Books for Research in Family & Local History

 

 

{ ORDERING INFORMATION }

 

 

All titles, wrappers. Indexed, unless otherwise noted.

 

Louisiana residents are obliged to add four percent sales tax. East Baton Rouge

Parish residents are obliged to add an additional five  percent sales tax.

 

 

All titles, wrappers. Indexed, unless otherwise noted.Louisiana residents are obliged to add four percent sales tax. East Baton Rouge Parish residents are obliged to add an additional five percent sales tax. Add $2.50 first book, $0.50 each additional book per order for shipping by Media Mail (economy mail 2-3 weeks for delivery). For faster delivery, Parcel Post Priority or Fedex Ground is available for $5.50 first book, $0.75 each additional book per order. Customers from outside the continental United States should contact Provincial Press for cost of shipping. Canadian customers should add $12.50 US for Priority shipping. All payments, other than credit cards, are to be in US dollars only; international money order, or check drawn on a United States bank. A telephone number is also required for shipments to Canada. Note, we are not responsible for custom import charges. Customers using PayPal have options during check-out. Purchase-orders from libraries and other tax-exempt institutions are honored, by e-mail or otherwise. We accept credit cards only via our web-site catalogue provided in coöperation with PayPal in a safe and secure environment, and may be used by members and non-members of PayPal. All titles, wrappers. Indexed, unless otherwise noted. Louisiana residents are obliged to add four percent sales tax. East Baton Rouge Parish residents are obliged to add an additional five percent sales tax. Add $2.50 first book, $0.50 each additional book per order for shipping by Media Mail (economy mail 2-3 weeks for delivery). For faster delivery, Parcel Post Priority or Fedex Ground is available for $5.50 first book, $0.75 each additional book per order. Customers from outside the continental United States should contact Provincial Press for cost of shipping. Canadian customers should add $12.50 US for Priority shipping. All payments, other than credit cards, are to be in US dollars only; international money order, or check drawn on a United States bank. A telephone number is also required for shipments to Canada. Note, we are not responsible for custom import charges. Customers using PayPal have options during check-out. Purchase-orders from libraries and other tax-exempt institutions are honored, by e-mail or otherwise. We accept credit cards only via our web-site catalogue provided in coöperation with PayPal in a safe and secure environment, and may be used by members and non-members of PayPal.

 

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3653 Perkins Road       Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808

 

 

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L O U I S I A N A

L E G A J O S

A Catalogue of Records in Spain for Research in the

Colonial Mississippi Valley and on the Gulf Coast

 

Roscoe P. Hill

 

Preface by J. Franklin Jameson  ~  Foreword by Winston De Ville

Remarks on Research by Donald E. Pusch

 

 

Originally published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1916, under the title Descriptive Catalogue of the Documents Relating to the History of the United States in the Papeles Procedentes de Cuba Deposited in the Archivo General de Indias at Seville, this classic volume remains the standard guide to tens of thousands of records relating to early American families – French, Spanish, Anglo-American, German, African-American, Native-American, and others. Often referred to as “The Cuban Papers,” these rich documents have little to do with Cuba genealogically. They are, in fact, a primary source of reference for any research in the colonial Mississippi Valley and on the Gulf Coast. Major research centers hold microfilm copies of many of these legajos (bundles of records). Houston’s Clayton Genealogical Library has the largest collection in the world outside Spain – more than 1,900 reels of microfilm. Hill’s book is the  most important single reference volume for Louisiana research during the last half of the eighteenth century.

 

Reprint, September 2003. 647 pages, 8½ x 11, enlarged type. Index. Wrappers. Item no. LL2. $87.50.

 

 

Long out-of-print, now available

 in a one–volume limited edition   ~

 

Marriage Contracts of

Colonial Louisiana: 1736  ~  1803 

Winston De Ville

Edited by the Reverend Donald J. Hébert

 

With contributions by

Jane Guillory Bulliard and Jacqueline Olivier Vidrine

 

Introduction by

Robert de Berardinis

 

 

        Marriage contracts are quintessentially valuable for genealogical research. When the initial collection of these colonial marriage contracts was published in 1960, it was hailed by reviewers as a milestone in reference works relating to the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast. Now, after many years of being out-of-print, the first five volumes published for colonial Louisiana studies are available by arrangement with Hébert Publications. The special imprint of collated volumes is limited to seventy-five copies in a first edition. Covering the posts of Opelousas, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupée, Avoyelles, and Attakapas, the one-alphabet index contains approximately 2,000 names of early Louisiana pioneers. Principal parties appear alphabetically.

      Of the data gathered in this book, Dr. Hans W. Baade, Professor of Civil Law, The University of Texas, wrote (1980): “…historians and genealogists are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of marriage contracts for research in family and population history. To a considerable extent, this awareness is due to the pioneering efforts of Winston De Ville.”

 

First edition, limited to seventy-five copies, August 2003. 256 pages, 8½ x 11. Wrappers. Item no. MC8. $48.50.

 

Mississippi  Naturalizations

1798  ~ 1906:

T h e  I n d e x

 

Foreword by Winston De Ville

Fellow, American Society of Genealogists

 

 

        Originally published in 1942 by the Works Projects Administration, under the ægis of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, this comprehensive index had, until now, been virtually unknown, rarely used by genealogists. World War II halted much of the WPA’s work, and severely restricted those projects in progress at the time. Thus, only a very small number of copies was made available over a half-century ago – a few went to libraries; virtually none went to individual collectors. The publisher had access only to a xerographic ‘copy of a copy’ for this reprint; the pages are legible, but far from attractive graphically.

        This important work covers the entire state of Mississippi, arranged alphabetically under each county. An additional comprehensive index of approximately 5,000 names in one alphabet adds facility to reference research. As naturalization papers offer genealogists some of the most valuable data on individuals who settled in America – places of origin, ages, allegiances, and other useful information – this index immediately becomes a “first reference” for any research in the Gulf South.

 

Reprint, 2003. 258 pages, 8½ x 11. Item no. MN1. $43.50.

~

ACADIAN CHURCH RECORDS: 1679-1757. Winston De Ville. The earliest extant ecclesiastical records for the first families of Acadia. Originally published in 1963; now in it’s third printing. Reprint. 35 pages. Item no. A1. $16.00.

 

THE ACADIAN COAST IN 1779: Settlers of Cabannocey and La Fourche in the Spanish Province of Louisiana During the American Revolution. Winston De Ville. Preface by Barbara Dumesnil de la Houssaye, State Regent, Louisiana Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. Introduction by Kathleen M. Stagg. A supplement to the author’s Louisiana Soldiers in the American Revolution; see Item no. L1. Vital evidence for Revolutionary service. 41 pages. Item no. A2. $16.00.

 

ACADIAN FAMILIES IN 1686. Benjamin Sulte. Translated and edited by Winston De Ville. This ancient enumeration lists most of the best-known names of Acadian origin, relationships, ages, amounts of property, and places of residence. 27 pages. Item no. A3. $16.00.

 

 

Acts of French 

Royal   Administration:

 

A Calendar for Canada, Guiana,

Louisiana, and the West Indies, 1540~1790

 

 

 Lawrence C. Wroth, The John Carter Brown Library, and

Gertrude L. Annan, The New York Academy of Medicine

 

Foreword by Winston De Ville        Preface by Robert de Berardinis.

 

 

        Data in the documents described in this volume were collected from libraries, archives, and other depositories throughout the world. Published in a very limited edition in 1930, this detailed reference book describes 2,083 items that affected colonial explorations, settlement, society and daily life, Franco-Indian relations, military defense, trade and the economy. Because of the first edition’s rarity, it has seldom been used by historians, and has virtually never been consulted by genealogists who seek important details concerning their French colonial ancestors as frontiersmen. Reprint, second edition, August 2003. 155 pages, 8½ x 11. Item no. F4. $38.50.

~

AN ACCOUNT OF LOUISIANA

By

Thomas Jefferson

 

{ 1803 }

 

         New preface by Winston De Ville. Originally published in 1803, this  volume provides remarkable details found in one of the rarest books in the historiography of the entire Mississippi Valley and of the Gulf Coast. Published in a limited edition at the time of the Louisiana Purchase for the benefit of that era’s Congress, few, if any, copies were made available to the general public. (The appendices are not included in this edition – Part I – but are forthcoming as Part II during the bicentennial year.)

        All aspects of life in eighteenth-century Louisiana are revealed in the finely detailed “Table of Contents”: Boundaries - Divisions of the Province - Chapitoulas, The German Coasts, Cabanocey, La Fourche & Iberville - Bayou de Fourche, Attakapas, & Opelousas - Baton Rouge & its Dependencies - Pointe Coupée & Fausse Rivière - Red River & its Settlements - Concord, Arkansas, St. Charles., & St. Andrew - Upper Louisiana - The Carondelet Canal - St. Bernard - The English Turn - Plaquemines & Hurricanes - Mississippi River Passes - East of Lake Pontchartrain - Inhabitants & Their Origins - New Orleans - Number of Inhabitants - The Militia - Fortifications -The Indians - Lands & Titles - Sugar Cultivation - Laws - Courts & Justice - The Lawyers - Crimes & Punishments - Learning - The Church - Officers of Government - Taxes & Duties - Expenses & Debt - Imports & Exports - Manufactures - Navigation - Coasting Trade. Reprint. Part One, 55 pages. Item AL1. $31.00.

 

 

AVAILABLE AGAIN !

 

 

ADAMS  COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI,

COURT  MINUTES

Volume I: 1799 ~ 1801

 

Robert E. Strong, Editor     •     Introduction by Winston De Ville, FASG

 

 

 

This is the first of the two almost mythical supplements to May Wilson McBee’s The Natchez Court Records: 1799-1801(1958). Reprinted from the extremely rare first edition of 1942, it is Volume One in a two-volume work, each complete unto itself. It includes an index in which most of Mississippi’s early American families are represented. The first edition is so rare that the only copy available to the publisher for reprinting was a Xerox of the mimeographed original – the text is legible, but is not graphically attractive.

        With full transcriptions, not merely abstracts, the minutes cover the period from initial American occupation following the Spanish régime, beginning 3 June 1799. By then, the greater Natchez area was already largely Anglo-American. Upon first being reprinted (for a very brief period) in 2000, the two volumes immediately became a major first-reference for Mississippi genealogy and history. (Volume  II, see below.) Third edition, February 2004. 130 pages. Item no. AD1. $28.50.

 

ADAMS COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI COURT MINUTES: Volume II, 1802-1804 . Item No. AD2. 150 Pages. $28.50.

 

ALABAMA TERRITORIAL PAPERS INDEX: 1817 ~ 1819. Clarence Edwin Carter. Introduction by Winston De Ville.  This index reveals more than 1700 entries. See Item no. MTP2. First edition, August 2005. 133 pages. Enlarged print. Item no. ALTP2. $33.50.

 

ANCESTRY IN ACADIANA: Selected Writings for the Genealogy & History of the Mississippi Valley & the Gulf Coast.  Winston De Ville. While all subjects do relate to ancestry, they, by no means, all relate to Acadian genealogy. The region of Louisiana named “Acadiana” was created by legislative fiat in 1971; it includes some areas that are “Acadian” neither by origins of the first settlers nor by culture.

