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Ok you are seeking family members, you know their names and your know where they lived. Census Records provide you with a lot of information. Names, sex, race, occupation, relationship to the head of household, names of children born before that year, names of any other person living in the household and their occupation and much more.

Looking at Census records every ten years also provides clues if they lived for a long time in one place or moved may times or living with another family. Census records can also reveal immigration information such as where they are from, another State or Country.

Migration patterns changes as events in history take place, such as land grants after the Wars to pay soldiers for their services, or a famine. The depressions of the ages as well as families moving west to populate the new territory of Louisiana around 1803. The Texas Wars with Mexico and the migration into Southern Texas.

Here in South Louisiana it was the migrations from Indian to French and Spanish , African, Italian, Irish, Scots, Americans, Czecs and Slovacs, Vietnam and many more. The country, state or place of origin will be on the census records. Also check for Slave schedules and applications for slaves and apprentices etc.

Remember that census records were not always very literate. NAMES can be misspelled easily. Try saying the name to yourself and try to spell what it sounds like. THIS MAY HELP YOU FIND MISPELLINGS OF THE SURNAMES. The nationality of the census taker is also a hint. Check their surname for hints as to their nationality.

Check the family members and others living in the household. Servants, slaves, Indians etc as well can be included. Many Indian males were hunters for families. Servants were of different nationalities.

Announcing that in 2022 the 1950 Census will be put out to the public. It will probably be available after the first half of the year.

Any Questions? Please ask, I will try my best to help. Christ has risen, that is what our story is all about. God Bless you and your family for the Resurrection celebration is the biggest event in history, he was only 32 years old. I can’t imagine how his mother felt at this atrocity toward her son. Pray for us in Jesus name.

City directories were established long before phone books. They reveal not only where your ancestors lived but also possibly their occupations. They can be available online or found in local libraries. These are of particular interest if the family lived within the city limits. The City Directories include companies, their addresses and sometimes names of owners and workers and their job titles or occupations. Photographs are also included in the advertisements sometimes of people and their stores and merchandise sold or services rendered. Don’t forget phone books as well, call and check the libraries.

The Social Security Death Index reveals the date of birth, date of death, where and when the number was issued, and where the benefits were last paid. If the person did not apply for number as before 1950s and records are incomplete to about 1970.

Draft cards were issued during several drafts that took place in U.S. history. Whether not the ancestor participated the men were required to apply and fill out a draft card. They proved names, dates, births, and where they were living as well as a physical description of the person by the recruiter. Now, these records were given by the applicant and so their responses are not always perfectly accurate. Some are available online at the National Archives and Records Administration www.archives.gov

Passenger List’s include passengers who migrated to the US, so they are great for linking spouses and their children often listing ages and country of origin. The name of the ship, captain and crew are also interesting as well as where they boarded and where they were from and where they unloaded. Relationships are sometimes noted for parents and other relations.

Applications for naturalization and citizenship include names, dates of birth, places of birth, and place of immigration as well dates. This evidence may be found online, parish or district court records. In order for them to complete this process they were required to bring two witnesses as to their living requirements.

Marriage records reflect not only the date of the marriage but many times their ages along with their parents’ names. Older records such as those at the Justice of the Peace, many times do not include the parents names. Most marriages took place around the bride’s hometown or church. You will find a list of witnesses who are family and friends of the couple. These records may also be filed in Courthouse parish and church parish records, some can be found online. Keep in mind that public records will often only include past 100 years for privacy concerns. If the local church does not have the records due to the age, it may be housed in another regional location. Ask the records keepers for that information. Checking the library and local papers for engagement and marriage announcements.

Old birth, marriages and deaths in church and courthouse records are included in Father Hebert’s Books. South Louisiana Records and Southwest Louisiana Records which can be found at the local libraries in those areas.

I know that you are creating a fantastic family story to tell your descendants, please keep in mind that you will eventually need to hand down this research to family. You can see by their interest which one of your children or cousins would be totally into doing family research.

God Bless you in your journey to the most important people in your life. Have fun and don’t forget to treat them to a lunch when you spend the day. Call ahead and bring food, they will love it.

Hello, I am Trudy Voisin-Hebert and I would like to assist you in finding your family.

