Friday, June 5, 2009

Researching Acadia Parish

I haven't had much spare time this week, but the few minutes I did collect went to gathering the names of ancestors born in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, or somehow connected to the area.

I'm hoping to take a quick trip there in July, and I'd like to determine the cemetery sites of anyone who may be buried there.

My group is about 70 people. These are the names (so far) that occur in my family tree:

Arcenaux
Bourgaux
Brewer (an interesting case, indeed)
Eldridge
Guidry
(part of the interesting case, indeed)
Leger
Matt / Matte
McGee
Menou
Petitjean
Scanlan
Taylor (guy that killed a Thibodeaux)
Thibodeaux (guy that was killed by a Taylor)

Based on what I've seen so far, I am probably related to any Bourgaux or Menou folks in Rayne, Iota or that general area of Acadia Parish. Those families rolled in to the country in the 1870's/1880's. The Thibodeaux's are the Cajun version of Smith. What a mess. I haven't sorted that out yet.

With the list done, I'll start consulting online resources, like Find-a-Grave and the local society-related web pages. Then I will move on to my local libraries here. I feel confident I'll have burial places for most of these folks by then.

I'd also love to find the court records of a murder case that occured in Acadia Parish in 1889. Advice? I've done zero searching. I'm just being lazy and fishing for an easy answer.

So that's what I've been doing this week. Fun stuff.

2 comments:

  1. If the Thibodeaux's are the Smith's, then I think the Trahan's are the Jones's.

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  2. Did you find ambroise Hoffpauir who was born in St. Landry to Mary Hoffpauir in 1851 Who was his father?

    ReplyDelete