      This collection of articles began publication in 1984 in the popular magazine, Louisiana Profile. The articles reflect interest in virtually every aspect of Louisiana  family history, and goes far to record the evolution of genealogy in the state. First edition, October 2005. 101 pages. No index. Item no. AA2. $28.50.

 

ATTAKAPAS POST: The Census of 1771. Winston De Ville. Family names are primarily Acadian, with numerous other families included. Ages are shown. 17 pages. Item no. A4. $13.50.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE HONORABLE SETH LEWIS, 1764~1858: An Anglo-American Federal Judge in the Spanish South. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Seth Lewis, native of New England, became a citizen of Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee as a young man. In Louisiana and Mississippi, he was to become one of the Deep South’s earliest and most eminent Anglo-American jurists. His un-edited memoir is herewith published again – not in a limited edition, as apparently the first edition was ca. 1900. The typography is new and an index is featured.

Young Seth, overcoming his lack of formal education, would master the French language with alacrity, teach himself Latin, and become a leading jurist in the early American Gulf South; a future president was his mentor – Andrew Jackson. President Adams appointed him Chief Justice of the Mississippi Territory in 1800. During the War of 1812, he was the first federal district judge to take office in Louisiana, seated in Opelousas. Seth Lewis established a pattern of public service that he would follow for rest of his life. Second edition, February 2005. 48 pages. Item no. SL3. $28.50

BATON ROUGE AND NEW FELICIANA: Census Reports for Louisiana’s Florida Parishes in 1782, 1786, and 1793. Albert J. Tate, Jr. and Winston De Ville. Primarily Anglo-American. Reprint. 31 pages. No index.  Item no. BR1. $16.00.

 

BELLEVUE STUD: A Case of Libel for the History of the Richard Family in Ante-Bellum Louisiana. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Robert de Berardinis. An Essay on the Richard Family by Robert C. West. This first translation of an 1848 court proceedings records the offense taken by citizens of St. Landry Parish, and the shock they felt during a legal battle in the years preceding the Civil War. The explosive episode tore their social fabric apart; it was the era of the Vigilantes. Young ladies of the area were said to be victims of a man nick-named “The Bellevue Stud,” and a husband was portrayed as a cuckold. These official pages of legal records are primary evidence of frontier humor gone amuck. The same pages, however, provide rare genealogical data for the Richard and related families. Five crudely drawn sketches were presented as evidence in the case, and these are reproduced in this volume. A satirical French poem of fourteen stanzas, one of the pieces offered in evidence, is retained untranslated. 28 pages. Map. Illustrations. Item BS1. $26.00.

 

BRITISH BURIALS AND BIRTHS ON THE GULF COAST: Records of the Church of England in West Florida, 1768-1770. Winston De Ville. Data represent the only known register on the subject from the Public Records Office of England. 31 pages. Item no. B1. $16.00.

 

THE BRITISH DEVELOPMENT OF WEST FLORIDA: 1763-1769. Clinton N. Howard. Featuring land-grants and the part they played between the French and Spanish eras in the Gulf South. Important for finding land-holdings of many well-known families from Pensacola to Natchez. Reprint. 175 pages. Item no. BD1. $48.50.

 

THE CABILDO RECORDS OF NEW ORLEANS, 1769-1785: An Index to Abstracts in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly. Verda Jenkins Ruff.  Introduction by Winston De Ville.  Reprint. 83 pages. Item no. C2. $26.00. {See also French Superior Council Records of Louisiana below.}

 

“CAJUNS” AND NEO-ETHNICITY: Concerns of an Acadian-American Genealogist. Winston De Ville. Comments on Acadian Research by Robert de Berardinis. Reprint of a “Viewpoints” essay published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly protesting a popular shibboleth of modern culture.  “Comments” is added, offering valuable information on little-known research sources. 16 pages. Item no. CAJ 1. $16.00.

 

CALENDAR OF LOUISIANA COLONIAL DOCUMENTS: Avoyelles Parish, 1786-1803. Winston De Ville.  A classic for Louisiana research, the first in the series. Reprint. 50 pages. Item no. C1. $18.50.

 

CALENDAR OF LOUISIANA COLONIAL DOCUMENTS: Saint Charles Parish, 1734-1769. Elizabeth Becker Gianelloni. An essential reference for early German Coast families. Reprint. 60 pages. Item no. C4. $21.00.

 

 

…after three decades, a second edition   ~

 

Canadian Passports

1681 ~ 1752

 

Edouard Z. Massicotte

 

Introduction by René Chartrand

Index by Paul Jarry

 

 

        When this book was published with a new index in 1975, it became a major “first reference” for research on French Canadian coureurs de bois, voyageurs, explorers – well- and lesser-known – and other early frontiersmen. Many of these men have legions of descendants throughout the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, and beyond.

        Written in French, the index of over 1,200 names allows the researcher to locate a particular person with ease, and the brief passport entries generally follow a standard form: name of the person who requested the passport, date, his destination, number (and generally, names) in the party, and other interesting and useful information. The beaver trade was usually the goal. In those early years, the destination was commonly designated simply as “the West” – and that could mean the northern reaches of Canada or the lower banks of the Mississippi River. A more specific place-name, however, is often provided. Second reprint edition, August 2003. 156 pages, Item no. C7. $31.00.

 

THE CAPUCHINS IN FRENCH LOUISIANA: 1722-1766. Claude L. Vogel, O.M. Cap. The history of the French régime in colonial Louisiana is, in great part, the history of controversies between two major religious orders. The Capuchins were the first to arrive, in 1722. Jesuit priests came only four years later, and the battle for ecclesiastical jurisdiction was joined. A solution came not until the very end of the French period, in 1764.

     Vogel’s research and conclusions, ‘though they date from the early twentieth century, are impeccable. Nineteenth century historians trained him, and researchers who seek details benefit greatly from that fact. As evidence of what is now considered old-fashioned methodology, he quotes many primary documents at length, even in full, often covering other subjects than his own. Entire sections of this important work relate specifically to New Orleans, Natchez, the Balize, Mobile, the German Coast, Pointe Coupée, the Apalaches Indians, the Tonicas, Natchitoches, and Chapitoulas. Second reprint edition, February 2004. 230 pages. Enlarged type. Item no. C6. $48.50.

 

 

“…the earliest book of this class….”

Catalogue of the

Kings of England

Thomas Milles

 

Introduction by Neil D. Thompson, PhD

Fellow, American Society of Genealogists

 

Preface by Winston De Ville, F.A.S.G.

 

 

        Originally published in 1610 as the major portion of Milles’ The Catalogue of Honour, this rare volume contains genealogical histories of Great Britain’s monarchs from King Egbert in the year 800, to James I in 1603. The Elizabethan author states his methodology plainly: “…this work…disputes no Titles, publique nor private, but aymes at Truth only in matters of Descent, Genealogies, Arms, and Pedegrees.” In 1822, the great English bibliographer, Thomas Moule, hailed this compendium as the keystone classic in British genealogy.

        Details on the lives of the kings, queens, their immediate families, relatives, and others – including their enemies – are remarkable, often so candid as to startle today’s reader. Coats-of-arms and other heraldic devices are generously illustrated throughout the pages, and marginal notations by the author guide the researcher to particular points of interest in the un-indexed text. Although all pages are legible, some relatively few are unevenly inked, reflecting the infancy of the printing-press. Copies of the 1610 edition are exceedingly rare. Reprint, January 2004. 250 pages, type area reduced five percent. Illustrated. Item no. CK1. In the United States: $58.50.

 

 

Catholic Missions inCanada:1721

 

 

Compiled by Mathieu-Benoit Collet  ·  Ivanhoe Caron, Editor

 

        The first two decades of modern history (1699-1730) in the Province of Louisiana – the entire Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast – were periods of rapid settlement. Very many of those first settlers were second- or third-generation Canadians. This book, a first-reference, is a virtual census of Canadian families at the very time their sons and fathers were leaving home to follow the Mississippi River to the French Illinois country, Arkansas, Natchitoches, recently-founded New Orleans, Mobile, and un-named wilderness regions beyond.

        Although the original French text is retained, a new index was commissioned when the first reprint was published in 1972. Ancestral names are easily located. Containing only names of individuals – no place-names or subjects – the number of entries is approximately 1,800. It is a vast enumeration; hundreds of well-known family names of colonial Louisiana are prominent. Reprint, second edition, December 2003. 144 pages. Item no. C8. $33.50.

 

CENTRAL LOUISIANA FAMILIES IN 1880: A Genealogical Guide to Rapides Parish During the Post-Civil War Period. Verda Jenkins Ruff. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Four copies only are available of the limited edition published in 1986. This book is not likely to be reprinted. First edition. 280 pages. Item no.  CVF1. $43.50.

 

CHARLES GAYARRÉ: Louisiana Historian and Politician. Essays by his friends and colleagues. Reprint. No index. 135 pages. Item no. C 5. $28.50.

 

 

 

CIVIL WAR PENSIONS

IN LOUISIANA, 1924 ~ 1933:

 veterans  and  widows

 

 

Introduction by

Winston De Ville, Fellow

American Society of Genealogists

 

 

        Preserving important records of twentieth century survivors of the War Between the States by reprinting these two years of their records is a small-enough commemoration of those heroes. Researchers with penchants for ante-bellum and colonial-era subjects often neglect the history of later times and the makers of that history.

        With these official pension reports in hand, the researcher is, with considerable facility, able to locate a copy of the original pension application at Louisiana’s state archives. Those papers often provide important and always interesting personal details for a family’s history. Precise ancestral places of residence, for example, may not be known, but the pension files almost always include a postal address. Unlike today’s consolidated post offices, even mere hamlets boasted local postal service for our forbears of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

        In addition to the pensioner’s name – with husband’s name, if widowed – the names of command, file number, and residential post-office are provided. In 1924, there were 4,102 pensioners; 2,106 in 1933. The two years are listed separately by parish, in alphabetical order. Second edition, August 2003. 148 pages. Item no. CW1. $28.50.

 

 

Announcing the fourth edition of . . .

 

THE CIVIL WAR TAX  IN LOUISIANA: 1865

 

Based on Direct Tax Assessments of Louisianians

 

Introduction by

John Milton Price

 

 

        "To the State of Louisiana, $385,886.66.” So read the federal direct tax levied on, but not collected from, citizens of Louisiana in 1861. After the Civil War, however, Congress was bound and determined to have the tax paid. How ironic it is that, having waged war to save the Union and free slaves, Washington politicians made the sale of slaves for tax payment a part of this tax’s structure!

        This book contains the names of persons who paid the tax – over 45,000 names – and the amount of the 1865 assessment for each. Arrangement is by parish – except for Calcasieu Parish, where no tax was collected – with some parishes in alphabetical order, some not. During a chaotic time in post-Civil War in Louisiana, this book is an excellent first-reference for locating “lost” ancestors. Fourth edition, August 2003. 355 pages. Item no. CW6. $48.50.

