Hello, all - Before continuing with the document translations - thought I would mention finding a couple more documents involving Thomas. I went to the California Genealogical Society's library today, and discovered a copy of "Marriage Contracts of the Opelousas Post, 1766-1803" translated and abstracted by Jacqueline O. Vidrine and Winstone De Ville. (1960) Thomas is not listed in the index, because they did not include witnesses, so I went through each page and found Thomas mentioned in connection with two marriages. The entire documents are not quoted, but the data has been extracted and conveniently translated into English. The first one is dated July 6, 1785 and started out with the usual "Before Alexandre Chev. De Clouet, Lt. Colonel Commandant Civil et militaire des Postes Attakapas et Opeloussas." The groom's name was Jacob WILL, a native of "Ingflin" in "Bavire," son of Jacob Will and Dame Barbare. I suspect "Bavire" is/was "Bavaria" (Baviere in French). There is a city named Ingolstadt in Bavaria - perhaps "Ingflin" is a rendering of the name of some locality near there. The bride was Dame Marie Therese, native of Havana. The witnesses were Fr. Marcantel; Bp. Georgias; Henry Hergeroder; and HOFFBAUER. There is a note that "Groom is widow of Elizabeth Estoutz, the issue of the marriage being: Michel, Pierre and Guillaume. The partage [division] of goods was done November 3, 1784." It says the couple were married March 28, 1785, so would that have been the church ceremony? I noticed several of the marriage records had different dates for the religious ceremony as opposed to the civil record. Although Thomas was a witness, he did not sign the document. The other marriage document was dated October 21, 1803, "Before Don Martin Duralde, Capitaine de Milice et Commandant civil et militaire de ce poste et de celui des Atacapas." The groom was Oliver CLARK, "of major age," son of Thomas Clark and Marie Brooks, a native of "la Nouvelle York." The bride was Julienne Bridom, widow of "feu [late] Michel Stoots," daughter of Michel Bridom and Catherine Reytenauer; "native of this colony." [Reytenauer sounds Germanic.] Witnesses for the groom were Thomas Hoffpauer and William Gilchrist. Witness for the bride were: Dame Michel Pridom for her husband; Michel and Andre Bridom, the bride's brothers; Pierre Stoots, her "beau-frere" [brother-in-law]; and Joseph Andrews and Murtough Collins. The signatures include "pour ma soeur veuve Michel Stouts, Andre Prud'homme" [for my sister widow Michel Stouts] - thus it would appear that the family name was really Prud'homme rather than Bridom. Andre Prud'homme then signs again "pour ma maire & pour moy" [for my mother and myself]. Pierre Stoots signs as Peter Stuts; William Gilchrist signs his name as William Gilcreast; and Thomas signs with his usual "Hoffpauer." This book of marriage abstracts has a handy glossary of French terms in the back. The word "boeufs" which I had previously translated as "beeves" actually means "oxen" according to the glossary. I was not sure whether "boeufs" meant bulls or oxen (i.e. castrated or not) and didn't bother to look it up. Barbara Hill <bhill@uclink4.berkeley.edu>