Louisiana's Early Rapides Records ReconstructedSince the time federal troops burned Alexandria, La., during the War Between the States and the Rapides Parish courthouse went up in smoke, generations of historical and genealogical researchers have been frustrated due to the lack of source records. Too, for more practical purposes, chains of title to land have been difficult, if not impossible, to establish from the original Spanish grant. Almost certainly, the burned records dated from about 1770, the year Rapides Post was established. Thus almost 100 years of civil records were lost forever. During the next century and more — until today — researchers have had to depend on fragments of records found in neighboring parishes, state and federal records, and other less satisfactory sources for data on Rapides Parish subjects during the colonial era and antebellum periods. For the colonial period (to 1803), hwoever, that lamentable situation is changing fast, thanks to the Alexandra Genealogical Library’s acquistions of microfilm from Spain. For the most part, these records are not copies of the burned courthouse records. Local parish civil records — those we commonly use in courthouses — consist of such things as conveyances of various sorts (including land), marriage records, mortgages, successions and other documents relating to individuals or families. While the records from Spain will include some of these records, it is only occasionally (and probably by accident) that courthouse-type records are found. Local records are, however, often referred to in the Spanish records. The library is attempting to reconstruct a working colonial archives for Rapides based on other records generated at the post, now in diverse depositories in Europe and elsewhere. These from Spain are part of the vast Papeles Procendentes de Cuba (Cuban Papers) section of the General Archives of the Indes in Seville; they are grouped by bundles (thus, legajo). Legajo. “Lay-GAH-ho” — that’s the way the word is pronounced, with emphasis on the middle syllable. Researchers might as well get used to it. For the most part, each legajo contains administrative papers: letters, reports, individual petitions for land, census records, militia lists and other documents. These documents were gathered at the post, then sent to the governor at New Orleans. The letters are particularly full of day-to-day post activities, often with information on individual settlers and their families. Considerable attention is also given to the numerous tribes of central Louisiana Indians. After the Spainards left Louisiana (with the records) following the Purchase (1803), these archives lingered in Cuba for years — hence “The Cuban Papers” — before they were forwarded to Spain, where they are today. One legajo may contain relatively few documents, or it may contain thousands. Alas, they are not indexed. The researcher who is not familiar with this new and wonderful sources should also be aware that each “bundle” includes records for more than one post. Therefore, as the Alexandria Genealogical Library acquires all the records for such areas as Natchez, Natchitoches, Avoyelles, Ouachita, Concordia, Opelousas, the Felicianas — in fact, for the entire colony from Pensacola to the Sabine, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Missouri. The library plans, eventually, to acquire the entire collection for all the province. A number of the Rapides Post legajos are at the library already, and some are ready for viewing. Most of these are written in French, others mostly in Spanish, and some in English. In this columnist’s opinion, the arrival of these records from Spain is the most momentous happening for Rapides Parish histography since the Yankees struck their fatal match. Certainly, it is a diameterically happier event. Now — and only now — can we begin to write the history of central Louisiana. Reprinted from American Genealogy Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3. |
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