 

~

…for the French in North America,

 commemorating the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial   ~

 

Nancy Maria Miller Surrey’s

 

The Commerce of Louisiana During the French Régime,

1699  ~ 1763

 

Foreword by

Carl J. Ekberg

 

      Originally published in 1916, this monumental work remains the definitive study of the subject. In finest detail, the book covers the daily lives of French colonists as they pioneered in the Mississippi Valley and on the Gulf Coast. The pages reveal how they coped with a new frontier, how they survived, and how they went from bear-grease to butter, from near-starvation to plenty.

      Following a new foreword by a prize-winning American historian, researchers may learn virtually all there is to know in chapters devoted to WATERWAYS, NAVIGATION, BOATS, HIGHWAYS and TRAILS, BARTER, MONEY and CREDIT, TRADE, and traffic between FRANCE, the WEST INDIES, MEXICO, TEXAS, FLORIDA, CUBA, and with ENGLAND. The Illinois Country is thoroughly covered.

      The author’s bibliography is one of the best for the period. Although the original edition is not indexed, eleven unusually detailed “Contents” pages guide the reader directly to subjects of particular interest. Reprint, May 2003. 482 pages, 8½ x 11. Wrappers, comb-bound. Item CL 1. $61.00.

 

CORRECTIONS AND SUPPLEMENTAL INDEX TO McBEE’S NATCHEZ COURT RECORDS: 1767~1805. Richard S. Lackey, FASG. Introduction by Winston De Ville, FASG. May Wilson McBee’s book focuses on non-Latins who started arriving in the Gulf South before and during the American Revolution and those who came after it. Many of the abstracts pertain to other locations in “West Florida.” Because the Natchez District consisted of territory that later formed five early Mississippi counties – Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson, Warren, and Wilkinson, as well as Franklin and part of Amite – the McBee volume will always be one of the major first-references for Deep South genealogy. Such a massive project does, however, invite some inevitable errors and verily begs for omissions. Lackey’s errata and addenda address those problems. First edition, limited to ninety-nine copies, March 2004. 42 pages. Item no. MB8. $16.00.

 

Creole Education in Spanish Louisiana: Three Manuscripts for Historical Analysis. Translated and edited by Winston De Ville.Most studies relating to the history of education in colonial Louisiana virtually ignore secular instruction during the Spanish regime. Generally, historians have depicted the Province of Louisiana as an “intellectually backward community,” and give the subject an embarrassed passing nod. The three documents presented here are weighty pieces of evidence that demand a reëvaluation of such antiquated opinions. They reflect a colonial society that struggled to maintain high cultural standards and a sense of intellectual integrity.

    All documents are from archives in Spain.  The first is dated 1767, at the very beginning of Spanish domination. It is a letter from a school-master to Governor Antonio de Ulloa, depicting a performance presented by his pupils. The most voluminous document was also written during Ulloa’s administration – a very detailed petition, with a proposal titled “Prospectus of Education and Study for the Young People of the Mississippi.” The third item is not actually a manuscript, but a broadside printed at the very end of colonial rule, ca. 1803, when Louisiana was “seeing itself liberated.” The dramatic broadside boldly solicits subscribers to and authors for the Journal Louisianais, a proposed monthly periodical of 1500 pages per year! When Louisiana commemorated its American bicentennial, the historicity of the province, the territory, and the state was be reëxamined by referring to just such primary sources as this important collection. 28 pages. Item no. L2. $18.50.

 

DR. J. B. CRANFILL’S CHRONICLE: A STORY OF LIFE IN TEXAS, 1858  ~ 1915. “ Written by Himself About Himself ” {James Britton Buchanan Boone Cranfill}. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Cranfill’s tome does not purport to be a definitive history of Texas, but his remembrances of the final years on a frontier. His …Chronicle… is a quintessential example of the writings on which more sophisticated and scholarly books are based, and to them, are essential. As Cranfill succeeded brilliantly in eighty-five detailed chapters, the author’s goal is “…preserving in permanent form the history of a period of our Texas life that is rapidly being obscured….”

     The author was born on the Texas frontier in 1858. As a young man, he became a school-teacher, and, after studying medicine, began medical practice in Coryell County. In addition, he became a merchant, editor, and an outspoken newspaper publisher. An ardent Baptist, he was ordained as a minister in 1890, served Baylor University as financial secretary, and became superintendent of missionary work in Texas. Cranfill’s influence was felt not only throughout the Deep South, but throughout the nation, to the extent that he was a vice-presidential candidate at the age of thirty-four. Published in a 1916 limited edition, this book candidly records his active life and reveals the often tumultuous times in which he lived.

      The Rev. Dr. Cranfill’s candid memoirs, occasionally brusque, often humorous, provide a vivid portrait of a frontier’s final years. His writings, reflecting life as he saw and felt it, are grist for Cleo’s mill. It is of particular interest to the history of the Baptist Church in Texas.

      Reprint, April 2005. 496 pages. No index. Enlarged print. Illustrated. Item no. JBC1. $88.50.

 

EARLY NOTARIES OF CANADA. Introduction by René Chartrand. Index by Ruth Ortego Berthelot. Although the original French text of this book is retained, a new index guides the researcher to approximately 1300 names of early Canadians. The new introduction is in English. This work is important to the entire Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast, as well as to Canada.

    During the French régime, responsibility for drawing-up a legal document was the domain of the notary. Three tribunals existed. The highest level, of course, was the king, represented in the colonies by his intendant. Then came the Tribunals of Royal Jurisdiction. The third category was far more numerous – the seignorial notary. It is the latter that researchers see most often, tantamount to our “old courthouse records"; they are a boon to family history. Second reprint edition, January 2006. 86 pages. Enlarged print. Item no. ENC2. $18.50.

 

THE EAST COAST OF ACADIA IN 1708: A Census of the Indian and French Inhabitants of Port Royal, Cap Sable, La Hève, Les Mines, Mouscoudabouet, Cap Breton, Chiquenictou, Pintagouet, Canibeky, Port Rasoirs, and the River St. Jean. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Robert de Berardinis.  Included are the families of Babin, Bertrand, Boutin, Gaudet, Guidry, Melançon, Petit and Petitpas, Picou, Pitre, Robert, St. Aubin, Thibodeaux, Vigé, and Vincent, among others. 60 pages. Item no. A5. $28.50.

 

THE 1850 SLAVE SCHEDULE OF NATCHITOCHES PARISH, LOUISIANA. Marleta Childs. Names of slaves are not included, but names of their masters are, usually given in full, unlike the often-abbreviated names in standard federal census records. 95 pages. Item no. E2. $28.50.

~

ENGLISH LAND GRANTS IN WEST FLORIDA

 

A Register for the States of

Alabama, Mississippi, and Parts of Florida & Louisiana, 1766 ~ 1776

 

Winston De Ville, Fellow

American Society of Genealogists

 

        After the French and Indian War (1754-1763), England acquired what came to be called “The Two Floridas.” West Florida was a vast region that stretched from close by Pensacola to the Mississippi River. This book provides data for genealogists and historians on the earliest land grants from the king of England to individuals who were to become the patriarchs of well-known “first families” throughout the Deep South. Over 400 names appear in the index. Since its publication in 1986, English Land Grants… has served as a standard reference to one of the National Archives’ primary sources for early Anglo-American family history. The register of grants is a tool for locating ancestors “lost” in the Latin South. Second edition, August 2003. 48 pages, 8½ x 11. Wrappers. Index. Item no. E1. $23.50.

 

 

...commemorating the life of the

Hero of the Battle of New Orleans   ~

 

Eulogy on the Life of

_{Andrew Jackson}

 

By

George Van Santvoord

 

Introduction by

Paul H. Bergeron

The University of Tennessee

 

 

        From a manuscript written in 1845, the year of “Old Hickory’s” death, this booklet was first published by the eulogist’s son in Troy, New York, in 1914. In his introduction, Dr. Bergeron observes: “Van Santvoord’s great admiration of Jackson’s military career, especially the War of 1812 and the famous victory at the Battle of New Orleans, was evident in his remarks…. In fact, he devoted more time to this topic than to any other. The New Orleans battle, declared Van Santvoord, was ‘the complete and signal triumph of America’ and conferred upon Jackson ‘imperishable renown.’ Few persons then or later could quarrel with that assessment.”

        With regard to Jackson’s presidency, Van Santvoord emphasized two accomplishments. He first cited the president’s…‘Nullification Proclamation’ as a ‘magnificent State paper.’ Second, Van Santvoord applauded Jackson’s work in behalf of resolving the continuing argument with France over the payment of spoliation claims. He interpreted the successful completion of this struggle as ‘another event of magnitude and moment’ in Jackson’s presidency.” First reprint edition, August 2003. 52 pages, 8½ x 11. Wrappers. Item no. AJ5. $18.50.

 

THE EXPLORATION OF THE LOUISIANA FRONTIER: 1803-1806. Isaac Joslin Cox. The three years following the Louisiana Purchase were times of discovery by such frontiersmen as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the most famous. But there were lesser-known men who braved western dangers. This brief essay is one of the best on the subject. Reprint. 25 pages. No index. Item no. EX1. $13.50.

  

FRENCH FORTS IN PENNSYLVANIA: Baptisms and Burials, 1753-1756. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Anton J. Pregaldin. One of the rare reference works for the early French (and some Anglo-Americans) in the Ohio Valley. 27 pages. Item no. F1. $13.50.

 

THE  FRENCH  MILITARY  IN  THE MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  AND  ON THE GULF  COAST: 1692 ~ 1776. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Robert de Berardinis. Long out-of-print, originally published (1965) as Louisiana Troops. The new “breakthrough” introduction in this edition clarifies the matter of obtaining data from French archives preserved in individual dossiers of service records for Louisiana settlers. Reprint. 138 pages. Item no. FR1. $33.50.

 

FRENCH SUPERIOR COUNCIL RECORDS OF LOUISIANA, 1717-1763:

An Index to Abstracts in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly

 

        Marion McCarley, Compiler. Robert de Berardinis, OMPL, Editor. Associate Editors:  Karen Acker, cgrs; Melissa Burke; Mary Smith Fay, cg, fasg; Susan Gay; Jane Pardo; Patty Porter; Donald E. Pusch; Julia Sanders; Marilou Sanders.As a source for genealogical and historical research, abstracts published in many issues of the LHQ have long been indispensable to anyone seeking ancestors during the French régime in the colonial Mississippi Valley and on the Gulf Coast. The published abstracts by no means encompass the entire collection of the Louisiana State Museum’s archives; access to the originals has, however, been difficult for decades. There is no cumulative index to the Superior Council abstracts. This guide, then, will greatly facilitate the researcher’s effort to locate references in LHQ volumes V through XXVII, as none has its individual index. Moreover, these abstracts are not included in Boyd Cruise’s Index to the Louisiana Historical Quarterly (1956). For the period of 1717~1763, the French Superior Council records are required for definitive research; they are a necessity, equivalent to the Cabildo records for the Spanish period. Included are marriage contracts, successions, sales of all sorts, court cases, affidavits – any civil documents our ancestors wished to record. 224 pages. Item no. SC1. $48.50. {See above, The Cabildo Records of New Orleans…. Item C2.}

 

 

FRENCH TROOPS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND ON THE GULF COAST: 1745.Winston De Ville.   Introduction by Bill Barron.  A remarkably comprehensive roster; a virtual guide to dit names. Reprint. 42 pages. Item no. F2. $16.00.

