1 comments about The Men Who Built Fort Claiborne in Natchitoches, Louisiana Captain Edward D. Turner's Company of the 2nd Regiment of the United States Army.

1. Edward Turner was born about 1768, probably near Boston, a descendant of early settlers in the Plymouth Colony. In 1791, he was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Army, serving thereafter in New England as a paymaster and quartermaster, and being promoted to captain in 1794, with supply duties on the frontier. Two years later, he was in command of a company at Ft. Fayette (near Pittsburgh), accompanied by a new wife. In 1802, he found himself at Nashville, then Ft. Pickering, near the present site of Memphis. By the following year, he was at Ft. Adams, Mississippi Territory, where he was summoned by Gov. William C. C. Claiborne and told he was to be in charge of supplying the federal troops being moved to New Orleans following the Louisiana Purchase. Claiborne continued the colonial Louisiana practice of having local military commanders serve also as civil administrators, so when Turner was sent in April 1804 to establish an American military presence at the town of Natchitoches, he was to serve also as the local head of government. When he was replaced a year later, Turner resigned his commission and was immediately appointed Judge of Natchitoches County. He was later appointed the first postmaster as well, organized a local militia, and carried out a census, in addition to acquiring and expanding plantation holdings in the area. His promising career in the new state was cut short in 1811, however, by one of the periodic waves of malaria and he and his wife both were buried within forty-eight hours. This biographical research was developed by Richard M. Lytle in the process of writing a master's thesis, but the bulk of this volume consists of the unusually legible military records he uncovered at the National Archives and which were transcribed by Womack, a well-known Louisiana genealogist with a deserved reputation for producing careful work. This includes muster rolls and payrolls of Turner's Company for the period 1802-1805. Some of the men listed were part of the unit at Nashville and at Ft. Adams, while others joined in New Orleans and in Natchitoches itself. Some of them also were discharged there and may well have descendants in northwest Louisiana.

2 comments about Old Families of Louisiana.

1. It's always nice to see an old classic back in print. Originally planned as a continuation of Charles Patton Dimitry?s _Louisiana Families_ series (published in 1892), the authors augmented that work by extending the coverage to English, Scots, and Irish family lines, as well as adding French and Spanish families omitted by Dimitry. There's a great deal of compiled material here, but no source citations. It would also have been useful to include an every-name index in place of the original index which lists only "stem" surnames. Likewise, the prose can be a bit florid for modern tastes, but Louisiana researchers will want to begin much of their research on new families with this volume.



2. Be it known that this provides only a very limited review of families of statuor of the New Orleans area. It gives no mention of the just as old families of Acadian and Creole families of the "Cajun" areas. Nor does it include Spanish and other origin families. Thus of limited value to historians and genealogist.

No comments about The Foreign French: Nineteenth-Century French Immigration into Louisiana, 1840-1848.

2 comments about Vacherie, St. James Parish, Louisiana: History And Genealogy.

1. Mr. Oubre has included over 700 pages of family lines, census records, militia rolls, histories and legends of the people who settled and built the original town known as Vacherie, Louisiana. It is a monumental work that has added considerably to my passion to learn from whom and where I come. The book includes (among many others) histories of the Amedee, Becnel, Brazen, Falgoust, Folse, Gravois, Loup, Ockman, Oubre, Remondet, Sevin, Simon, Stein and Webre families of the German Coast area of Louisiana.

   If this book interests you, other books you may enjoy are:

   Falgoust : A History and Genealogy of the Falgoust and Falgout families of France and Louisiana, 1555-1988 by Barbara L. Allen

   La Famille Gravois, les Trois Cents Annees Passees (in English) by Roland Anthony Gravois

   German Coast Families by Al Robichaux, Jr., 1997




2. This book offers so much to anyone who has any interest in family history from south Louisiana. As anyone can attest who has done any genealogy, many times family lines cross, especially in smaller towns. Though I was looking particularly for one line, I have found a wealth of information which I didn't quite expect. Mr. Oubre, I thank you sincerely for all the time and love it must have taken you to research all of these records.

1 comments about Deadly Pedigree (Nick Herald Genealogical Mystery).

1. While I enjoy genealogical mysteries, I could not get into this book. In my opinion, there are better choices out there for the money.

1 comments about Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818-1850: Translated Abstracts from the Registers of St. Francios des Natchitoches Louisiana.

1. ...you are doing ANY genealogy research on your family in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana who were Catholic. EVERYONE is there and EVERYTHING is there. Invaluable information and will save you LOADS of research time. Its value is guaranteed nothing less than that.

No comments about The First Families of Louisiana Index.

No comments about Gulf Coast Colonials: A Compendium of French Families in Early Eighteenth Century Louisiana.

1 comments about Final Destinations: A Travel Guide for Remarkable Cemeteries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

1. This is a good reference book. It lists some different cemeteries in the Texas,New Mexico,Oklahoma and Arkansas region. Some I already knew about but lot I did not. It has some historical information along with several pictures of the actual cemeteries. Would have liked more information listed about some of the cemeteries in Oklahoma. I'm sure a book on each state and its famous or interesting cemeteries could be written. I would recommend it for people doing genealogy in this region.

5 comments about One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets.

1. Bliss Broyard is emotionally compelled to embark upon a tedious journey into her paternal heritage. That journey takes her all the way back to the tribe, Hausa, in Nigeria. Meanwhile, through spending countless hours researching slave and property records in libraries and court houses, Broyard finds `missing' relatives. This discovery confirms the family secret her mother revealed just before her infamous father, New York writer, Anatole Broyard, dies of cancer. In death, his legacy crosses Broyard over to the side of color.
   
   Crossing over becomes a series of historical enlightenment and shame with the persistent reality that the Broyards are a family of African-Americans known for passing. Within the reunion to meet her father's people, Broyard must decide if she will cross back over into the comfortable life she knew as a WASP or claim a stigmatized race as her own. She is racially challenged by her dear Aunt Vivian. Aunt Vivian is adamant that the Broyards are white. Research over. On the other hand, Broyard is emotionally challenged by her cousin, Beverly. Beverly is brutally honest about the dark-skinned Broyards being cheated out of a good, equal rights, respectable life while the `passing' Broyards - Anatole - enjoyed life with social acceptance. Does Broyard feel guilty that her dark-skinned family are victims of racism while she is not?
   
   Broyard is determined to find her absolute identity in any event and she spends long, laborous hours researching and studying slave documents and the like. All the while, she is confronted with a side of America that hurts her father's legacy.
   
   In addition to the reverse chronological value of ONE DROP, readers will become capable of understanding the history of New Orleans, the Mardi Gras, the Creole Ball, racial paranoia, intermarriages, and Creoles. Broyard provides more truth about slavery and introduces the avid reader to an elemental understanding of DNAPrint and qualifying to determine one's race identity - his or her heritage. Because ONE DROP is primarily set in New Orleans, the influence of the Native American is very interesting, all the way down to their "steps."
   
   Finally, if you ever wondered about whether or not to embrace a mulatto, one dropper, light-skinned "passing" African-American, or Creole, Broyard eloquently gives you permission to do so.
   
   Reviewed by Swaggie Coleman
   for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers



2. I had high hopes when I purchased this book, but I am very disappointed in the book and its writer.
   
   There was nothing sincere about the book and I took issues with many of the offensive references to black people that the author made.
   
   She makes several racist remarks about African American's and their physical (It was more what she thinks their characteristics are), bodily characteristics, which are very stereotypical and inaccurate. Before she found out about her father's ancestry, she felt comfortable making racial epithets, which I find interesting and very telling. .
   
   I have recently found out that my great grandmother was Mexican and I don't walk around claiming to be Mexican. I might mention my Mexican ancestry, but not claim to be Mexican, when clearly I am not.
   
   She made several references to people saying she "looks" black and I find it hard to believe this is true, since she looks clearly white. I find Bliss Broyard too eager to claim blackness at this point in her life when it benefits her.
   
   
   I have read several books that are in the same genre that have been so much better. I would not recommend this book.



3. Being an African American, I have always been curious about mixed race people and how they handle their day to day lives, why some pass and others don't? This family's experience was quite interesting.



4. One of the best biographies ever. Blyss Broyard blends two hundred years worth of family secrets to explain how and why racial identity can be so controversial. Her father, Anatole Broyard, kept his mixed race parentage from his children and the result of that decision is this marvelous book.



5. I just finished reading a novel called Passin', by Karen E. Quinones Miller, and Broyard's father was mentioned in that book. What little I learned from Miller's book intrigued me, so I hurried up and purchased One Drop. It was a decent book, but not as interesting as I might have hoped.
   
   She had me mesmerized when writing about her father's life, but then when she goes on her own journey to learn more about her African-American roots my interest began to wan. I tried to figure out why, and then realized it was because she was writing about it almost as a disinterested character herself! She never drew me in, because she wasn't that drawn in. So why did she bother with this odyssey to find her roots, I wonder? Maybe to write this book?
   
   Also, and I saw this mentioned in a few other reviews, she seems to have some (residual?) racist views herself about blacks . . . and you out and out feel that she thinks it ironic that she's now part of a group she and her friends have always considered inferior.
   
   If anyone ever writes a full biography on her father, I'd love to read it. But this memoir left me feeling a little on the exploited side, myself.