Help identifying a location within a source

Question

Here is the source for the marriage of my gr gr gr grandparents.  Where in the world is "St. Antoine"?  Does anyone have any idea?  Is it a long forgotten parish of Louisiana?

1. Thanks in advance!

   BERTRAND, Celesie - native of this parish (minor daughter of Joseph & Marie GALLIEN) m. 27 Sept. 1825 James NEVILLE - native of St. Antoine (minor son of John & Marie TEAR) Wits: Francois GALLIEN fils [Jr.], Pierre MANUELLE, Joseph BERTRAND fils [Jr.] Fr. Flavius Henri ROSSI (Opel.Ch.: v.1-B, p.444)

Answer 1

Louisiana has many Americanized versions of St. Antoine, St. Anthony.  There is a region of New Orleans, places in Lafayette, Lulling, Baton Rouge, Covington, and probably many more.  Look at the residence and birth records to try to narrow it down.

Answer 2

There has never been a civil parish named St. Antoine, nor was there a "regional" church parish that served that function prior to the Louisiana Purchase, that I'm aware of. But like Rick said, there have been many local church parishes formed since then.

Also "native of" statements can be unreliable. For example, an 1805 baptism of James' sister Anne Neville shows their parents were "inhabitants of Bayou Boeuf" which is in today's Lafourche Parish. An 1826 marriage record of another sister Marie shows she was a "native of Alexandria" (Rapides Parish). Hints like this are a good place to start, but they can't be taken at face value and additional research is needed to verify.

Your best approach might be to research his parents and siblings, see if you can figure out where they lived, worked, baptized and raised their children. It's a tough period to research since censuses give so few details, but church records can help.

Many Catholic church records for this period are available in most libraries in south Louisiana, and in several major genealogical libraries scattered in other places. Much of the SWLR records are also indexed on FamilySearch, although they aren't always identified as such. If you don't have access, some of us may be able to help.

Best of luck with your search!

Comments

Hi Joyce,

Guess where I'll be on my next vacation? Any south Louisiana town you recommend?

The other mystery pertaining to this same profile is that Celesie's son is often listed as having  been born in Washington, Louisiana. My thought is if I can find evidence of his birth, perhaps a morsel about his father being "of St. Antoine" could be found.

I'll rummage James' siblings like you suggested.

Thanks so much!

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It's been a number of years since I've been to the libraries in that area, but I would stick with the larger towns. I seem to remember St. Martinville had a good collection, and I would guess Opelousas is even better, but you'll need to check them out for yourself.

I added some sources to this family's profiles. Not sure where Washington came from on his son's profile, but it's possible. It actually seems more likely than Rapides Parish which is entered unsourced on the profile. People weren't always born in the town where their baptism was recorded, although we tend to enter it that way for lack of a better alternative. They were usually at least born in the same parish, and Washington is in St. Landry. Sometimes other sources make their birth place more clear.

Hope that helps!

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This Washington you speak of; is it the town of Washington or the parish. The town is located in St. Landry parish. Washington parish town are Franklinton and Bogalusa; north of New Orleans. Their are streets by the name St. Antoine in Lafayette.

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Good question Christine. I think Washington the town in St. Landry Parish was meant. That's what shows on his Findagrave memorial. The memorial also cites, "Dates taken from Rev. Leeds Congregational Church Records," but that doesn't mention where the places came from.

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City is what I am assuming.... actually hadn't thought of that....city vs. parish.