 

 Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire:

His Death and Succession: 1789~1790

 

Winston De Ville, Fellow

American Society of Genealogists

 

 

        Born at Lyons in 1722, Gabriel Fuselier’s paternal ancestry is traced to the small town of Vignory in the Lorraine/Champagne region of France. There, evidence of the Fuselier family presence is found as early as 1598.

        Having arrived in colonial Louisiana in the mid–eighteenth century, by 1763, Fuselier was a well-established businessman in New Orleans. After the death of his first wife, Jeanne Roman, he married Hélène Elizabeth Soileau at Attakapas Post – today’s Saint Martinville – in 1771. He was the father of fourteen children by his two wives. Gabriel Fuselier’s descendants are legion today.

        By 1760, he had purchased a very large tract of land from the Attakapas Indians of southwest Louisiana. Within a decade, he was appointed to the dual-posts of Attakapas and Opelousas as civil and military commandant. Having served the Spanish king four years, he retired to his plantation on Bayou Teche – the estate was still “the most elegant” in the region, reported federal land commissioners, as late as 1814.

         Although a great deal had been known concerning Fuselier genealogy, and for many years, it was not until 1986 that the date and place of the patriarch’s death was discovered – 1789 at Bordeaux. The focus of this publication, the Fuselier succession papers, provides ample details on Louisiana’s men of wealth. The papers cover a fascinating inventory of moveable property and a residence in Baton Rouge. Over twenty slaves are named, as well as their ages, their value, and in most cases, the names of the nations in Africa where they were born. First edition, September 2003. 38 pages. Item no. FU2. $21.00.

 

GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. Introduction BY Donald A. Sinclair. Published in 1834 by Thomas F. Gordon, the work’s subtitle offers, “…a General View of its Physical and Moral Conditions, Together with a Topographical and Statistical Account of its Counties, Town, Villages, Canals Rail Roads, etc.” Reprint, 270 pages, enlarged type. Item no. NJ3. $46.00.

 

GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. In 1832, Thomas F. Gordon published one of the most detailed references available on the subject. Reprint, 510 pages, enlarged type. Item no. PA3. $86.00.

 

GRANT PARISH, LOUISIANA, IN 1870: A Guide to the Federal Census. Verda Jenkins Ruff and Floyd H. Bennett. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Reprint. 86 pages. Item no. G1. $26.00.

 

 

The Guillory Manuscripts : 1764 ~ 1765 ~ 1766 ~ 1773

 

        Edited by Winston De Ville. This long-awaited study brings together for the first time four of the most important documents for the history of the Guillory family of Mobile Bay, of Louisiana, and beyond.  New World origins were in seventeenth century Canada, with European roots in France’s châteaux country. A synopsis outlines the eight children of Gregoire Guillory by his French-Creole wife, Marie Jeanne La Casse, and after her death in 1764, the four children by Marguerite, his Negro slave, whom he freed in 1770.

        Concentration is on translations from French to English of the lengthy and finely detailed 1764 inventory of property drawn at Mobile Bay, the southwest Louisiana land-grant of 1765, an intriguing land controversy brought before the Superior Council at New Orleans in 1766, and a 1773 inventory of property at Opelousas Post. The last document named was crucial evidence in a famous court-case in 1782, and again pivotal in a landmark case two centuries later. The frontispiece reproduces a 1718 map of Dauphine Island, boldly locating such place-names as Isle à Guillory, Pointe à Guillory, and Passe à Guillory, and a second map depicts the greater Mobile Bay region. A map locating the Guillory land-grants at Opelousas Post is also included. 34 pages. Item no. GM2. $21.00.

 

HISTOIRE DE LA FONDATION DE LA NOUVELLE~ORLÉANS: 1717-1722. Baron Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Nouvel Avant-propos de Winston De Ville. Le récit que fit le baron de Villiers des débuts de La Nouvelle-Orléans est sans aucun doute un classique de l’historiographie de la Louisiane. Il parut pour la première fois à Paris vers la fin de la première guerre mondiale. Bien que son travail soit si connu et si souvent cité, peu d’exemplaires de la première édition sont disponibles dans les bibliothèques publiques et universitaires.

            Le chercheur le plus obstiné peine à trouver des détails sur la vie quotidienne de la jeune Louisiane coloniale. Ce livre contient de telles perles rares : outre des comptes-rendus peu connus mais fascinants sur les événements majeurs de la fondation de la ville, les chroniques du baron sur certaines des histoires louisianaises les plus débattues et intéressantes intrigueront le lecteur. Il ne suffit pas de savoir où et quand vivaient nos ancêtres; il est tout aussi important de savoir comment. Le livre du baron de Villiers est un excellent exemple de ce genre de sources. First reprint edition, June 2007. 145 pages. Item DEV. $33.50.

 

HISTORY OF AVOYELLES PARISH, LOUISIANA. Corinne Saucier. Introduction by Winston De Ville, FASG. A Major work for Louisiana's regional history and for genealogical references on many Latin-South families. Reprint, June 2004. 575 pages. Item no. AV7. $98.00.

 

HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN VIRGINIA. Robert B. Semple. Revised by G. W. Beale. Preface by Joe M. King, PhD. With a new preface that places the subject in historical perspective, the 1972 reprint has long been out-of-print, and the present reprint of that edition is limited to for-nine copies. The type has been enlarged. An index of some 2,000 entries, includes the names of some of Virginia earliest families. Second reprint edition, limited to forty-nine copies, April 2004. 540 pages. Item no. BV2. $83.50

 

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Announcing the second reprint edition, with the added index… 

 

The History of

EDUCATION in LOUISIANA

 

By

Edwin Whitfield Fay

 

Introduction by Mary Smith Fay, FASG 

 

Preface by Robert de Berardinis

 

 

        Originally published in 1898, this book is considered the best written and most scholarly volume in the well-known series titled Contributions to American Educational History, edited by the renowned Herbert B. Adams. It was published by what was then called the “United States Bureau of Education.” Professor Fay, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University, was a native of Louisiana, born 1865 in Minden. His death occurred in 1920, while he was Professor of Latin at the University of Texas.

        The volume is divided into eight chapters:  Introductory matter reviews the state’s history through the colonial period, followed by “The Beneficiary Years” (prior to 1845), “…Second Period, 1846-1860,” “…Third Period, 1865-1890,” “Denominational Institutions,” “The Higher Education of Freedmen,” “Benefactors to Education,” and a final chapter devoted to “Tulane University of Louisiana,” including the Medical College, Sophie Newcomb College, and Paul Tulane himself.  Three appendices explore “Literature in Louisiana,” details on the University of Louisiana, and conclude with a still-useful bibliography. For the period and the place, the scholarship is remarkable; Fay’s History is the classic work on the subject even today, over a century after he wrote.Second reprint edition, August 2003. 274 pages. Item no. H1 $48.50.

 

A HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF NEW ORLEANS: 1717~1722. Baron Marc de Villiers. Translated by Warrington Dawson. Preface by Winston De Ville. Originally published in Paris in 1917, that edition was limited to 1,000 copies. A storehouse of Louisiana’s historical treasures. Reprint. No index. 95 pages. Item no. N4. $26.00.

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A HISTORY OF MISSOURI ~ THE INDEX. Louis Houck. Introduction by Anton J. Pregaldin. After almost a century, Houck’s three-volume work remains the major reference work on the subject. This index allows the serious researcher to do “homework,” saving much valuable time at the library. Reprint. 111 pages. Item no. HM1. $28.50.

 

 

INDEX TO THE ARCHIVES OF SPANISH WEST-FLORIDA: 1782 ~ 1810. Stanley Clisbey Arthur. For the genealogy and history of Alabama, Mississippi, and the West Florida portions of Florida and Louisiana, these nineteen indices, now gathered in one volume, were compiled in the 1930s, but not published until 1975. This second edition offers an important improvement over the first by indicating the years recorded in each volume. For further ease in research, a colored division page separates each index.

    Historians have long recognized the importance of the West Florida typescripts – most of them translated into English. Genealogists, however, continue to ignore them – one of the major sources for finding Anglo-American ancestors lost in the Latin South. They are tantamount to the “old courthouse records” found throughout Louisiana, but cover a much vaster region – from Pensacola to Baton Rouge. Second edition, revised, April 2005. 365 pages. Item no. SWF3. $58.50.

 

INDEX TO THE ARGONAUTS OF CALIFORNIA. Libera Martina Spinazze. Preface by J. Carlyle Parker. Over 27,000 individuals are named in this two-part work, those who sought their fortunes on the West Coast during the era of the Gold Rush. The roster is the most comprehensive single list of Forty-Niners from throughout the United States, including those from ship passenger lists. Second edition, limited to seventy-five copies, April 2004. 519 pages. Item no. AC2.$106.00, per set.

 

 

Index to Data for

Canadian Genealogies

 

Pierre-Georges Roy

 

Introduction by Winston De Ville

Fellow, American Society of Genealogists

 

In 1598, a full decade before the founding of Quebec, Henri IV, king of France, empowered Troilus de la Roche to regulate the settlement of Canada. That power, however, amounted to very little. Trying to impose feudalism in a frontier environment was untenable. Migration started in earnest thirty years later, when control of Canada was given to the Company of One Hundred Associates. Then, families began to arrive en masse.      This index provides researchers

access to a vast store of very useful data.

         The two-volume set to which this index refers is Lettres de Noblesse, Généalogies, Érections de Comtés et Baronnies Insinuées par le Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle-France. Readers should be aware that the title’s key word is “Insinuées” – “registered,” but in this context often meaning “implied.” The documents indexed are the original data from which family histories are created. For research convenience, original numbers of the index pages are retained. First edition, June 2009. 67 pages. Item no. CII. $22.50.

 

 

…a major reference book for French colonial genealogy  _~   

 

Index to the

 JESUIT RELATIONS and ALLIED DOCUMENTS

Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries of New France:

1610   ~   1791

 

REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

 

 

        When the three-volume Québec edition of Jesuit Relations was published in 1858, French colonial historiography in America was to benefit immensely; in fact, it was to change forever. By the turn of that century, so great was the demand for such a monumental reference work that the now-classic 1900 edition was published, greatly enhanced by additional pertinent material – amounting to seventy-three volumes, produced under the editorship of one of the world’s leading historians. This publication is the index – in one alphabet – to those seventy-three volumes.

        Although historians have relied on “Thwaites” for over a century, genealogists have scarcely explored the work’s riches. Simply put, it is the first-reference for one of the monumental collections of French colonial primary sources in America and abroad. Included are the names of many well-known families of early Canada – including Acadia – the entire Mississippi Valley, and the Gulf Coast. Reprint, second edition, August 2003. 771 pages, 8½ x 11. Wrappers, comb-bound. Item no. JR1. $103.00.

 

 

LOUISIANA EN PASSANT, 1966~1970: The Newspaper Writings of Winston De Ville. Preface by Mildred S. Watkins. CG. A collection of genealogical journalism by one of the pioneer family-history columnists in America. Reprint. No index. 93 pages. Item no. L3. $26.00.

