I am a member of LALGS and I will try to attend the meeting on Thursday evening. Are you still meeting at the Main Library in Lafayette? I would like to announce using this e-mail that the historic St. Nicholas Cemetery at Patoutville and the second one on Coulee Road nearby are facing a dramatic threat. The cemetery chairman, Bill LaBiche, along with the former pastor, Fr. Richard Fabre, have made an evaluation of about three to four dozen vaults. Some are among the oldest in the cemetery--the late 1800's. They are in disrepair but not beyond repair. The deadline for making a claim and assuming responsibility for these is April 7, 2007. I am writing today as a representative of a group recently formed: "Friends of the Historic St. Nicholas Cemetery". While we are physically scattered from Texas to North Carolina, we all share an interest in local genealogy and historical preservation. What makes us unique is that some of us have never met, but feel closely connected because of our common goal: to locate descendants and notify them of the problem and convince them of their responsibility. We do this using Fr. Donald Hebert's books and the Social Security Indices along with our personal databases of local genealogies. It is difficult to tell you all the details in this short e-mail. Please click onto www.thecajuns.com It should take you to a page on which is a reference to the Patoutville cemetery on the left. From there you can see photos and names of the tombs under threat of removal. Derouen, Gary, Louviere, Lyons are some of the families whose ancestors' burial vaults are in danger of being destroyed! There are more than 50 individuals named. This is a serious and urgent problem. If you have any ideas that would be helpful to our group, please contact me. If you know anyone at the Lafayette Diocese who can help, please pass the word on to them and ask for their help. Pass this information on by e-mail to other lists and discussion boards so more of us "Cajuns" will get the word about our ancestors. So many have moved away and are not aware of this problem. I am available to speak to or answer e-mails from anyone who is willing to help. Lastly, if anyone would like to make a contribution toward our efforts to prevent this demolition, we would appreciate your support. Now please click onto www.thecajuns.com to learn more about this dire situation. If there is any additional information which you need from me or anyone in our "Friends" group, please contact me and I will see that it is provided. I realize that this is a complicated matter, but one that is very important to us to prevent demolition of historic tombs and removal of remains to a common grave. Frankly, it evokes scenes of the holocaust and inspires us to increase our efforts to prevent it from happening. In our eyes, they are not "abandoned" because we are here to claim them in the name of decency. We speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We believe that the deed to the burial spaces were a contractual agreement for eternity, not a lease. Yours truly, Julaine Deare Schexnayder 2011 Old Jeanerette Road New Iberia, LA 70563 337 365-7667