>From one of our "Friends" with a PhD in an unrelated field. -----Original Message----- From: R. Martin Guidry Paul, If this is truly an historical society's holdings versus a parish courthouse with official parish records, I agree with you.  These are probably files of individual society members.  Some combination of files could certainly have occurred.   I would be leery of using the information outright unless it is well documented and verified through further research.  It is certainly valuable to use to get leads that are later verified through further research.  This seems to be a very similar situation to that of Placide Gaudet's Notes that are widely used by researchers. Marty