 

THE LOUISIANA JOURNAL OF PAUL DU RU IN THE YEAR 1700. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, from a Manuscript in The Newberry Library, by Ruth Lapham Butler. Preface by Robert de Berardinis. The Reverend Father Paul du Ru served as chaplain on Iberville’s second expedition to Louisiana. The only extant portion of his diary, fortunately, covers the critical early months of the year 1700 ~ 1 February to 8 May. This was a time of initial exploration and observation, a time when the French were contemplating prospective settlements throughout the vast Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast. In the first entry of his journal, the adventuresome priest wrote, “…I embarked with d’Iberville…for the banks of the lower Mississippi.” The well-trained Jesuit’s keen commentaries provide the student of Louisiana’s first settlements and first families a sense of presence so often absent in formal historical reports. The first edition of this important work, limited to 300 copies, was published in 1934 by The Caxton Club of Chicago. The complete text appears in no other contemporary form. Reprint. 81 pages. Index. Wrappers. Item no. DU1. $28.50.

 

THE LOUISIANA MANIFESTO OF 1769. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Louisiana colonists expelled the first Spanish governor of their province in 1768. That Louisiana colonials dared to antagonize Spain further, when the issued a “Manifesto” the following year, has generated many debates. Some early historians were convinced that the well-wrought document was America’s first “Declaration of Independence.” Few modern-day scholars have given enough attention to the manifesto itself, its elegant language, political precepts, its incisive conclusions. This un-annotated publication presents the primary source for further study. First edition, limited to seventy-four copies, March 2004. 28 pages. No index. Item no. LM2. $18.50.

 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE: A Century of Observations.  Binger Herman. Introduction by Winston De Ville.  Detailed notes and documents for the history of states in the Mississippi Valley and beyond. Reprint.  90 pages. Item no. L4. $21.00.

 

~

Louisiana Recruits:

Ship Lists of 1752 ~ 1758

 

Troops from the Independent Companies of the Navy,

Destined for Service in the French Colony of Louisiana

Winston De Ville. Preface by René Chartrand.
 

        Based on records long-undiscovered in the National Archives of France, this book contains the recruit’s name, the names of his parents (including the mother’s maiden-name), his place of birth, and his profession. This is one of the few works that addresses migrations to Louisiana after the initial period of settlement, and before the Spanish régime. Reprint, December 2003. 110 pages. Item no. L6. $26.00.

 

 

LOUISIANA SOLDIERS IN THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

 

Winston De Ville. Preface by Marie H. Yochim, President General, Daughters of the American Revolution. Upon publication in 1991, this volume immediately became the standard reference on the approximately 2,000 Louisiana men who served under Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez during his successful campaigns against the English in West Florida. Descendants of these men – including many Acadians and numerous Anglo-Americans, in addition to Creoles, Canadians, and continental Frenchmen – are eligible for membership in hereditary and patriotic societies. Based on documented sources in Spain. 115 pages. Item no. L1. $33.50.

 

 

THE LOPPINOT PAPERS, 1687-1710: Genealogical Abstracts of the Earliest Notarial Records for the Province of Acadia. Winston De Ville. Many marriage contracts are included. The index guides researchers to data on such well-known Acadian families as Babineaux, Babin, Bernard, Blanchard, Bourque, Bourgeois, Breaux, Broussard, Comeaux, Daigle, Daigre, David, Dugas, Dupuis, Gaudet, Gautreaux, Granger, Hébert, Landry, Marchand, Melançon, Naquin, Pitre, Pontif, Préjean, Richard, Robichaux, Rodrigue, Savoy, Theriot, Thibodeaux, Vincent, and many others. 25 pages. Item no. L2. $18.50.

 

 

LOUISIANA  LAND  TITLES

 

An Inventory of Land Office Records at the State Archives

 

Compiled by Ory G. Poret and  John Spencer Howell

 

Preface by Winston De Ville, FASG

 

 

        The purpose of this inventory is to serve as the initial guide to documents generated at Louisiana’s State Land Office. They are now contained in some 450 boxes and bundles at the State Archives.  Many of the records are from the colonial and the territorial period – pre-1812. The earliest are usually written in French and/or Spain, those of later date, in English.

        In a state with some of the oldest and richest land records in the country, Louisiana’s family historians have barely begun to exploit them in scholarly pursuit. Louisiana Land Titles provides access to the land papers of our ancestors, adding remarkable details to cultural geography, to historical interpretation, and to skeletal genealogy. Second edition, July 2003. 58 pages. Item no. L5. $26.00.

 

THE MAMOU PRAIRIE IN 1900: A Genealogical Study Based on the 1900 Federal Census of Louisiana. Dowell Lafleur. First edition, June 2007. Important genealogical information on families living in present day west central Evangeline Parish in 1900. Included are names and relationships of  household members, race, gender, birth month and year, number of years married, birthplaces of subjects and their parents, occupation, and much more. Because of space limitations, all data in the original enumeration are not included, but all genealogically valuable information is provided.  First edition, June 2007. 137 pages. Item no. MP3. $33.50.

 

Massacre at Natchez in 1729: The Rheims Manuscript. Translated and edited by Winston De Ville. A commemorative poem by Donald E. Pusch. When Indians massacred French settlers at Natchez in 1729, the demographic face of the Province of Louisiana changed dramatically. French soldiers and French families around Fort Rosalie fled to safer havens, such as Pointe Coupée, Arkansas Post, aux Illinois, and of course, New Orleans. Natchez waned while other settlements waxed.

      For well over two centuries, this memoire lay undiscovered in the public library of Rheims, France. Its pages reveal unexplored details of a tragedy that drew international attention, and gave pause to a French king in whose hands Louisiana’s future was held. The document is attributed to François Louis de Merveilleux, a Swiss military officer, a Protestant in service to a French, a Catholic, king. In addition to the Massacre itself, he writes of its aftermath and future defenses, a slave’s heroic escape to alert New Orleans, neighboring Indians, customs and religious practices of the Natchez Indians (whom he compared with the ancient Persians), personal rivalries, and he was not timid in offering his own opinions. 22 pages. Index. Item no. NM2. $18.50.

 

 

MEMOIRES OF MARIE AMÉLIE BASTIDE DAUBAN DE CAMBON DE DOMINGON DE BRETÉES: France, Saint Domingue, Jamaïca, Louisiana. Translated from the French and edited by Winston DeVille, with Dowell Lafleur. Preface by Yvonne, Comtesse de Sainte Opportune. Essay on Saint-Domingue Genealogy by Robert de Berardinis.

    The remarkable life of a French lady of noble birth is intimately revealed in the pages of this volume. In 1833, one year prior to her death, she recorded fond remembrances of the royal court, candid opinions on Napoleon Bonaparte, struggles in the West Indies, escape from the clutches of an unprincipled bishop and his Inquisition in Mexico, and struggles in New Orleans after her exile there as an impoverished widow in 1804. In the editorial foreword we read: “Amélie’s adventures might appear to be the stuff of fiction, but despite some errors of historical fact, the record of her adventures, real or perceived, conveys the thoughts and feelings of an aristocratic lady surviving in a world foreign to everything she had known.”

    Discovered in a private archives in 1960, in the Oise Valley of France, the present owner of the original manuscript provides a preface that details the document’s history through seven generations of a family illustrious in the annals of Louisiana history ~ the family du Suau de la Croix. In an essay, today’s leading authority on research in French sources offers specific guidelines for research on all families of French Saint Domingue. Second edition. 125 pp. DOM1. $48.50.

The Merveilleux Report on a Fort for the River Pascagoula in 1726. Translated and edited by Winston DeVille. With considerable detail, included in this report are observations on Gulf Coast geography, the Indians living on the Pascagoula River, lists of tools, supplies, and other items required to build a fort, views of early Canadian settlers, and recommendations for creating a strong French presence in the Gulf South.16 pages. Item M4. $16.00.

 

For early American families of the Gulf South ~

 

Mississippi Land Papers &

Secret Militia Rolls of 1788:

Anglo~American Settlers in the Gulf~South

 

By Winston De Ville, Fellow

American Society of Genealogists

 

 

        “There are seven thousand souls waiting for lands; they will have them here or in Spanish territory….” So wrote a Pennsylvania politician shortly after the American Revolution. Immediately after peace with England was declared, families from eastern states began to flock southward. Mississippi was their destination; Natchez was the doorway. Seeds of what was to become the ante-bellum south were being sown.

        Spain’s liberal land-distribution policy is what attracted most early Anglo-Americans to the Natchez District of Mississippi, and the first section of this keystone reference book contains abstracts of approximately one hundred petitions and/or related papers for land-grants. They are rich sources of genealogical information. The index contains the names of some 500 pioneers.

       In 1788, Spanish Governor Miró asked Natchez Commandant Carlos de Grand-Pré to form four companies of militia, but to do so without letting the public know of the clandestine recruitment. The author’s introduction clarifies the intrigue. These “secret” militia rosters contain the names of over 325 men, many of whom were the progenitors of Mississippi’s founding families. Second edition, July 2003. 42 pages. Item no. M1. $21.00.

 

MISSISSIPPI TERRITORIAL PAPERS INDEX: 1798 ~ 1817. Clarence Edwin Carter. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Carter’s multi-volume Territorial Papers of the United States  has served historians well for over a half-century. Now, genealogists may take advantage of a source long neglected by family historians. So rich and voluminous were the papers for the Mississippi Territory that Dr. Carter devoted two large volumes to the region – a region in which many Anglo-American frontier families became “lost” in a formerly Spanish colony. This book gathers the two indices in a single volume. With over 10,000 entries in this two-part index, virtually all early – pre-statehood – families are named. Major research centers have copies of the texts, and copies of specific original documents are available from the National Archives.First edition, April 2005. 145 pages. Enlarged print. Item no. MTP2. $38.50. 

 

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY MÉLANGE…for research in the Province of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans. Edited by Winston De Ville and Donald E. Pusch. $28.50 per volume.

 

VOLUME ONE:  Illinois Church Records, 1723-1724 ~ French Troops of Illinois in 1752 ~ The Census of Opelousas Post: 1774 ~ Slave-Owners of Pointe Coupée and False River in 1795 ~ Metairie, Louisiana, in 1796 ~ Bayou Sara Settlers in 1797 ~ A Rapides Post Petition of 1797 ~ Southwest Louisiana Ranchers: A Ca. 1810 Tax-List. 75 pages. Item no. MVM1.

 

VOLUME TWO: Knighthood in Colonial Louisiana: Juchereau de St. Denys and the Order of St. Louis ~ Louisiana Officers in 1740 ~ French Troops in New Orleans: 1745 ~ Land-Owners Below New Orleans in 1751 ~ Acadians in Philadelphia: 1771 ~ A Prospective First Militia of Attakapas Post…1773 ~ The Dauterive Land-Grant of 1775: Aristocratic Perquisite in Southwest Louisiana ~ Gálvez Rosters of 1779…The German and Acadian Coasts During the American Revolution ~ Southwest Louisiana Militiamen During the American Revolution ~ Louisiana Loyalists in 1781 ~ Of Clavinette and Violin in Colonial Louisiana: Questions on Acadian Music in 1785 ~ Attakapas Post Petitioners of 1791 ~ The Greening of New Orleans in 1792 ~ Lost in the Latin South: A Petition of Some Anglo-Americans, Ca. 1792 ~ Turmoil in Spanish Louisiana: A Public Notice of 1793. 81 pages. Item no. MVM2.

