Understanding the Volumes -- Southwest Louisiana Records
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In reply to:
Re: "Louisiana Soldiers in the American Revolution" by Winston de Ville
RICHARD HEATH 12/23/07
Understanding the Volumes -- Southwest Louisiana Records
Father Herbert very seldom used race to identify people. He did do a section that was dedicated to blacks in his translation of the Church and Civil Records of Louisiana, however, blacks were not just limited to that one section.
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA CHURCH & CIVIL RECORDS VOL. II
Volume 2, covering the period from 1811 to 1830, takes us into Louisiana’s early statehood. The presentation of abstracts continues as in volume 1, except that a deceased parent is indicated by a"d" preceding the name of the parent. Also in volume 2 is "An Introduction to Black Genealogy." This is interesting reading for all, since it illustrates the power of the Catholic church in early Louisiana. Volume 2 also contains the St. Landry Parish Brand Book (1810-1832) and records of the Academy of the Sacred Heart Archives in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. These include baptisms, vows, confirmations, lists of religious, and deaths.
Volume 3 covers 1831 to 1840, a period that saw the development of the western part of St. Landry Parish and its separation as Calcasieu Parish in 1840. This volume contains entries from the Register of Blacks, St. Landry Church, Opelousas, and also features an 1839 map of land owners on Bayou Courtableu and Bayou Teche.
Volume 7 covers the Civil War years of 1861 through 1865. As the slaves were freed, they took surnames of their choosing, often those of families in the area. As freedmen, their records were entered among the main body of records of church registers rather than in separate slave registers. Rev. Hébert says that in the previous six volumes he “generally omitted most slave entries because so little genealogical information was possible.” Slaves, both Negro and Indian, were usually identified in the early registers only by a given name, with very little information useful in tracing family ties. He also declared his intention to continue to selectively omit records that gave little or no genealogical information.
Volume 8 contains “How Slaves Got Their Names” as well as tombstone inscriptions from Franklin, Patterson, Centerville, and Jeanerette.
By the end of the Civil War, blacks owned more slaves than the whites in Louisiana. Then by 1870, when the census came around, you had a lot of passes, blacks who were passing as white.
Harrison Thomas LaTour