In a message dated 8/31/2003 9:00:32 PM Central Daylight Time, ACADIAN-CAJUN-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > >>Hi all, > >> > >>it must be all the rain we are getting up here in NC and I have mold on > the > >>brain, but was St. Charles Parish, La. under the Diocese of New Orleans > in > >>1747 - 1767? > In 1747, there was no Diocese of New Orleans. We were part of the Diocese of Quebec. The surviving early ecclesiastical records of the Parish of Les Allemands (Now St. Charles Parish) are now housed at the Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Prior to being called in by the Archdiocese for archiving, all parish registers were housed in the individual parish churches, the old parish records being housed at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Destrehan, which is across the river from the original German Coast church. There was a fire at the church rectory in the late 1800's, and all but the first register was lost. The Louisiana State Museum has photocopies (actually reverse microfilm negative copies) of the actual early surviving St. Charles church records, erroneously known as "The Little Red Church Records." When I asked to look at them a couple of years ago, the archivist didn't know what I was talking about. I explained to her what they were and that I had researched the records some years before when the State Museum library was on St. Anne St. in New Orleans. She disappeared, and then came back with an ordinary box, saying that that was all she had. I was with a friend, and when we opened the box, we found very bad photocopies of the negative microfilm copies. I looked through them, and halfway through the box, I found the stack of negative copies. The archivist didn't know what they were, and didn't even know they were there. She took the bad photocopies out and threw them in a wastebasket. We asked if we could have them and she gave us permission to take them. My friend has them, but really, they are very hard to read, as you can imagine - a bad photocopy of a negative photocopy of a 260 year old record!!! But priceless, nevertheless. If you go to the mint to view these, remember - make an appointment, and explain in detail what you want and insist that they are there, because they are!!! Early issues of the New Orleans Genesis, the quarterly publication of the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans, has abstracts of these records. They are also abstracted in the Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans books. The actual records, viewable at the Louisiana State Museum, are so much more interesting and contain more information than the abstracts. Beginning in the early 1770's, some St. Charles records (very few) can be found in the registers of St. John the Baptist Church at Edgard. These are currently housed at the Archdiocese of New Orleans archives, and the abstracts are in their books. After the Spanish Government officially took over 1763, New Orleans became part of the Diocese of Havana. For a most complete, thoroughly researched account of the churches at the German Coast, see Albert J. Robichaux's "German Coast Families." Barbara Allen Metairie, LA