 

VOLUME THREE: The Bermudez Manuscript of 1612 ~ Louisiana Officers in 1714 ~ Military Deserters of Louisiana in 1716 ~ Constructing a Future Cathedral…1724 ~ A Natchitoches Narrative of 1724 ~ Four Letters from 1734 ~ On the Family Fontenette ~ Anglo-Americans in British West-Florida: 1768-1769 ~ The Loyalist Military in Colonial Mississippi…1779 ~ Terre aux Boeufs Militiamen in 1779 ~ Anglo-Americans in Early Mobile…1780 ~ Public Balls of New Orleans in 1792 ~ The Ursuline Convent in 1795 ~ Militia Officers of Orleans Territory in 1808.  90 pages. Item no. MVM3.

 

VOLUME FOUR: Bienville’s Cadets in 1741 ~ The Order of St. Louis ~ Indians and Louisiana Forts in 1732: The Salmon Report on Natchez, Natchitoches, and Pointe Coupée ~ French Troops in the Province of Louisiana: A Report of 1758 ~ Naval Officers of the Company of the Indies: 1769 ~ On Obtaining French Military Service Records ~ Opelousas District Papers: A Calendar ~ Oaths of Allegiance at Natchez…Anglo-Americans in 1787 ~ St. Landry Catholic Church of Opelousas…Construction in 1827-1828 ~ Some Petitions for Spanish Land Grants at Rapides Post: 1800-1801.  105 pages. Item no. MVM4.

 

 VOLUME FIVE: After a decade, the fifth volume of Mississippi Valley Mélange, featuring six important articles by Robert de Berardinis: Colonial Naval Infantry Ranks; French Colonial Administration to 1763; Louisiana Officers & Workers, 1715–1716; The Soldiers of Plantin’s Company (1723–1730); The 1759 Log of Personnel Transfers; Observations on Translations. Introduction by Winston De Ville. First edition; January 2009; 116 pp.; Item no. MVM5. Item no. MVM5. $28.50.

 

~

Mobile  Funerals, 1726 ~ 1764

 

Alabama Church Records of the French Province of Louisiana

 

Winston De Ville

Fellow, American Society of Genealogists

 

        In the colonial Province of Louisiana, funeral records often offer far more data than the decedent’s name and date of burial or death. For the first time in Gulf Coast historiography, Mobile’s church records of burials have been gathered in an organized fashion, indexed, and published to reveal vital information on many of the Deep South’s oldest families. Reprint, January 2004. 64 pages. Item no. M2. $28.50.

 

 

THE NATCHEZ LEDGERS, 1790-1791: A Finding-Aid for Anglo-Americans in Pre-Territorial Mississippi. Winston De Ville.  Based on previously unpublished records in Spain, a virtual census of the most populated area of the vast Mississippi colony in the years just prior to United States sovereignty. 108 pages. Item no. N1. $33.50.

 

NATCHITOCHES DOCUMENTS: 1732-1785. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Donald E. Pusch. A calendar of some 2,000 “old courthouse records,” with over 4,000 names of early settlers. 93 pages. Item no. N2. $33.50.

 

 

Natchitoches Translations of

Old French and Spanish Documents

 

Germaine Portre~Bobinski

 

        Preface by Mary Linn Wernet, Eugene P. Watson Library, Northwestern State University. Foreword by Winston De Ville, Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. First published in 1928, this book was one of the first attempts by an individual to collect and publish Louisiana’s early eighteenth-century local documents in a methodic manner. Natchitoches Translations preserves in print the essence of some records that are, no doubt, gone forever. Dr. Portre-Bobinski was a distinguished professor of French at what is now Northwestern State University. Among the approximately sixty-five documents translated are those relating to families that were at Fort Saint Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches from its very beginnings. Dates range from 1722 to 1760. Reprint. 75 pages.  Wrappers, 8½ x 11. Item no. PB1. $23.50.

