If you or someone you know have family connections to Acadia Parish and have an interest in genealogy, consider the following discussion points about our Society:
v Support Network of members having similar historical interests in Acadia Parish families and events. A Membership Contact List is distributed annually as a communications aid to member.
v Newsletter, Á la Pointe, published and distributed quarterly to members.
v Web Site–Our web page and can be found on Rootsweb at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~lapehgs/ and on LAGenWeb’s web site at: http://www.theusgenweb.org/la/acadia/ with links to Rootsweb query boards and other genealogy-related sites.
v Research Assistance is provided to new researchers locally; and, to remotely located researchers. Lookup/reproduction support is also offered in return for a small donation to the Society (e.g., locate and provide copies of obituaries or court records).
v Acadia Parish Probate Index 1887-2000 containing about 27,435 entries has been published and made available for reference in Acadia Parish Library system and for sale through the Society. Also, an index of records through 1997 continues to be available on the Internet in the Acadia Parish Archives at http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/acadia/court.htm .
v Marriage Index, over 52,000 Acadia Parish Marriage Licenses (1887-2004) indexed, published in five volumes and made available for reference in Acadia Parish Library system and for sale through the Society. Similar information on records from 1887-1999 is also available in the Acadia Parish Archives on the Internet at http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/acadia.htm.
v Obituaries from 1870 to the present, over 66,000 entries from area newspaper archives, extracted, assembled, indexed, published and available in Acadia Parish Library system. As an outgrowth of this effort, an abstracted index is being developed for sale to the public.
v Acadia Parish Library Support is provided by the Society through our financial and book donations, and our volunteer research efforts. For example, we purchase and donate “family books” to the library and donate at least three copies of each book we publish, so that a copy is available to all library patrons for reference in the main library in Crowley and the branch libraries in Rayne and Church Point.
v Reference Books published by the Society, typically donated to the Acadia Parish Library and made available for sale, include:
o Acadia Parish Cemetery Listings - Five volumes covering over 90 Acadia Parish cemeteries. Over 39,550 grave sites indexed and include the available name, dates of birth and death, military information on the deceased and grave site location from the cemetery marker.
o Book of Member Ancestor Charts - Two volumes containing five-generation charts contributed by Society members. These charts and others have been combined into a single volume and will be available early in CY-2004.
o Acadia Parish WW I Draft Registration Records. Almost 7,000 records have been transcribed and arranged alphabetically by surname – Volume I includes A through J; Volume II K through Z. Published information includes: Name; Age; Date of Birth or Age; Address; Race; Height; Build; Hair and Eye Color; Missing Limbs, if any; Occupation; Employer; Where Employed; Name, Relationship and Address of Nearest Relative; Registration Date; and, whether the individual signed or made his mark.
o Acadia Parish Veterans of World War I. Contains information from the discharge certificates of about 1,000 WW I-era veterans from Acadia Parish.
o Funeral Records.
§ Guidry Funeral Home, Church Point. Over 3,000 Guidry Funeral Home Funeral Records (1951-1999) have been abstracted and published in a single volume.
§ Gossen Funeral Home, Rayne. Funeral records from 1938 through 2003 have been abstracted and published in two volumes.
§ Geesey-Ferguson Funeral Home, Crowley. Funeral records from 1934 through 2004 have been abstracted and published in five volumes.
§ Duhon Funeral Home funeral records from Church Point, Rayne and Crowley, LA for 1971-2004 for have been abstracted. Volume I (1971-1996) has been published; and, Volume II (1997-2005) expected during CY-2006.
o Acadia Parish Historical & Genealogical Articles … By Mary Alice Fontenot. We have published two volumes containing articles written by the late Mary Alice Fontenot and published in the Crowley Post-Signal. Each book includes an index of individuals named in the various articles and provides a great insight into the history of Acadia parish and some of its people.
o Ancestor Charts. We have published in a single volume under the title Acadia Parish Connections -- A Collection of Ancestor Charts, approximately 400 four-generation charts contributed by our members .