I have been working on family trees doing research since 1982. I can offer you assistance in the how to’s of doing your family research. How to find resources, how to record your information, and how to contact family, how to obtain documentation or recording stories of your family. My assistance for telling you the how to’s in your searching is at no cost to you and you must do the searching yourself, which is the fun of doing it all. The people you meet and the places you visit will remain a great memory for you.

This Blog was created for people doing research in North America. I have done some European research but only in the confines of the World Wide Web.

Beginning your family search should start with what you already know about your family that includes their names and relationships and dates you know like mama’s birthday and their anniversary etc.  Put this information in a spiral notebook or special pages you have copied or purchased from genealogy websites. The best I use are the Family Group forms and the Five Generation chart.

Keeping the family in a Family Group form is easy, just list the parents and their birth, marriage and death information that you know, what you don’t know is what your searching is all about. Then list the children in date order, first born first. List their birth, marriage and death dates along with the name of the spouse with their info as well.

On the Five Generations charts you will begin the first one on the left by filling out your information. Then the top will be your father info and the bottom will be your mothers. This will follow suit, father top, mother bottom on the following generations.

Again, fill out what you can on their vitals birth, marriage and death dates and places. If you are using the forms you can put them in ascending for descending order as you prefer, but always keep them in a folder or binder which ever you prefer. Once you have the first page started, then you need to look at the missing items and begin to get that information.

NOTE: When you fill out the information with what you know please put in your Source or right behind the information OH, self or your name. This represents Oral History, Jane Doe. Once you obtain documentation of these items you can change the Source info to where you got it. Such as HR Church, Houma Bt Vol 4 No 2, meaning the Holy Rosary Church in the Baptism book Vol 4 and No or page. Notice I put Houma after the church name as the is another Holy Rosary Church in a nearby parish.

MEMO: Born in Louisiana, I am used to saying parish as that is what our counties are called. Please relate any information when I say Parish to County in your neck of the woods.

1. Name of relative or self
   1. Date of birth, location and source
   2. Date of marriage, location and source
   3. Date of death, location and source

Please spell the name correctly and it can change as you go back in time with family names.

1. Date of birth sometimes as b. or bn. is preferred, sometimes all you have is a baptism bt. date if that is the case use this date and show the Bt. And the source, church name, location, Bt. Book # and Volume and page numbers.
2. Date of marriage, again this can be deceiving. In Louisiana, there are civil and church marriages. Usually, the civil marriage date is just the date the license was acquired at the local courthouse or the date a bond was posted. The church marriage usually followed with a different date. If I have both I put both, but for documentation on this form, there is no room for both, choose the one. you prefer or write the other on the back of the page of your form with the corresponding number from the front form. Example: Date: TPCourthouse MGs Book #, page# doc #.  & Date: HR Church Houma Mg book # page# doc#
3. Date of Death:  DATE: Location, Bur. HR Houma Cemetery Main St Lot # Blk #, if this person died at a different location then put where they died in location city, state and or country, then put Bur. Location. Now this person could be living so this area is left blank.

NOTEs: If the person is single and not married then the marriage section would be left blank as well. If the person never married then put that in the marriage section, but if they had children, then you would ask permission from the persons to include the father (s) of their children as well as putting never married. For genealogy’s sake I always include the father’s names and put a note they were never married. That way the biological father would be named for medical reasons. If someone has been adopted, you may prefer to have one or both families listed and there are apps where you can place them as biological children or parents and adopted children or parents. If you have both and want to include them. Your choice. If you are writing them on the form or sheet then just create a second form for the adopted parents.

These are all choices you will need to make for yourself, no one else should make these decisions for you. Make sure that your reasons are on the up and up and not to hurt anyone. May God Bless you in a special way for taking up the genealogy of your family.

I have been working on family trees doing research since 1982.

I can offer you assistance in the how to’s of doing your family research.

How to find resources, how to record your information, and how to contact family, how to obtain documentation or recording stories of your family.

My assistance is advising you on the how-to in your searching is at no cost to you. You do the searching as the fun of doing it all is the people you meet and the places you visit that will remain a great memory for you.

The pictures you see above are just a tiny collection of pictures and documents gathered over the years. Pictures of people and places obituaries and documents such as draft cards and much much more.