 

~~~

For family history in Louisiana’s south-central communities of Beaver Creek, Turkey Creek,

 

Lake Cove, Clearwater / Randolph’s Bridge, Meridian, Cypress Creek, Bayou Chicot,

Pine Prairie, Easton, and of other Evangeline Parish place-names ~

 

Dowell Lafleur’s

                          

Northern Evangeline Parish Before it Ever Was:

A Genealogical Study Based on the 1900 Federal Census of Louisiana

 

 

        Carved from “Imperial Saint Landry” and established as an autonomous political unit in 1912, Evangeline Parish became the line of demarcation between French south Louisiana, and Anglo-American north Louisiana. This volume provides details on the pioneering families that helped to create a permanent “American” culture in the northern portion of an area that was to become a vital link between two of the state’s major heritage.

        With a preface by Winston De Ville, f.a.s.g., this volume reveals ethnic groups with roots in practically all English-speaking countries, as well as from many states east of the Mississippi River. Post-Civil War migrations westward from such states as Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas are well represented. The oldest individuals enumerated were born ca. 1810 – before Louisiana gained statehood.

        Details are vital for genealogical studies: Names and relationships of all household members, race, gender, birth month and year, number of years married, birthplaces of subjects and their parents, occupation, and much more. Because of space limitations, all data in the original enumeration are not included, but all genealogically valuable information is provided. 

Among the six hundred households included are the families of Ardoin, Bass, Campbell, Carpenter, Carter, Clark, Cole, Curtis, Deville, Elliott, Ferguson, Fontenot, Griffith, Guillory, Guy, Hebert, Hazelton, Helmer, Henry, Jason, Johnson, Holden, King, Lewis, McDaniel, Morgan, Oliver, Peters, Randolph, Seiley, Smith, Thompson, Tubre, Welch, West, and Whittington. First edition, May 2003. 126 pages. Item no. EP1. $28.50

 

NORTH LOUISIANA CENSUS REPORTS. Marleta Childs. For locating families moving west from Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other eastern states.

 

Volume I: 1830 & 1840 Schedules of Catahoula, Concordia, Ouachita, Caldwell, Carrol, Madison, and Union Parishes. Reprint. 118 pages. Item no. NL1. $28.50.

 

Volume II & III: 1830 & 1840 Schedules of Caddo, Claiborne, and Natchitoches Parishes. Reprint. Item no. NL3. bound with Volume III: 1850 & 1860 Schedules of Union Parish. Reprint. Item NL3. Total pages 401. $58.50.

 

Volume IV: 1850 Schedule of Natchitoches Parish. The 1850 schedule for the United States was the first to furnish the names of all members of households, their ages, places of birth, occupations, and other useful details. The 1850 census is particularly important for Natchitoches Parish, as it still included a significant area of northwest Louisiana. Reprint. 136 pages. Item N3. $33.50.

 

Volume V: 1850 Slave Schedule of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Names of slaves are not included, but names of their masters are, usually given in full, unlike the often-abbreviated names in standard federal census records. Reprint. 956 pages. Item no. E2. $28.50

 

OLD TAVERNS OF NEW YORK. W. H. Bayles. Introduction by Timothy Field Beard, FASG. This fascinating tome, originally published in 1915, is a lively record of the many drinking, eating, and sleeping establishments in the city from the first settlement in the seventeenth century. Hundreds of families are represented in the comprehensive index. Over eighty illustrations, many depicting the ancient buildings themselves, preserve the past of a cosmopolis whose charm has not diminished, only changed. Reprinted in an editions of forty-nine copies, April 2004. 509 pages. Illustrated. Item no. OT1. $83.50.

 

Old Families of Louisiana. Stanley Clisby Arthur. “Louisiana Families” an essay by Charles Patton Dimitry. Preface by  Winston De Ville. Although his book lacks standard documentation, Arthur was a qualified researcher, not an amateur. Witness, for example, the publications produced under his leadership as regional director of the Survey of Federal Archives during WPA years. They are far more scholarly than similar products of most states. In addition to the index, this book provides three detailed pages of its contents. Only by careful analyses, weighing fact and fiction, can Louisiana’s historiography be recorded properly. Reprint, February 2005. 432 pages. Enlarged print. Item no. OF3. $57.50

 

OPELOUSAS POST: The Census of 1771. Winston De Ville.  Names of heads-of-household and other family members of  “responsible” age, numbers of children and, most importantly, all their ages. 18 pages. Item no. O1. $13.50.

 

 

Winston De Ville’s

 

OPELOUSAS

 

The History of a French and Spanish Military Post in America,

1716                                ~                                 1803

 

 

        When first published – in 1973 – Opelousas became the standard historical work for most of southwest Louisiana. For three decades, it has maintained its rôle as the first-reference for any research relating to the colonial era of Opelousas Post.

        Established by the French, the frontier community thrived under Spain. During, and especially after, the American Revolution, Anglo-Americans poured into the Opelousas jurisdiction. There, they interacted with Frenchmen, a few Spanish and Italian families, “John Law Germans,” as well as with Native- and African-Americans. Together, they began to create a society that became important to the nation and peculiarly attractive to generations of Americans.

        The book contains the author’s preface and introduction, and six chapters: Natural Setting, Settlement, The Church, The Military, The Economy, and Social Life. It concludes with an extensive bibliography and an index that includes many names of area families. Third edition, August 2003. 75 pages. Item no. O2. $26.00.

 

 

OPELOUSAS~TOWN IN 1900: A Study Based on the Tenth Federal Census of Louisiana. Dowell Lafleur. By 1900, the St. Landry Parish town of Opelousas had long since ceased to be an outpost; after a two-century recorded history, it continued to be the major crossroads of all southwest Louisiana.. This volume reveals ethnic groups from practically all European nations, as well as all states east of the Mississippi River. Details are vital for genealogical studies: Names and relationships of  household members, race, gender, birth month and year, number of years married, birthplaces of subjects and their parents, occupation, and much more. Because of space limitations, all data in the original enumeration are not included, but all genealogically valuable information is provided. 135 pages. Item no. OT5. {See Item EP1 above.} $33.50.

 

 

PAPILLON:The Freedom of a Slave in Colonial Louisiana, 1790~1799. Introduction by Winston De Ville, FASG. Michel Papillon was the patriarch of one of the most distinguished Creole families in the Americas. He was born into slavery at Poste de Saint Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches in the northwestern quadrant of present-day Louisiana. This first edition provides thirteen full-color plates of his manumission papers in facsimile. The unique document is not translated from its original Spanish and French. As the introduction states, “In nearly a half-century of reading thousands of colonial documents, this writer has never seen another like it. Ordinary acts of emancipation are fairly brief, written pro forma, perfunctorily, signed by the erstwhile slave-owner, the commandant, and perhaps two witnesses.” In addition to unusual length, the Papillon papers are signed by numerous leading citizens of Natchitoches and Opelousas. First edition, January 2004. 26 pages. No index. Item no. MP2. $33.50.

 

THE PARISH OF ST. JAMES IN THE PROVINCE OF LOUISIANA: Genealogical Abstracts from the Spanish Census of 1777. Winston De Ville. Introduction by Eileen L. Berhman. Names and ages of all family members of traditional Cabanocey families. 23 pages. Item no. P1. $13.50.

 

THE PASCAGOULA INDIANS. Jay Higgingbotham.  The Pascagoula Indians were one of several small bands of Native Americans living on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast when the area was first explored by the French and Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were significant to the history of the Deep South because of the aid they gave to the colonization of the province of Louisiana, because of the name they bequeathed to the river, bay and city of Pascagoula, Mississippi, because they were among the earliest known inhabitants of the area, and because of the many legends they inspired.

     Most of what is known about the Pascagoula natives was recorded by early French chroniclers; those observations have been preserved in numerous archives in Canada, France, and the United States. In the 1960's, Gulf Coast author Jay Higginbotham, now an internationally-known and prize-winning historian, searched those archives extensively, in addition to those in Spain and Mexico. This is one of his first major works. His still-definitive and intelligible history of the Pascagoulas is now available in reprint form for the first time. Included are all known illustrations of the Pascagoula nation, and references to available archaeological information. Reprint, Summer 2004. 60 pages. Item no. PI1. $26.00.

 

PENNSYLVANIA WOMEN IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. William Henry Egle. Egle was one of the most astute genealogists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this well-known book, he presents detailed biographical sketches of women who served the patriotic cause. In addition, details of the husbands’ career and service are included. Reprint, limited to seventy-five copies, April 2004. 210 pages. No index. Item no. PW2. $38.50.

 

 

PICHARDO’S TREATISE ON THE LIMITS OF

LOUISIANA AND TEXAS: THE INDEX

 

        Charmion Clair Shelby. Preface by Jack Jackson. Known to and used by historians for decades, Charles Wilson Hackett’s monumental edition of documents collected by scholar-priest José Antonio ca. 1812 is of equal value to genealogists. For the first time, the indices from the four volumes have been gathered in one four-part book. It’s design is for use in “home-work” prior to consulting Hackett’s volumes at the library. Pioneer families of Natchitoches, Nacogdoches, Attakapas, and Opelousas areas are particularly well represented, although the geographical scope is far greater. 180 pages. Item no. PT1. $31.00.

 

POINTE  COUPÉE FAMILIES  IN COLONIAL LOUISIANA: Abstracts of Civil Records, 1771 ~ 1782. LaVerne “Pike” Thomas III. Preface by Winston De Ville. Although settlement at Pointe Coupée began decades earlier, the first civil records extant in Pointe Coupée Parish, begin in 1771. The author has created genealogical abstracts for all records in the subject-period. One or more future volumes will complete the series up to the time – 1803 – that the entire Province of Louisiana became a territory of the United States. All names of all races in all documents; the index includes over 1000 names – French, Spanish, Anglo-American, German, African-American, Native-American, and others. First edition. May 2009. 118 pages. Item no. PCIII. $35.00.CLICK HERE TO ORDER ONLINE

 

POINTE COUPÉE DOCUMENTS, 1762-1803: A Calendar of Civil Records for the Province of Louisiana. Winston De Ville, with a contribution by Donald E. Pusch. Brief descriptions, names of principal parties, full dates, covering approximately 2,000 documents from one of Louisiana’s oldest settlements. The earliest (1762-1765) have been “missing” from the local courthouse for over a century. A major portion of this work (1770-1792) is based on archives that exist only in Spain. An appendix provides succinct, never-before-published data on some 100 Spanish land-grants for the greater Pointe Coupée area, including False River, and a few from Baton Rouge. Over 3,000 index entries. 121 pages. Item no. P2. $33.50.

 

 

PUBLIC LAND SURVEYS OF THE UNITED STATES

        Thomas Jefferson, Compiler. Introduction by Claire Mire Bettag, CGRS, CGL. Initially prepared as a text-book for mature students, this slim volume now serves to instruct serious researchers on the American survey system in non-technical terms. Easy-to-read, comprehensive in scope, the original edition was issued in 1894. Over a century earlier, the future president, Jefferson, had based his report on public statutes and original documents; his compilation was submitted to Congress in 1784. The introduction is new to this edition, written by a renowned authority on land records as valuable tools for genealogical research. It places the work in modern-day perspective for genealogists and historians who recognize the immense potential importance of records dealing with land and the conveyance of real-property. Reprint. 75 pages. Item no. PL1. $31.00.

 

RAPIDES POST ON RED RIVER: Census Records and Military Documents for Central Louisiana, 1769-1800.  Winston De Ville. The standard work on the subject. With convincing evidence, the author’s introduction puts to rest speculations on the origins of central Louisiana’s colonial government. 47 pages. Item no. R1. $21.00.

 

 

Randolph B. Marcy’s

The Red River Valley

Exploration of 1852

 Preface by D. Gregory Jeane, Ph. D.

 

       After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, exploration partie of one ilk or another, private and governmental, often frenzied and poorly organized, hurried west, bound and determined at last to discover the mythical “Northwest Passage.” It was not until later years that the United States military establishment, with tightly organized and soberly planned explorations, prepared detailed reports that revealed nature’s treasures and opportunities beyond the Mississippi River.

        This long-neglected government document, originally published in 1853, is one of the best of its kind, with its highly detailed accounts of western adventures, flora and fauna, Indians, and scientific observations that promoted the American dream of western expansion, the apex of “Manifest Destiny.” The volume contains invaluable data for research on the states of ARKANSAS, LOUISIANA, NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA, and TEXAS. This reprint is of the narrative only, pages ii – 117; statistical scientific data are not included. The original map showing the expedition’s route along the Upper Red River is reproduced. Reprinted July 2003. 130 pages. Map. No index. Item no. RR1. $38.50.

 

REMINISCENCES OF WILMINGTON IN VILLAGE TALES, ANCIENT AND NEW. Elizabeth Montgomery. Introduction by Don Devinne, CG. Since 1851, four editions of this book have been published. This fifth edition is a reprint of the 1971 publication, which was limited to 300 copies, and the only one that includes an index.

        During the nineteenth century many books were published on local history. Few, however, have been so insightful; fewer, still, have enjoyed as many editions.  Since the last edition was published, a new generation of genealogists and historians demands that the indexed edition of 1971 be made available once again. Too, as Mr. Devine writes in his incisive introduction, Montgomery’s book “…has a largely unrealized potential as a source for the currently popular historical study themes focused on women, ethnicity, culture, and class.” Reprint, June 2006.

 

 

~

R O U J O T

The New Orleans Letter of 1747

 

Winston De Ville

Fellow, American Society of Genealogists

 

 

        Almost four decades ago, a letter written by Edme François Roujot, dated in the year 1747, was discovered among the family archives of Roujot descendants in the ancient province of Burgundy. It was written from New Orleans, while Roujot was in the employ of the Company of the Indies, and addressed to his family in France. It had lain forgotten for well over two centuries. Extant personal letters from eighteenth century Louisiana are rare. Those that are as revealing as the one reproduced in facsimile here, with a translation, are rarer still. The letter survived only partially, and six full-color plates reproduce it in actual size. First edition, December 2003. 27 pages. Item no. RO3. $36.00.

                                                                                      

SAINT DOMINGUE, 1688-1720: Census Records and Military Lists. Winston De Ville.  Introduction by Dr. Thomas Fiehrer. A rare finding-aid for some of the first permanent settlers in the New World, a keystone for research on families whose descendants were émigrés to Louisiana and such East Coast cities as Baltimore, Charleston, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Upon publication, this book immediately became the standard work on the subject. 50 pages. Item no. S1. $26.00.

 

