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Nice to Born in LA

© Westley Annis

Folks in Louisiana are the luckiest people around, at least as far as genealogy is concerned.

There is a misconception between the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and Roman Catholics. Although the Mormons have been very good at keeping records, the Catholics have also been very good at it and have a much longer history.

What the Mormons have done is popularize the practice of genealogy. And with that popularization, it makes it easier to trace your family history if your religious background is Catholic.

Since the first settlement in Louisiana, the Catholic Church has had a presence here. That means that practically every baptism, marriage, and death of a catholic in Louisiana has been recorded.

Even more important, for people whose history does not include Catholicism, they may also be listed in the Church records.

For the first 100-150 years in New Orleans, the Church was responsible for recording all births, marriages, and deaths of the non-religious. The reason for this was that the Clergy were often the only ones who cold read and write and the City did not have the manpower to devote someone to this task.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans ( http://www.catholic.org/neworleans/ ) is in the process of publishing surname entries from the sacramental registers. To date, they have published twelve volumes that span from 1718 - 1817.

These books do carry more than just names, they also have the text of the sacramental record itself. This text can be a wealth of information including the names of parents, grand-parents, or other family members. It will also occasionally have the names of famous figures from the past, giving your family a historic connection to the past.

Unfortunately, these books are not available on the internet but they can be purchased for home use or found at many genealogy libraries.

Of course, as with any genealogy research, you have to careful of spellings. The Archdiocese of New Orleans has always had a heavy Spanish influence, even when ruled by the French. When coupled with the fact that most people only knew how to pronounce their names, a lot of French names were given a Spanish spelling when recorded.

And, there is no consistency to the spellings either. I have one great-grand-mother who was an early settler in Louisiana. Her name was spelled thirteen different ways among the various records.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans does not have all of the records for southern Louisiana. Many of the Cajuns who were chased out of Canada settled further north along the Mississippi and now belong to the Diocese of Baton Rouge ( http://www.diobr.org/ ).