Parish Genealogy Can Get Interesting

 Parish Genealogy Can Get Interesting

BOBBY ARDOIN

Editor/Consulting Writer

Searching for ancestral records at the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court can be genealogically rewarding, but as archivist Larry Caillier II warns, there also might be some previously hidden surprises that are unveiled as you search over 300 years of files.

Caillier, a college anthropology graduate who has been the parish archivist for nearly four years, provided a Thursday night audience with a comprehensive look at the tools available at the Clerk of Court for genealogy research in addition to referencing several colorful anecdotes from St. Landry history that featured murderous family feuds and assassinations of political opponents.

The twilight event hosted by the Preservationists of St. Landry, Inc. on the front lawn of the 225-year-old Michel Prudhomme Home was part of a quarterly guest speaker series that thematically covers aspects of parish history.

Caillier describes the wealth of Clerk of Court records available for research as a historical “gold mine,” since St. Landry still contains information from six current parishes that until 1910 were part of St. Landry.

Searches for familial histories have become more prevalent, as many individuals have become genealogical tourists, as they spend several days combing through files, looking for ancestral clues, Caillier said.

Caillier said he has helped make the Clerk of Court files more investigative friendly, as “family tree” files have already been established, where individuals knowing last names can start searching almost immediately.

There are also hand written and computer generated conveyance records listing property transfers over three centuries as well as marriage licenses that can be used as starting points for ancestral research, Caillier added.

Interestingly, marriages nearly 200 years ago might occasionally contain cash bonds similar to dowries, between the groom and father of the bride, which Caillier said implied, “If you do anything to the bride then you have just lost your money.” 

Sometimes Caillier said, you might look for one thing and find a genealogical trait that was unexpected.

Occasionally there is evidence hidden among the family histories that indicate a distant relative whose ethnicity was previously thought to be otherwise.

St. Landry contained a number of antebellum plantations and many of those contained slaves, whose histories are also contained in the archives, Caillier said.

Some of the slave information searches sometimes become perplexing, Cailllier added, since it depends on how they were recorded.

For instance many slaves are identified through property transactions, which means searches could run through conveyances, since slaves were considered property by owners.

Researching the names of plantations often helps in locating the names of the slaves that lived there, said Caillier.

Overall sometimes genealogical research can unfold like the plots in mystery novels, Caillier noted.

“There are so many stories that are being told (in the records) that at the end of the day, you get the good, the bad, the ugly and the inbetween. All of that is available,” said Caillier.