SAINT GABRIEL SETTLERS: The 1777 Census of Iberville District in the Province of Louisiana.  Winston De Ville.  Introduction by James J. Pastorek.  Essential for research on families of the Manchac area during the American Revolution. 23 pages. Item no. S2. $13.50.

 

THE SAINTE CATHERINE COLONISTS, 1719-1720: Early Settlers of Natchez and Pointe Coupée in the French Province of Louisiana.  Winston De Ville.  Essential for research on European origins of some of Louisiana’s earliest pioneer families. Based on the only known contract between workers recruited in France and concessionaires. Facsimile signatures are included. 61 pages. Item no. S3. $28.50.

 

 

Saint Landry Parish

Successions, 1807~1865

 

An Index to Probate Records in Southwest Louisiana

 

Talmadge L. Buller  & Millard F. Martin

 

 

 

        In the preface, Winston De Ville writes, “This research tool was the first and last volume in an envisioned series that would have encompassed all of Louisiana’s earliest population centers. The original title…was Louisiana Successions, Volume One. Today, this first-reference is often overlooked by researchers of southwest Louisiana families….” This publication is the only such reference for the ante-bellum years.

       Louisiana’s unique “succession” records are invaluable to the genealogist - and to the historian who dares delve into details. Of immense importance is the fact that a married woman’s maiden name is almost always used. Too, records of the “family meeting” provide relationships, and ages of minor children. Inventories of real and moveable property give depth and meaning to family histories. Second edition, January 2004. 44 pages. Item no. BM2. $26.00.

 

SANDY SPRING IN MARYLAND: 1863~1883. William Henry Farquhar. In 1879, the Federal Census reported eighty-five Sandy Spring families, the heads of which are provided in Farquhar’s book. Originally published in 1884, this book captures twenty years of historical details for what was then described as “a rural community in Maryland.” The author writes with the flair so characteristic of Victorian-era writers: effusive, but fact-filled; inclusive, yet overflowing with details of vital importance for the genealogist and the historian. Second reprint edition, March 2004. 328 pages. No index. Item no. SS 2. $63.50.

 

SELECTED PAPERS BY WINSTON DE VILLE: A Collection of Articles for Colonial Genealogy and History. Donald E. Pusch, Editor. Reflecting four decades of pioneering research and writing on Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast genealogy and history, this volumes contains 35 articles for serious family historians: the continental French, Canadians, Acadians, and Creoles, as well as the “John Law Germans.” The articles have been considerably edited and expanded. 192 pages. Item no. SP1. $38.50. CONTENTS:

 

 

 

 

*

THE 1795 CHIMNEY TAX OF NEW ORLEANS: A Guide to the Census of Proprietors and Residents of the Vieux Carré. Winston De Ville. Famous as a subject in the annals of Louisiana history, this is the first publication and proper citation of the documents that name property-owners and other residents of the New Orleans “French Quarter” at the end of the eighteenth century. Many Anglo-Americans are listed. Essential for research on Louisiana families. 31 pages. Item no. S4. $18.50.

 

 

 

Slaves and Masters of Pointe Coupée, Louisiana:

A Calendar of Civil Records,

1762   ~   1823

_{Winston De Ville, Fellow}

American Society of Genealogists

 

Introduction by Jack D. L. Holmes

 

        This book, based on ancient court documents, relates to people of African descent, slave and free. At the same time, it provides a guide to all Europeans, Creoles, and others who had anything to do with slaves, freedmen, and their descendants. As one of the oldest settlements in the entire Mississippi River Valley, Pointe Coupée’s African-American history is rich, and the colonists who created that legacy enriched the universe of Louisiana.

        Containing succinct abstracts of over 1,000 documents, each provides the names of all principal parties, the date, and the nature of the act – sales of all sort, leases, notices of slaves who had escaped their bondage, the all-important marriage contract, the equally important succession record – myriad records. The African national origin in is often named. The original documents are – if they are extant – in the Office of the Clerk of Court, at the courthouse, New Roads.

        In his introduction, Dr. Holmes writes of Louisiana: “ …the northernmost Latin American state in the nations of Latin America, where the white man, the red man, and the black man have met and merged with one another to form a new kind of peoples the – ‘cosmic race.’ ”  Slaves and Masters of Pointe Coupée provides ample evidence for the histories of the families that contributed to that phenomenon. Third edition, June 2003. 74 pages. Item no. S5. $26.00.

 

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA FAMILIES IN 1777: Census Records of Attakapas and Opelousas Posts. Winston De Ville.  Published for the first time in its entirety, with names of all family members and the ages of each, usually with relationships shown. 31 pages. Item no. S6. $18.50.

 

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA FAMILIES IN 1785: The Spanish Census of the Posts of Attakapas and Opelousas. Winston De Ville.  Names of over 300 heads-of-household, with family members in age groups.  40 pages. Item no. S7. $18.50.

 

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA IN 1807: The Land and Slave Tax of St. Landry Parish in the Territory of Orleans. Winston De Ville. Rare reference tool for locating individuals in local neighborhoods, an asset in tracing land records. Approximately 475 entries. 50 pages. Item no. S8. $18.50.

 

SPANISH LAND GRANTS IN LOUISIANA, 1757-1802: Abstracts of Documents from the Archives of the State Land Office Relating to the Region West of the Rivers Mississippi and Atchafalaya. Ory G. Poret. Introduction by Winston De Ville. A keystone reference book, the first of its kind in research literature. 150 pages. Item no. S9. $33.50.

 

THE SPANISH ABANDONMENT AND RE-OCCUPATION OF EAST TEXAS: 1773~1779. Herbert Eugene Bolton. In 1772, Spain abandoned that part of Texas northeast of San Antonio. That this plan failed was due primarily to the attachment of Texans to their eastern homes and kin, many in Louisiana. Settlers of Los Adaes, founded in 1716 in what now Louisiana, near Natchitoches, was a center of population, as was Nacogdoches, founded the same year. This triumvirate of communities was closely intermarried, and family ties are stronger than political pressure.

      This book explains why Spain  voluntarily relinquished her hold upon so vast and rich a stretch of country, and the re-settlement in east Texas is explained in detail. Bolton’s superb notes are filled with sources for further research.

     This publication is also important to Anglo-American researchers seeking background material on ancestors who had on their family’s migration agenda the “Three Ns”  -   Natchez, Natchitoches, and Nacogdoches - and beyond. Reprint, June 2006. 75 pages. No index. Enlarged print. Item no. ETX2. $28.50.

 

SPANISH ACTIVITIES ON THE LOWER TRINITY RIVER: 1746-1771. Herbert Eugene Bolton. Although Spain claimed vast lands in the New World, the Spanish crown was slow to populate much of its putative territory. Texas is one good example of a colony claimed, but left virtually unpopulated and ungoverned for well over two centuries.

        Bolton, one of the great historians of the Spanish Borderlands, published this classic work as a lengthy article almost a century ago; this is the first time it has been reprinted separately. It remains the seminal statement on the subject. As the Lower Trinity River flows through or borders the Texas counties of Anderson, Chambers, Ellis, Freestone, Henderson, Houston, Kaufman, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Montgomery, Navarro, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, and Walker, the author offers data on the history of a very large part of the state. This information also greatly impacts Louisiana’s history.

       French encroachment is what gave impetus to Spain’s turning more attention to eastern Texas.  Near-by Natchitoches had been established in Louisiana by France in 1714, and early-on, the lower Trinity was a center for hunters, traders and other Frenchmen from Louisiana. The Sabine River was no boundary to our ancestors. During the latter years of the eighteenth century, Anglo-Americans began increasingly to cross the Sabine into Texas. Bolton, as we have come to expect, bases his writing on primary sources.  Reprint, first edition, May 2006. 42 pages. No index. Enlarged print. Item no. TR2. $18.50.

 

THE STEWARDSHIP OF Don Esteban Miró:1721~1792.Caroline Maude Burson. Introduction by Paul E. Hoffman. Esteban Rodriguez Miró y Sabater’s “stewardship” of Louisiana was marked by dramatic social changes, with a population greatly increased by the large number if Anglo-American families arriving from the United States to settle on grants of land so liberally given by the Spanish king. Miró helped prepare colonials to become Americans less than two decades later. Studying the rôle he played in the history of Louisiana is to learn more about the daily lives of our eighteenth-century ancestors. Reprint, April 2004. 327 pages. Item no.EM1. $58.50

 

SYNOPSIS OF THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA FROM THE FOUNDING OF THE COLONY TO THE END OF THE YEAR 1791. Guy Soniat du Fossat. Translated by Charles T. Soniat. Based on an eighteenth-century document discovered in 1900 in France, this classic statement was first published in 1903. Third edition, March 2004. 45 pages, enlarged type. Item no. SF3. $16.00.

 

TENNESSEE TERRITORIAL PAPERS INDEX: 1790 ~ 1796. Clarence Edwin Carter. Introduction by Winston De Ville. Originally sub-titled, The Territory South of the River Ohio, while officially correct, is not at all descriptive. Kentucky, historically an integral part of colonial Virginia, was not included. The publisher has given this volume a more practical title – and the more common one. This index contains more than 750 entries. First edition, August 2005. 52 pages, Enlarged print. Item no. TNTP2. $26.00.

 

THE TERRITORY OF ORLEANS, 1803~1812: Genealogical Reference Lists from Clarence Carter’s Territorial Papers of the United States Relating to the Present State of Louisiana. Introduction by Winston De Ville.  Reprint. 115 pages. Item. No. T1. $28.50.

 

TEXAS  INDIANS  ON  THE LOWER  TRINITY  RIVER. Marvin C. Burch.  This is one of the first comprehensive statements that addresses the original inhabitants of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana: the Attacapa, Orcaquiza, Opelousa, Bidai, Deadose, and the Patiri. Particular attention is given to the still-controversial matter of cannibalism practiced by the Texas-Louisiana natives. Reprint. 21 pages. No index. Item no. TI1. $13.50.

 

 

 

Bill Barron’s

        THE VAUDREUIL PAPERS

 

A  Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of

Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the

French Province of Louisiana, 1743~1753

 

A major first-reference, one of the best calendars in American historiography for the period, this reprint edition makes the book readily available for the first time in almost three decades. The index contains all names in the original papers, including military rolls and census records – over 3,000 entries. Of primary value is the immense amount of data it offers on settlement, government, social, religious, and military life, Native Americans, and the pioneers of mid-eighteenth-century Louisiana from French Illinois to Mobile Bay: Kaskaskia, Arkansas Post, the Mississippi forts, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupée, the German Coast, New Orleans, as well as from burgeoning settlements throughout the colony. First reprint edition, limited to ninety-nine copies, March 2004. 576 pages, enlarged type. Item no. V2. $88.50.

 

 

 

Long out-of-print, once again available   ~

 

Margaret Kimball Brown’s and Lawrie Cena Dean’s

classic reference work for the French in North America   ~ 

                               _The

Village of Chartres in

Colonial Illinois: 1720 ~ 1765

 

        The first edition, limited, of this monumental work was published in 1977, and has been unavailable for over two decades. It provides the researcher with translated and edited data from the earliest ecclesiastical registers of French Illinois, as well as some 6000 civil records known as the “Kaskaskia Manuscripts.” This volume changed the course of research on any historical and genealogical subject relating to the colonial Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast. Reprinted in two parts, June 2003. 1052 pages. Item no. VC 3. The set, $105.00.

 

Wanderings in Spain. Augustus John Cuthbert Hare. Preface by Winston De Ville. Victorians were not only avid travelers, but ardent recorders of their peregrinations. At the pinnacle of such writers was Augustus John Cuthbert Hare (1834–1903), author of this useful travelogue, first published in 1873.       

        Hare has much to offer today’s reader. His word–pictures are vivid and he writes with considerable panache. We benefit from such all–but–forgotten books by learning how our Spanish ancestors must have conducted themselves for many centuries. When Hare wrote, before modern amalgamation, Spanish life–styles had changed little from much earlier times. With such enlightened perspectives, we are able to interpret our research findings in America more thoroughly. The goal in genealogy is, after all, more than ancestral names, dates, and places. Colonists of Latin–America brought their practices virtually intact to the New World, including the Spanish Mississippi Valley. Reprint, limited to ninety-nine copies, April 2004. 204 pages, enlarged type. Illustrated. No index. Item   no. S8. $33.50

 

WILLING’S RAID OF 1778 DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. John W. Caughy. Roster of Men by Talmadge L. Buller. Introduction by Winston De Ville. In 1778, Captain James Willing, aboard his Fort Pitt vessel, The Rattletrap, brought the American Revolution to the English settlements in the Province of Louisiana. A compelling and resolute leader, he did lack restraint, and Dr. Caughey concludes, humanity. Generations have called him “Robber Willing,” and a “damned scoundrel” leading a “Body of Banditti.”

      John Walton Caughey, although not a Louisianian, was one of Louisiana’s great historians. Long before “revisionist” historians began to question various aspects of American historiograpy, Dr. Caughey was examining questions of history without prejudice or assumption. That he was a student of Herbert Eugene Bolton goes far to explain his special interest in the colonial Latin west and southwest. His classic Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana, 1776-1783 (1934) still stands as the major work on the subject. Obviously, the present, more detailed work was a study for the book. The Caughey text is reprinted from a 1930s issue of The Louisiana Historical Quarterly.

      Adding considerably to the researcher’s use of this publication is Mr. Buller’s essay. As he makes clear, Willing’s “raid” has been unfairly treated by Louisiana historians. The men of The Rattletrap were patriots of the American Revolution as much as were men and women of the eastern English colonies; they were rebels, we must not forget. Among the roster provided are found men whose family names are considered “southern” today. January 2006. 51 pages. Enlarged print. No index. Item no. WR 2. $28.50.

 

WINSTON DE VILLE : A Bibliography of Genealogical and Other Writings, 1959~1999. Dowell Lafleur, ompl. Preface by Mary Smith Fay, fasg, cg, ompl, Robert de Berardinis, ompl, and Donald E. Pusch, ompl. The 1988 edition is revised and up-dated in this volume. Annotated. P. William Filby’s original introduction is retained: “By far, Winston De Ville is the most prolific of Louisiana’s earliest genealogical authors.” Complete references for forty years of De Ville’s research: 52 books, and well over 200 articles in genealogical and historical journals. 77 pages. No index. Item no. W1. $28.50.

 

WYOMING VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA: A HISTORY. Isaac A. Chapman. The author’s book was published first at Wilkes-Barre in 1830. He covers practically every topic. A lengthy “Appendix” gives details on Luzerne County townships. Throughout, Chapman depends of primary sources of the eighteenth century. Reprint, limited to seventy-five copies, March 2004. 213 pages, enlarged type. Item no. WY 8. $28.50.

 

YO SOLO: The Battle Journal of Bernardo de Gálvez During the American Revolution.  Winston De Ville, Editor.  Translated by E. A. Montemayor. Introduction by Eric Beerman.  Message by His Majesty Don Carlos I, King of Spain. Proclamation by President Gerald R. Ford. Reprint. 59 pages. Item no. Y1. $26.00.

 

 

 

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