I am sending this query to the Natchitoches Mailing list in hopes that someone maybe able to help this person. Gaytha Subj: Armentor Date: 98-05-19 23:03:16 EDT From: carnahan@rice.edu (Norman F. Carnahan) To: LaFamTree@aol.com Perhaps you may have some information sources which can help me in my quest to learn the origin of the Armentor family name? That surname first appears (in Father Hebert's compilation) in an Abbeville church birth record, of a daughter named Louisa, in 1844. The father (my great great grandfather) is named Manuel (De Armentor). The surname appears to have been listed in various records either as Armentor or De Armentor. The curious thing about it is that this surname appears nowhere else in the entire world, except in the area of south Louisiana. Thus, it is apparently one of the names that got changed somehow during the migration from Europe. I suspect it is Basque (either French or Spanish, I am not sure which). The clues are that Manuel first married a Trahan, and then a Viator. Trahan is both a French name and a Spanish one. Trahan derives from " Trajan", the name of the Roman Emperor who controlled the Iberian Peninsula back in Roman times. In Spanish, the "j" is pronounced as an "h" sound ... and Trajan became "Trahan". Viator is a shortened version of Villatoros. So, the evidence seems to indicate that Manuel Armentor felt more at home with the Spaniards than with the French community. The Basque region is located in France and in Spain in the area of the Pyrenees mountains. The Basque people learn both languages, plus their own language. There is a Basque surname "Armentariz" and a sub-region of the Basque country (in southwestern France, near Lourdes) which is named "Armentariz". My intuition tells me that the surname Armentor is probably linked to that region and the Basque people. Now, why would I expect to see some information about them in the Spanish records from Natchitoches and Adaes? Because the Spanish used Basque people as laborers, in Florida and in Louisiana. I find no other links to Armentor prior to 1844. I suspect that Manuel did not just pop up out of nowhere. I suspect that he may have been part of the folks from the Adaes area or elsewhere. He was not part of the imported Malaguenos. After that long story, I would certainly appreciate any other Armentor-related information that your sources may reveal. Que Dios te bendiga, Norman F Carnahan ------------------------------------- Norman F. Carnahan carnahan@rice.edu -------------------------------------