Liz You are welcome. That is why we share whatever we find as it may provide the missing pieces. What I think we need to find next is Henry in the 1860 (& 1870) census this should identify his children. Census Magic please. With three civil marriages probably not Roman Catholic, Cyprien courthouse marriage record may be a judge marriage, or a bond besides a license. This may have the info we seek. Give me the names 2nd book & a couple of the other books when I do a "Bluebonnet Run". 2 or 3 Henrys? My gut says two with three wives. I will try & dump children records & group. Paul Le B l'Ascension Louisiane -----Original Message----- From: Liz Hall Morgan Paul, Thanks very much for the help. I was hoping the SWLR CD or DOBR might give a quick answer for Cyprien Stemmann's parents, but your lookups were still very helpful as I have misplaced my SWLR Stemmann pages I copied a couple years ago & haven't typed all the text details into my software yet. (That'll teach me. :) ) The misspelling as "Steinman" is a good reminder for me; I may try more "bad" spellings in the censuses where I can't find people. Or I may have to just grit my teeth and search page by page. Avelina Granger (the "Vina" in 1850?) is a good mom candidate for Cyprien, but I will have to also be patient & search Avoyelles resources for confirmation. Thanks very much for the book titles; some may be out here in So. Calif. or available by interlibrary loan. Or maybe I can contact the church if it still exists. And/or get Henry C. (II)'s succession record. That should clarify things a lot. The naturalization records should give a lot more on the immigrant Henry/Heinrich Christophe (I) Stemmann. I wonder if NARA or Avoyelles Parish is the better (cheaper?) place to inquire for copies? Avoyelles Parish courthouse website does not look very researcher-friendly. Hmmm... well, couldn't hurt to e-mail. Thanks for reading all my thinking aloud--well, in print. :) I think trying to explain things (even not very clearly) helped me put some pieces together & also see where the missing bits are. My suppositions may not all be correct, so now I have to stop wanting quick Internet answers and order some records. But I think I'm on the right track. Any other research suggestions appreciated. :) A bientot, Liz in Los Angeles, via Sulphur, LA p.s. I do find it very interesting that the Austrian or German Stemmann (II) married two French or Cajun women. He must have spoken French or learned very quickly! And his son Cyprien married my great-grandma Octavie McBride, who, despite the (Irish? Scottish?) name spoke only French, so the Stemmanns were very quickly assimilated into Cajun culture--as were the McBrides, I believe. (Octavie's parents were William McBride & Melasie Hollier, and I'm fairly sure Melasie spoke only French, also.) Gordon from this list has posted a lot on the McBrides, I think.