Hi, Gary Belsome here. A new member of the group. And to be honest up front, a Roman Catholic priest. I mention this because of the awareness that brings me concerning the birth place and baptism place of our ancestors. In the early days of the Louisiana, Arkansas and Illinois settlements, Catholic prists traveled great distances to provide ceremonies for Catholic settlers. In other cases, families traveled to the mother church, St. Louis in New Orleans for example, and may have had several sacraments celebrated on the same day. For instance, in the Pizani family I have ancestors who were married, and stood as the godparents for two babies being baptized on the same day at St. Louis although they may have lived in Barataria. Point being, it was possible to be both a native of Islas Negras and have a baptism recorded at St. Louis in New Orleans, or to be born at Kaskaskia and have a baptism recorded at the Little Red Church in St. Charles. It also meant that multiple family sacramental celebrations were celebrated on the same day. The lesson for me has been to not make assumptions concerning the place of birth based on the place where the baptism is recorded. A person born at Kaskaskia may have been baptized at the Arkansas settlement by a traveling priest from New Orleans who recorded the baptism at St. Louis. I hope this doesn't muddy the waters too much, but were are on the Mississippi. Gary Belsome

Hi Gary, Welcome to the list. Thanks for reminding us that priests (and preachers) were not available 24 hours a day in every area where people settled. You are so right about not assuming anything from a baptism record. My husband's family were Methodists with one being a circuit riding preacher in the 1800s. Sometimes the circuit riding preacher would enter his minister's returns (record the marriage) in the first town he visited after the event. Sometimes that meant an Arkansas couple in the 1800s might be listed in the returns in a Louisiana town. It is hard to know for sure, unless you locate an old family bible or an old county newspaper on microfilm that mentions the couple's marriage. One thing that I learned is to try to find as many "proofs" as possible for each event. A funny story in my husband's family is about an uncle who was married by a Baptist preacher. He dreaded telling his mother that he had not been married by a Methodist preacher. When he brought his wife home for a visit, he confessed. His mother just laughed and said "your father and I were married by a Baptist preacher, too." It seems during that time period in rural Arkansas, you got married by whichever preacher was in the area at the time. So again do not assume church affiliation by the preacher's religion. Love to All, Isabel

Along this line, there supposedly was a tradition that children were brought back to the church of their maternal grandmother for baptism in Louisiana. Don't know how true this is but I have seen a couple of cases where this could have been the case. And what Fr. Belsome says below is what happened in the case of the two Degruy females marrying the two Boutte men. The marriage record is recorded at St. Martinville, 13 Jul 1778, but based upon the land grant records the Degruy family lived at Fausse Point, a good distance away. It was known that the priest at St. Martinville ministered as far away as Natchitoches and Pointe Coupee (Fausse Point). The Degruy/Boutte marriages are not even fully cited by the priest, the late Fr. Donald Hebert had the following citation in Southwest Louisiana Records-Vol.1A. P.230 "DEGRUIS, two sisters m. 13 Jul 1778 BOUTET, two brothers. Fr. Louis MARIE, Cure of Opelousas (SM Ch.: Folio B-1, Marriages and SM Church v.1p.59)" So here we have a priest assigned to Opelousas, performing a marriage probably in the Pointe Coupee area and recording the event in St. Martinville church records. No wonder the names were not entered he had probably forgetten them by the time he recorded the event. We are able to determine who the four were by later birth records from these two marriages. I have the revised versions of Fr. Hebert's SWLR, which covers from 1750 to 1825 or so)...several Degruy entries besides one mentioned. Don't know if the information contained has been posted on web site. Will do any other type lookup for those interested. -----Original Message----- From: GaryB0612@aol.com [mailto:GaryB0612@aol.com] Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 1:43 PM To: DEGRUY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: wow... The Dutch Connection..... & births and marriages of Degruy childr... Hi, Gary Belsome here. A new member of the group. And to be honest up front, a Roman Catholic priest. I mention this because of the awareness that brings me concerning the birth place and baptism place of our ancestors. In the early days of the Louisiana, Arkansas and Illinois settlements, Catholic prists traveled great distances to provide ceremonies for Catholic settlers. In other cases, families traveled to the mother church, St. Louis in New Orleans for example, and may have had several sacraments celebrated on the same day. For instance, in the Pizani family I have ancestors who were married, and stood as the godparents for two babies being baptized on the same day at St. Louis although they may have lived in Barataria. Point being, it was possible to be both a native of Islas Negras and have a baptism recorded at St. Louis in New Orleans, or to be born at Kaskaskia and have a baptism recorded at the Little Red Church in St. Charles. It also meant that multiple family sacramental celebrations were celebrated on the same day. The lesson for me has been to not make assumptions concerning the place of birth based on the place where the baptism is recorded. A person born at Kaskaskia may have been baptized at the Arkansas settlement by a traveling priest from New Orleans who recorded the baptism at St. Louis. I hope this doesn't muddy the waters too much, but were are on the Mississippi. Gary Belsome ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx