Born June 5, 1856, Alcée Fortier transcribed a landmark collection of Black Creole folktales in the French dialect. This is how to use the record he kept and refuse the wall he built.
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When the Document Did Not Say What They Said It Said: Reading Primary Text Against Advocacy Interpretation
Primary documents say what they say. What later litigants, descendants, and advocates argue they meant is a separate question. A four-step method for distinguishing primary text from advocacy interpretation.
The Deed Before the Eulogy: Henriette Delille, the Free Woman of Color Who Bought Her Institution
In 1850 Henriette Delille, a free woman of color in New Orleans, signed a notarized act of sale and bought the land for the institution she founded. This is her documented record, anchored to the deed.
Reading the Estate Notice: Reconstructing Enslaved Families in St. Landry Parish, 1856
The Opelousas Patriot ran a June 1856 estate sale notice for thirty-three enslaved individuals in St. Landry Parish. Buried in the legal inventory are seven maternal family groupings. The record was created to transfer property. The work is to read it forward.
Titine of Opelousas: The Woman Who Ran the Old Bank Hotel
Celestine Perrault, known as Titine, ran a large hotel in Opelousas for at least a quarter century. Three generations of her family lived under that roof. A Justice of the Peace kept his office there. This is her documented record.
Who the USDA Helped: Three Crop Notices from One 1909 Louisiana Newspaper
On May 22, 1909, the St. Landry Clarion ran three short notices on one page. Cotton was failing in Lafayette. Potatoes were failing in Avoyelles. Oats and hay were succeeding in East Baton Rouge with USDA help. This is what those three pieces document together.
When You Are Not the First Researcher in the Room: Working from Compiled Records Without Inheriting Their Conclusions
Compiled records, published articles, and family historian notebooks are research maps, not source documents. A four-step method for using another researcher’s work without adopting their conclusions.
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell: The Lafayette Parish Widow Who Built the South Liberty Oil Field
Aurelia Godfrey Mitchell was born in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, in 1859 and died in Liberty County, Texas, in 1940. Between those two dates she built an oil and gas estate the Supreme Court of Texas construed twice. The wells still produce under her name today.