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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The
interest and assistance of many people make this book possible. Foremost
among these are my husband and our children. The hours needed to produce
this book were made pleasant by their encouragement and loving
cooperation.
Special acknowledgment is due to the historian-priest
Oscar Lipscomb, who suggested the transcription and opened all doors; and
now, as His Excellency, the archbishop ofMobile, he permits
its publication.
Eida Swift Rehm, archivist for the Mobile archdiocese, provided faithful cooperation
many years. It is she who completed the baptismal abstracts I had begun
and her typescript of them has been my most valuable source.
Callie
Pitre Avera, native and resident of Evangeline Parish, generously
contributed her professional talent and weeks of her time to put my
handwritten pages into a form suiltable for presentation to the
publisher.
Elaine Miller Richardson, originally from Evangeline
Parish, Louisiana, now a resident of Corpus Christi,
Texas, gave her knowledge of French and many hours of time as my past
several trips to proofread my manuscript against the originals in church
vaults.
The laborious efforts of those whose published works
preceded this one provided etial information and background knowledge.
Their names appear in the bibliography.
The gracious responses of
many researchers answered questions and produced free interpretations.
This writer is particularly indebted to Jack D. L. Holmes, Louisiana
Collection, Birmingham, Alabama; Elizabeth Shown Mills, Tuscaloosa,
Alabama; Jack B., New Orleans; Albert Tate, Jr., Vile Platte and New
Orleans; Alice Daly Forsyth, film archivist of St. Louis Cathedral (New
Orleans) and present editor of New Orleans Gene A Pregaldin, St.
Louis, Missouri; Walter J. Saucier, University of North Carolina in
Winston DeVille, Mobile; Jay Higginbotham, Mobile; Gloria Smith Moran,
Pain Mississippi; Reinhart Kondert, University of Southwestern Louisiana;
Fr. Rtht Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana; Margaret Kimball Brown, Prairie
de Roch, I. Chapput, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum; Ruth Orte
Berthekd, SL Parish; Earleen Zeringue, New Orleans; Bro. Jerome LePré,
Mobile and New OrIeans. My personal thanks are
given to all the staff of the Center for Louisiana contagious, joyous
attitude toward work. The technical assistance of Carl for guidance
and that of Glenn Conrad, were pleasant necessities.
But in spite
of all the help I received, the statements are those of my alone am
responsible for the inevitable
errors.
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