First Families of Louisiana: Instructions

Louisiana Genealogical
& Historical Society
First Families of Louisiana
Certificate Program

Application Instructions

Requirements:

Membership in the Louisiana Genealogical & Historical Society is not required. However, Society members will receive a discounted application fee.

The qualifying ancestor must have resided prior to 20 December 1803 (the date that the United States flag was first raised in New Orleans) within the present-day boundaries of the State of Louisiana -- i.e., the boundaries in the 21st century, including the Florida Parishes and the areas originally in dispute with Texas.

Descent may be through either male or female lines in any generation. The line of descent does not have to be legitimate. You must provide documentation which meets the Program's Standard of Proof for:
     (1) the residence of the qualifying ancestor, and
     (2) the descent, generation-by-generation, from the qualifying ancestor to the candidate.

Definitions:

The First Families of Louisiana Program will be referred to hereafter as "the Program." The Louisiana Genealogical & Historical Society will be referred to hereafter as "the Society." "The Register" refers to The Louisiana Genealogical Register, published by the Society.

The "submitter" is the person who compiles and submits the application. The submitter is responsible for securing all necessary permissions for publication of family information if a certificate is intended for another person.

The "colonial ancestor" is the ancestor whom you believe meets the given qualifications.

The "candidate" is the descendant of a colonial ancestor for whom a certificate is requested. The candidate is not necessarily the submitter. (Certificates have become popular as gifts for other family members.)

The Examining Genealogist will review the application and determine whether the submitted documentation meets the required standard of proof.

Application:

The application consists of the Application Cover Sheet and one or more Application Lineage Forms, together with copies of the supporting documentation, submitted together in a single mailing. The application will be assigned a file number, which should be used in all subsequent correspondence to facilitate handling.

The non-refundable application fee must accompany the application.

General Information:

Submitted applications become the property of the Society. The Society reserves the non-exclusive right to publish in any media any information submitted. This may include, but is not limited to, publication in The Register, online websites, CDs, booklets, etc. The Society will abide by the "Hundred Year Rule" to help protect the privacy of living individuals. Your signature on the application indicates your acceptance of these conditions.

Documents submitted as evidence must have a citation written on the document. It is suggested that photocopies of documents be reduced in size, if necessary, to provide a margin in which to write the citation. You may use both sides of the paper for lineage forms and documentation in order to save on postage and file space.

No single printed form can accommodate all of the variations possible in a lineage, so you are encouraged to use a word processor to complete your application so you will have adequate room for all necessary information. (See download link below.) For hand-written applications using a printed form, include additional sheets as needed to provide the required information. The printed blanks are not intended to limit the amount of information provided.

Application Cover Sheet:

The Application Cover Sheet provides the Program with the necessary information to handle your application and to contact you. Certificates will be mailed to the address you supply! Society members who wish to claim the discounted application fee must provide their name exactly as it appears on the mailing label of the current issue of The Register.

Please provide an email address, if possible, to facilitate correspondence concerning your application. Applications will be acknowledged by email when they are received and your application file number will be provided. Please provide names for the certificates as you wish them to appear. Use an additional sheet if necessary.

Application Lineage Form:

The Application Lineage Form documents the descent, generation by generation, from the Colonial Ancestor to the Certificate Candidate. It should begin with the Colonial Ancestor, demonstrating that he or she meets the residence requirement. It then continues through his descendants, documenting the link to the previous generation at each step. Each person in the descent is identified by generation number. Identify the Certificate Candidate by typing "(Candidate)" after the person's name on the Lineage Form.

In order to prove your case, it often is necessary to cite and provide copies of more than one document. In order to properly identify each person in the lineage, you must supply additional information about the person. Birth or baptism date and place, death or burial date and place, and information about each marriage should be supplied and documented. It is preferable to submit a copy of the documentation for all these identifying facts (including from published sources), but a proper source citation must be provided. If the person was married more than once, list each marriage in chronological order and identify with an asterisk the marriage used for the descent.

It is not necessary that the descent be legitimate. If you know the couple was unmarried, you should note this in your explanation -- and that fact must still be documented. If you wish, you may change the event description from "Married" to "Liaison," or any other term that seems appropriate.

If you are unable to find documentation of an identifying event, you should provide your best estimate for the date and place, clearly identified as such. Use words such as "Probably 1809." You should provide an explanation of how you arrived at the estimate. If you have no basis for an estimate, leave the entry blank, but provide an explanation.

It is not necessary to have documentation for every supporting event (marriage, death, etc.) in order to qualify, but an application with too many blanks would be seen as an indication of incomplete research.

Examples of proper citations are available HERE and in articles published in The Register. Please use these as models when you fill out your application. We have tried to provide examples to illustrate most situations that you are likely to encounter in Louisiana research. Check this web site and the periodic "First Families" column in The Register for updates.



The Application Lineage Form & the Application Cover Sheet may be downloaded
HERE
as a single document in Microsoft Word format [31.5 Kb].


Please do not attempt to fill out this form online! Download it to your hard drive and open it in Microsoft Word.

No single printed form can accommodate all of the variations possible in a lineage, so you are encouraged to expand the space provided so you will have adequate room for all necessary information.

If you must prepare a hand-written application using a printed form, add additional sheets as needed to provide the required information. The printed blanks are not intended to limit the amount of information provided.


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If you have questions, please contact the Program by email at: [email protected].

Postal correspondence should be sent to:
     Louisiana Genealogical & Historical Society
     ATTN: First Families of Louisiana Program
     PO Box 82060
     Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70884-2060

Copyright © 2004-2010 / Last updated: 24 Sept 2010