Cate, I sit here with a big smile on my face as I have always said the prayer to St. Anthony when I have lost something and I have always put money in the St. Anthony Poor Box after he comes through, but I NEVER thought to pray to him to find lost ancestors!!!! I'll have to try that and see if it works for me. Thanks for the hint! Julie -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:09 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl Magnus (Charlemagne). Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so many came in the mid 1800s. And where their sympathies lay before arriving in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come from from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because he could have had some German ancestry) and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian French not "that French from the country". Not true. Can trace his mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785. Not even a stop over in Paris. But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY. Have lots of Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth. Europeans kept much better records than in the US the the old days. I suspect he came down the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help. Carolyn Long will love my spiritual practice. I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this: "Tony, Tony look around something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago) Than I offer him a monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution). He nearly always comes through and I nearly always pay up. Now I don't mean this in a sacrilegious way. Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather and blind pigs looking for acorns. Cate ;-} -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Cochran Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE he died. Also, some of my brick walls are living people. A 2nd cousin of mine REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine. I have sent her the Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore." Nonetheless, it is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our ancestors. My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born. Oh well, her loss. SHE is the brick wall! I seem to have busted through it! Cheers, Kathy -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Alexa Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings Pat and everyone, If you need help, just give us a holler. Some ancestors are more difficult to find. Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while others I've worked on for decades with little luck. As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member dies. The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's. I'd been searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new information. The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville and found much, much more needed information. It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as for other people's lines I've worked on. When a member of their families died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. Who says the dead don't want to be found? Some, yes, but most want their families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way Genealogy research since 1974 Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: From: PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you, I just wish that some of mine would whisper or even YELL. I hate it when I can't find that fact that I need to put with an ancestor. Pat ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I've found that I have to put into words what it is I need -- and amazingly, occasionally I find what I'm looking for. My most wonderful example came when I was needing to find evidence that a family with a different spelling of the surname was actually part of my family. Many of my co-researchers disagreed, and said they thought it was too different to be the same family. At that point, I thought to myself, "I need to find a rosetta stone for this." It's hard to believe but within a couple of weeks, a new d-base was put online by the Library of Virginia--a listing of all the early chancery suits in Shenandoah County, VA. To my astonishment, I found a case which involved my ancestor, and it contained papers that spelled the surname in the exact two spellings I was trying to prove were the same family. It used the same two spellings to refer to my own ancestor. How cool is that? I really could never have imagined such a wonderful solution. I felt like I had won the lottery! So, from then on, I make it a point to define specifically what it is I need to obtain in my family history search. Kind Regards, Linda Linda Stokesbury Brennan, Lansing, MI & Natchitoches, LA Stokesbury DNA Project Administrator Researching: STOKESBURY (STUCHBURY), LAMARE, BABIN, DUNNING, OLINGER, ORR, PAINTER/BAINTER, BAUGHMAN, CLARK, HENINGER http://www.Stokesbury.org, http://www.artistsuccesskit.com http://www.familytreedna.com/public/stokesburyDNAproject

Folklore says that if you turn the picture or image of the saint upside down it will wake him up and get his attention so that he'll "work" for you. Same would probably hold true if you turned your ancestors' pictures upside down on your desk. One of my favorite quotes from the Louisiana Writers' Project interviews was with Marie Dédé, who as a child had been friends with Marie Laveau's grandchildren, especially "Memie" (Noemie Marguerite Legendre). Here's how I used it in the book, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: "Mrs. Dédé recalled that the children would peep into the front room, which was used for services: '[Marie Laveau] had so many candles burning...I don't see how that house never caught on fire.... She had all kinds of saints' pictures and flowers on the altar.' In this room Marie also 'had a big [statue of] St. Anthony...and she would turn him upside down on his head in her yard when she had work to perform.' Then, recounted Mrs. Dédé, 'Memie would come get me and say...'Come see my grandma got St. Anthony on his head'...and [Marie Laveau]...would put us [children] out and lock the gate.'" Memie/Noemie, BTW, first had a legal marriage with a man of color named Benjamin Santanac, and later moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she married or cohabited with a white man of German descent named John Zoller. You can find them in the census for 1910, 1920, and 1930. The family includes John Zoller, wife Noëmie, her son Alexander Santenac (from her first marriage), niece and nephew Pauline and Pierre (Frank) Legendre (her brother's children with Ernestine Llado), and several grandchildren. All were listed as white. In 1910 and 1930 Noëmie was stated to be born in Louisiana, and in 1920 her birthplace was specified as Canada. Her father's birthplace was given as France (his parents were actually white Saint-Domingue immigrants and he was born on the island of Curacao while they were enroute to New Orleans) , and her mother was supposedly born "at sea." (Her mother was actually Marie Philomene Glapion, born in New Orleans, daughter of Marie Laveau with Alexandre Legendre). Noëmie Legendre Zoller died in 1934; her father's name was recorded as "Amil Legendre and her mother's as "unknown." This all goes to show that the census and other official records aren't entirely to be trusted. I've often found that people of color who went north and "passed" tried to hide their origins in New Orleans. Carolyn Long ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julie" <juliech@cox.net> To: <laorlean@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 5:12 PM Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > Cate, > > I sit here with a big smile on my face as I have always said the prayer to > St. Anthony when I have lost something and I have always put money in the > St. Anthony Poor Box after he comes through, but I NEVER thought to pray to > him to find lost ancestors!!!! I'll have to try that and see if it works > for me. > > Thanks for the hint! > > Julie > > -----Original Message----- > From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] > On Behalf Of Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:09 PM > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > > They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on > what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of > the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl > Magnus (Charlemagne). Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so > many came in the mid 1800s. And where their sympathies lay before arriving > in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. > > My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history > by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father > did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come > from from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because > he could have had some German ancestry) and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian > French not "that French from the country". Not true. Can trace his > mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence > area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on > Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785. Not even a stop over in > Paris. > > But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph > Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, > death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father > named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French > priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I > think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY. Have lots of > Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, > etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth. Europeans kept > much better records than in the US the the old days. I suspect he came down > the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket > as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the > way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met > Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. > > On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to > me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some > especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help. Carolyn Long > will love my spiritual practice. I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found > saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this: "Tony, Tony look around > something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me > by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago) Than I offer him a > monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important > the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution). He nearly always > comes through and I nearly always pay up. Now I don't mean this in a > sacrilegious way. Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather > and blind pigs looking for acorns. Cate ;-} > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kathy Cochran > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > > I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE > he died. > > Also, some of my brick walls are living people. A 2nd cousin of mine > REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German > throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had > always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine. I have sent her the > Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I > am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore." Nonetheless, it > is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral > tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey > [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace > Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our > ancestors. My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" > for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born. Oh well, her loss. SHE is the brick > wall! I seem to have busted through it! > > Cheers, Kathy > > -----Original Message----- > From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] > On Behalf Of Alexa > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > > Pat and everyone, > > If you need help, just give us a holler. Some ancestors are more difficult > to find. Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while > others I've worked on for decades with little luck. > > As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member > dies. The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke > through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's. I'd been > searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several > connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new > information. The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville > and found much, much more needed information. > > It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as > for other people's lines I've worked on. When a member of their families > died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. > > Who says the dead don't want to be found? Some, yes, but most want their > families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. > > > Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way > Genealogy research since 1974 > > Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... > > > > --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: > > From: PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM > > I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you, I just wish that some of > mine would whisper or even YELL. I hate it when I can't find that fact that > I need to put with an ancestor. > > > Pat > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >