything specific you would like to read about?
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Michelle Pixton
9/14/2015 08:32:19 am
Hi Cynthia, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a family history center that is free to the public. If you would like to do research in our library just let me know and I could schedule a time for you. We have a wealth of information.
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