Books for Research in Family & Local History
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All titles, wrappers. Indexed, unless otherwise noted.
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1238 Red Fox Lane Ville Platte, Louisiana 70586-8732
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. One left in stock.
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 One left in stock.
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. One left in stock.
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.} Two left in stock.
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, 8½ x 11. Wrappers. Item no. C7. $31.00. One left in stock.
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. One left in stock.
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. Two left in stock.
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. One left in stock.