Analyzing Early Careers
Recently
I was looking on Facebook and noticed a family member (husband’s not mine) had
deceitfully posted to his profile that he graduated in the class of 1984. Well,
as an avid researcher, and Licensed Private Investigator, I confirmed that this
was incorrect. It should have read in the subjunctive tense “If I were to have
graduated from this College, I would have graduated with the class of 1984,
assuming I passed my classes on time and carried the normal load of 15 hours a
semester.
Does
this type of detail matter? Of course it does! How would your family research
change shape, if you were under the premise that Grandpa was a newspaper editor
to find out he was actually the “reliable newspaper carrier.” What if great
grandma, who family lore boasts of her well ran hotel on the Transcontinental
Route, actually ran a brothel? The proof is in the detail.
How to Analyze
Data
Information,
instructions and guidelines on analyzing data, documents and other genealogical
sources has flooded the internet. But
here is a great article to read by Elizabeth Shown Mills, QuickLesson1: Analysis and Citation as a primer.
It
was this Mill’s blog post that inspired me to look up the difference between
the various carpenter positions which surnames are often explicit hints to
occupations: Menusiere: woodcarver or
chair-maker; Carpentier: early French reference to two (2) wheel carriage/wagon maker or wainwright. You
will find these distinctive occupations in many early colonial records under French
control and in French territories (Louisiana territory and Canada).
Why
Self-Promotion?
Like
my discovery that not all printed documents reveal the truth, we must keep in
mind that many who arrived in America were those who escaped the French
Revolution, or perhaps one of French Acadians who arrived in French Louisiana
in 1785, thanks to the King of France, or Huguenots who were exiled members of
the Protestant Reformed Church of France. A good source is the French Colonists
and Exiles in the United States: French Colonists and Exiles in the United States. These immigrants were trying to start anew,
and often created a new past for themselves and promoted themselves even though
the facts dispute their claim.
French Colony
Research in the USA
Here
are a few places where you may uncover early French records relating to your
ancestral search. I suggest you begin with the State Archives, but I have
located early diaries/letters in private collections.
St
Louis, Mobile AL, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Biloxi, Mississippi, Detroit and
Green Bay were all early French settlements. The Illinois country, or Pays des Illinois,
included Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. Of course in Canada: Quebec and
Montreal also hold many early French documents.
Florida, South
Carolina and Texas
Most
people know the French were in Florida (Jacksonville) and Parris Island in
South Carolina, but they were only there for about a year, and many early
documents in those locations may have been created under the Spanish colony
rule. Of course many Huguenots settled in So. Carolina also. Visit The National Huguenot Society.
The
French were only present in Texas for about 3 years, but I’ve not located any
significant genealogical records. Feel free to share, if you have uncovered a
fascinating source!
Concentrating in
Louisiana
The
University of Louisiana Lafayette is an unsuspected repository of French
Colonial Records
The
Historic New Orleans Collection website has compiled a list of “French Language
archival material in Louisiana and North America – A Guide to French Louisiana Manuscripts.
Be
sure to remember the Church Records: Here is an ancestry.com Wiki on Louisiana Church Records
State
Museums are taking an active role in preserving colonial Records. The State Museum of Louisiana has 80 reels of French period colonial documents on microfilm.
Kathleen
Brandt
Accurate,
accessible answers
Very interesting article, thanks for posting this will surely help me in my research.
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