LOUISIANA MARRIAGE CONTRACTS COMPLEX
(Please be aware this post was written in 2003 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
Similar, but, more complex than today’s prenuptial marriage contracts, Louisiana’s colonial marriage contracts were legal civil contracts between the two parties or the families of two parties anticipating a marriage.
They were legal documents filed in civil court and individually composed by notaries, who were legally trained scribes similar to today’s lawyers. They were based on the complex French property and inheritance laws of the day specifying what each party was bringing into a marriage, how the property or legal obligations were to be managed and how the property or debt of each party was to be handled in case of the death of either party to the marriage.
They were most prevalent when the bride brought a dowry or her own separate property into the marriage of if one or both parties had children from previous marriages and inheritance rights had to be honored and respected.
Marriage contracts are fantastic genealogical documents. They were composed prior to an ecclesiastical ceremony which was necessary to solemnize and seal the union. They normally include the names of the parties to the marriage, their nativity, whether legitimate or illegitimate and whether they were above or below the age of consent.
They also included the names of their parents, their parent’s nativity, God-parents, other relatives, witnesses to the document, the name of the notary creating the document and described the property each party brought with them to the marriage.
LOUISIANA’S COLONIAL MARRIAGES PUBLISHED
Recently Hebert Publications and Provincial Press joined together to publish Marriage Contracts of Colonial Louisiana 1736-1803 by Winston DeVille. Originally scheduled for publication in 2001 the compilation never made it to press due to the untimely death of it’s editor, Reverend Donald Hebert.
During the 1960’s Deville visited Louisiana parish courthouses where important colonial military posts in Louisiana were located. He accessed, abstracted and translated into English from the original French or Spanish all the colonial marriage contracts he was able to find . He then published his work in four volumes covering the following posts and years Opelousas Post 1766-1803, Natchitoches 1739-1803, Pointe Coupee 1736-1803, Avoyelles 1796-1800 and Attakapas Post 1760-1803.
This edition is limited to seventy five copies, is priced at $50, postpaid, and is available from Provincial Press, 1067 Rock Pitt Road, Ville Platte, Louisiana 70586-9266 or visit their website at http://www.provinicalpress.us .
WRITE AND PUBLISH A GENEALOGY BOOK
Mic Barnette will lead a class on How to Write and Publish a Genealogy Book. The course will be held at Leisure Learning’s 2990 Richmond (near Kirby) campus Tuesday September 23 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Topics will include all aspects of self-publishing, publishing through a formal publisher and publishing on the Internet. It will also address privacy issues, software, organizing, writing, numbering, documenting and laying out a quality publication. In addition the class will discuss the intricacies of pricing, prepublication, marketing, advertising, and a host of pertinent issues.
The price of the course is $30. For more information and to register contact Leisure Learning at 713-529-4414.
MORE ON CUBAN PAPERS SEMINAR
As previously mentioned in this column the Clayton Library Friends will host a seminar on the Cuban Papers on Saturday September 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Julia Ideson Memorial Library, 500 McKinney in downtown Houston.
The Cuban Papers are an important collection of documents covering the timeframe from about 1700 to about 1820 when the Spanish left the shores of the Gulf Coast. The collection is currently housed in Spain and is being microfilmed most of which is being acquired by Clayton Library.
The documents in the collection pertain to all the present states encircling the Gulf of Mexico including Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas plus those states going northward up the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. About one third of the documents in the collection are written in English, one third in Spanish and one third in French.
The seminar is intended to inform researchers of the importance of the collection and how to use it. Admission to the seminar is free with a $20 donation to the CLF-Legajo Fund, P.O. Box 271078, Houston, TX 77277-1078. For more information contact Don Pusch at 281-326-3278, by email at pusch@ghg.net or visit the CLF website at http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/clayton/clf.html .
