On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 17:43:01 -0600, [email protected] wrote: >Can someone out there tell me how I would go about getting >Manumission Papers from the late 1700's from St. James or >St. Charles Parish. The names I am researching are: de la >CHAISE and VILLERE. Hi Stephanie, I found a reference to the surnames you mentioned and Manumission in Conrad's abstracts of the St Charles Parish Civil Records. It is referred to as "Book 11, 1781, Document No. 441 dated 19 Nov 1781. This document states that Louise de La Chaise, Widow Villere, sold her slave Etienne his freedom for 400 pisatres. I know of two ways to get copies of the original document. First, you can write to the Clerk of Court for St Charles Parish (in Hahnville, LA, I believe) and ask for a photocopy of this document. A second source would be to review the microfilm of the original document at your local LDS library. Check the LDS catalog entries for St Charles Parish "Original Acts" for the year 1781. AFAIK, all of the colonial civil records of St James Parish are missing or destroyed except for the period of 1782-1787. Hope this helps! Dwayne A Montz [email protected] _______________________________________________________ MONTZ Genealogy: http://www.infinet.com/~damontz/montzfamily/