Introduction
The opening of the Internet to the common citizen has revolutionized genealogical research. I see myself as an Internet genealogist, and I have been quite successful at it. When I acquired my first gen program, Brother's Keeper for Windows, in December 1996, I was aware of about 16 ancestral families and had on hand perhaps 1,000 names of members of those families. As of March 2007, I know of 188 ancestral families and have over 131,000 names of persons related to me by birth or marriage in my gen database. Almost all of this information was acquired via the Internet, and since so many people have shared so much with me, I shall attempt through the means of this web site to share some of it with you.
Personal
My Hayes family traces back to South Carolina where the trail disappears. From there, my line moved first to Bedford Co, TN, then to Scott Co, AR, then to Phillips Co, KS, and finally to Calcasieu Parish, LA where I was born and raised. I now reside in North Carolina. My mother was a Gillis, and her family traces back to Scotland. The Gillises immigrated to North Carolina and then moved to Alabama, whence my line moved on to Perry (now Forrest) Co, MS and then to Calcasieu Parish, LA.
Most of my known ancestors came from Europe, predominantly the British Isles, but also France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and arrived in the European colonies in America in the 1600s and 1700s. However, some of the unknown ones were aboriginals who lived in America long before the arrival of the Europeans. Family tradition on my father's side identifies a Cherokee ancestor (Micknem); on my mother's, the tribal affiliations are unknown, but five ancestral families apparently have an Amerindian heritage, the origins of which have been lost with the passage of time.
In my gen research, I have not followed the common approach, which is to track only one's own direct lines. I have tried instead to track lines which are both ancestral (related by blood) and collateral (related by marriage). Some of the information accumulated on these families will be presented here, but due to the quantity of data involved, it may take some time to get all of it online.
Geographical
Since so many of my ancestral families settled in the southwestern quadrant of Louisiana, beginning as early as the 1770s, this area has become the main focus of my genealogical interest and research. These families had ties to other early families in the area, and this interfamilial linkage eventually led to an interest in trying to learn more about the first families of southwestern Louisiana. Some of the results of this interest will also be presented here.
Index to
Families
First Families
of St Landry Parish
First Families
of Calcasieu Parish
Cemetery
Annotation
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