WEBSITES and ELECTRONIC SOURCES

Researchers who use data from websites created by other researchers in their work are faced with a new documentation challenge. Whereas book publication information does not change, websites can change addresses while retaining the same information, and website authors can remove their sites. Several “Electronic” sources I have used in my work have already been changed or removed, so that my documents became out of date quickly. The list of sites is current and active as of April 2011.

One might argue that reliance on other researchers is not ideal anyway, but because each of us has access to different original or published sources, I have decided to incorporate data from websites into my work when I believe it to be reliable. In addition, when a website points me towards a new way of thinking or to a new published source I had previously not explored, I like to give the author of that website credit. I never did replace all the outdated sources in my documents because it appeared to be a daunting task. Rather, I decided that this update of my site would contain a different approach. No “Electronic” references in my genealogy documents have been linked; instead, a button at the bottom of each document provides a link to this page. I hope to be able to keep this page updated, whereas I believe that keeping all the documents updates with recent web sites would have been an impossible task. The future will tell whether this approach works better than the alternative.

1. The website of Steve Fleming was exceptionally helpful, and inspired my approach to this presentation. Many of Steve’s ancestors are also ancestors of Irvin ROME, Buddy KELLER, Joseph BLUM, and Juanita FREDERICK. His website used to be at http://users.erols.com/someday, but it was no longer there when I last looked, and I could not find it on the Web. Steve and I have also discussed some of this genealogy by email.

2. Dwayne Montz has had several incarnations of his genealogy data, so there are different URLs listed in my work. Some of my references refer to a previous site at infinet, but the currently active URL is http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~montz/. In addition to his website, Dwayne has been very helpful to me and others posting questions on bulletin boards, frequently providing information from the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Sacramental Records. Dwayne also contributed to the PERILLOUX family background at http://www.perilloux.org/family/origin.htm. This is now replaced with http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~perilloux/origin.htm.

3. John Sheldon Perilloux has been particularly active in German Coast genealogy. I visited his PERILLOUX website frequently for help. Some of my references retain the URL http://members.home.net/perilloux/gene/index.html; the current site should be http://www.perilloux.org/family/index.htm. In addition, for a long time John maintained the St. John the Baptist and St. Charles Parish sites at http://www.lagenweb.org/parish.htm. In 2011 the St. Charles and St. John the Baptist sites were being maintained by Jim and Jana Webre at http://www.stcharlesparish.jwebre.com/ and http://www.stjohnparish.jwebre.com/.

4. Randy DeCuir’s DECUIR family website at http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/1781 has been useful in exploring the DECUIRs and other Avoyelles Parish families. Now at http://www.angelfire.com/la/DeCuir/.

5. Darlene Becnel Schnatz provided me with guidance early in my pursuit of genealogy, and in addition I have used data from her sites at http://www.mccserv.com/genealogy/becnel/becnel.htm (now http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~becnel/SamBecnel/SamBecnel.html) and http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com in my work.

6. Gordon Bradberry’s data at Family Tree Maker’s site was useful in giving perspective on a family new to me – the BONINs. The Family Tree Maker sites are found at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/. Individual sites can be found from there using the first 3 letters of the last name of the site’s creator. For example, Gordon’s site is http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/r/a/Gordon-F-Bradberry/. Because of the huge number of sites, I believe it is quicker to type the site name rather than do a search, but the search is available if you don’t have the entire name.

7. Ted C. d’Eon is a descendant of Mathieu DUON, and his website at http://www.ted.ca/ was useful.

8. Brian J. Oster’s http://vienici.com/descendants/gisclair.html is a site devoted to descendants of Jean GISCLAIR (GISCLAR). Some other surnames are available from this page.

9. A number of databases at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com were quite useful to me. I would like to especially acknowledge Whitney Dartez, Darlene Becnel Schnatz, and Jennifer Payne. Rather than giving directions to specific databases, I have aimed the pointer at the “Worldconnect” home page. Do a search for names of interest to explore the databases of interest to you.

10. Jean-Guy Lacoursiere’s site at http://pages.infinet.net/lacmeech/d0000/1769.html provided a link to data on some of the early French-Canadian families. I believe the page is now located at http://www.ourorigins.org/GenealogieQuebec.aspx?genealogy=Jean-Guy_Lacoursiere&pid=250256&lng=en.

11. I first ran across the 1745 Pointe Coupee Parish Census at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/5571/pc1745cen.htm. Although the census is also available in printed form, I have used the Web version only. A number of GED files at the parent site were useful in doing my research. The main site is now at http://louisianalineage.com/, and the census at http://louisianalineage.com/pc1745cen.htm.

12. Gloria Walker’s site is now at http://www.geocities.com/vauwal/ was useful when I began to investigate the “Ancestors of Juanita Rita FREDERICK.”

13. The Family Search Genealogical Index at the Latter-Day Saints site at http://www.familysearch.org can be quite useful, but take care to verify whether the data you are accessing is original data or a submitted database.

14. The Acadian-Cajun Website at http://www.acadian-cajun.com/ provided much valuable information for Acadian researchers. Most useful to me were the ship lists of the ships which carried Acadians from France to Louisiana in 1785.

15. I perused the website of Joe Hebert and Tim Stuart extensively when I first started my Acadian researches. These GED files were quite useful in pointing me in the right direction for many of my Acadian roots. Both Joe and Tim also were willing to share pertinent parts of their larger files. The site is now defunct, so my notes now simply say ‘Joe Hebert, “Electronic”’ and ‘Tim Stuart, “Electronic.”’

16. The Livingston Parish Genealogical Society has made a number of transcriptions of important texts available. The 1882 census of St. Joseph’s Church in French Settlement is at http://usgwarchives.net/la/livingston/liv-cen.htm. Other documents such as the “Descendants of Mathieu BRIGNAC,” “LAMBERT, GUITREAU and BRIGNAC Families,” and “Descendants of Ambrose HEIDEL” can be viewed at http://usgwarchives.net/la/livingston/liv-fam.htm.

17. I have used a few references to electronic sources like Broderbund’s World Family Tree collection. As always, researchers must be wary of using data from other collections, including this one. But in some cases I have included this data to point other researchers to all of the rich variety of sources available today. This data is now all on the web, but I haven’t gone back to find the trees.

18. Margie Roop Pearce has a very useful collection of files at http://www.angelfire.com/la/ancestors/Cajun.html.

19. The Fontenot Family Website maintained by Harold Fontenot is at http://www.oocities.org/fontenotfamily/welcome.htm.