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Louisiana GenWeb

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Evangeline Parish, La.

 

Jo Branch <bjcb.xx ATgmail.com> is the Parish Coordinator
If you have any records or photos to add to this site please contact me.

 

Evangeline Par. Files and Links
What's for the LAGenWeb Evangeline Par. site? updated 20 Oct 2012
Cemeteries & Cemetery Links
Cemeteries and Individual Gravesites
Index to Cemetery External Links by Surname
Cemetery and Gravestone Information
Maps
Map of LA parishes
Military
World War II - Missing and Dead
Korean War - Fatal Casualties
Vietnam War - Fatal Casualties

Not in the areas listed below? check out the tour dates and more by clicking on the link. WINGS OF FREEDOM

Dates ~ Details 2013

March
3/11 - 3/13 Hattiesburg, MS (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
Airport: Hattiesburg Municipal Airport
Location: Southeast Aviation
-
3/13 - 3/15 Alexandria, LA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
Airport: Alexandria Intl. Airport
Location: Million Air
-
3/15 - 3/17 Tyler, TX (B-17, B-24, P-51 & Huey)
Airport: Tyler Regional Airport
Location: Historic Aviation Memorial
Museum

Location: Atlantic Aviation
Newspaper
Ville Platte Gazette

 

Links
Lookups
Queries

Books for sale

   
Family Pages of Evangeline Parish
Visit the Evangeline Genealogical and Historical Society Website! Find out when the next meeting will be!
A Catholic Cajun Family - Formerly located on Geocites, this site is no longer available. Do you know where it is now? Please let me know so I can relink to it.

Neighboring Parishes

The parish was created out of lands formerly belonging to St. Landry Parish in 1910. The area was originally settled by French, German, Spanish and Scots-Irish people. The majority were French, former soldiers from Fort Toulouse, and generations born there were originally called Creoles. The major families were Fontenot, LaToure, Guillory, Lafleur, and Brignac. The Creoles developed a culture that was a mixture of all the ethnic groups living in the area. A few Acadians settled the area, but outsiders mistakenly labeled all the white French people as Cajuns.

The parish was named Evangeline in honor of the Acadian people who lived further south; their history had been commemorated in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem, Evangeline. Evangeline Parish was immortalized in the Randy Newman song "Louisiana 1927", in which he described the Great Mississippi Flood which covered it with six feet of water.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline_Parish,_Louisiana

 

In 1890, there were almost no roads and few bridges causing the distance 
of 30-40 miles to the parish seat of Opelousas, St. Landry Parish,
a hardship for many people to travel to pay their taxes, attend court, etc. 
Talk began of forming a new parish from St. Landry. 
In 1908, one of the political issues was the formation of a new parish. Y. L. (Yves Leon) Fontenot, from Ville Platte, LA, introduced a bill  requesting the formation of this new parish.  This new bill passed the house and on  January 1, 1911 the new parish was created from St. Landry Parish.

 

The parish seat is Ville Platte, which means "Flat Town" in French. 

Ville Platte was founded by Major Marcellin Garand,  a veteran of Napoleon's Army who established a tavern  for thirsty travelers headed for Natchitoches  along the old Camino Real ("Royal Road"),  also known as the Spanish Trail. 

Ville Platte has been officially designated by the Louisiana Legislature
as the "Swamp Pop Capital of the World". This is in recognition of the town's long, rich history of developing swamp pop music including artists such as  the Boogie Kings, Rod Bernard, Tommy McLain, Joe Barry, Jivin Gene, Johnnie Allan, and Warren Storm.

Note: Thank you to Winston Kriger, grandson of Y. L. Fontenot, for providing Mr. Fontenot's full given name and catching the typo in this article.

 

LINKS OF INTEREST
Michigan Library: offer scanned copies of books, directories, genealogies, etc. on their website for anyone to view. These books are not all necessarily for MI.
 

 

Evangeline Par. Archives

 

Lookup Volunteers

How to Subscribe to the Evangeline Parish Mail List

Read and Post to the Evangeline Parish Message Boards

USGenWeb Project

LAGenWeb Project

Edward J. Hayden Jr. State Coordinator
Jo Branch, Co-State Coordinator
Annette Womack Assistant State Coordinator

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This page was last updated on Monday, 07-May-2018 17:37:05 CDT
(c) 17 Jul 2004 - present

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