After claiming the Mississippi valley as a possession and naming it "la Louisianne" (Louisiana) after their king and queen, Louis and Anne, the French built fort systems to discourage encroachment on their territory by the British in the east and the Spanish in the west. Opelousas Post (Poste des Opelousas) was established circa 1740 as part of the western system and named after the Opelousa indian tribe which lived in the vicinity. The site would eventually become the city of Opelousas and the government seat of St Landry Parish.
France gave Louisiana to Spain in 1762, and the Spanish named the area around Opelousas Post the Opelousas District. It is during this period that the first Acadian French and Anglo-American families began to settle in the area. Spain returned Louisiana to France on 1 Oct 1800, and in 1803, France sold the territory to the United States. The US Congress divided Louisiana into the Orleans and Louisiana Territories on 25 Mar 1804, and Orleans Territory became the state of Louisiana on 30 Mar 1812.
The territorial legislature divided Orleans Territory into 10 counties on 10 Apr 1805, and Opelousas District became Opelousas County until 31 Mar 1807 when the legislature changed its mind and renamed the counties parishes. Opelousas County became St Landry Parish at that time, even though Opelousas Parish appears on the 1810 federal census. The parish was named after the St Landry catholic church which had been established near the old French post.
To be historically precise, the first families of St Landry Parish belonged to the Opelousa, Attakapas, and other indian tribes which inhabited the area. Their family names, if they used such, are unknown. For the purposes of this study, the families that appear on the first (1810) federal census will be arbitrarily called the first families of St Landry. This classification overlooks the fact that European settlers began entering the area as early as the 1740s, but this fact is not ignored. All families known to have been in St Landry Parish prior to the 1810 census will be called the earliest families of St Landry, and hopefully a study devoted to identifying and listing them can be presented at a later time.
In 1810, St Landry Parish covered most of southwestern Louisiana. The western half of this area was taken to form Calcasieu Parish on 24 Mar 1840, and "Imperial" Calcasieu was later divided into five parishes (Cameron on 15 Mar 1870; Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis on 12 Jun 1912). The parts of Calcasieu and St Landry between the 31st parallel and the present southern boundaries of Rapides and Vernon Parishes were ceded to these parishes, apparently by about 1870. On 30 Jun 1886, Acadia Parish was carved out of southwestern St Landry, and Evangeline Parish was formed from the northwestern part of St Landry on 22 Jun 1908. Thus, the 1810 St Landry included eight of the modern parishes and parts of two others.
The first federal census of St Landry was taken some time during 1810. As stated above, the families living in the parish at that time will be regarded here as its first families. The census takers listed 589 households containing a total of 5,048 persons (2,989 white, 389 other free, 1,670 slaves). On the list of first families accessible below, 368 families are identified, some of which occupied a number of separate households. The 1810 census does not tell us exactly where the households listed on it were located within St Landry Parish, but we can gain some knowledge about their locations from later censuses, family histories, and such records as are available. The list of heads of household accessible below will be useful to those who wish to research this matter.
In the 1810 census, only heads of household were identified by name. Other household members were identified by enumeration in one of 10 age groups for whites or lumped into a single category for other free persons and slaves. The basic purpose of this study is to identify all white and other free members of all households by name and actual year of birth. It is beyond the writer's resources to attempt to identify the names of the slaves. Family members born after the time of the 1810 census are not included. When name, year, or location is uncertain, it is followed by a question mark in the listing.
Needless to say, this is a very difficult project, and the writer could use a little friendly assistance. With that in mind, this list of the first families of St Landry Parish is placed online as a work in progress for the following two reasons. First, it provides an online source for any person interested in a family which was in St Landry Parish at the time of its first federal census. Second, it offers an opportunity for the public to participate in this project in the following manner. Anyone who has data to fill the obvious gaps in our knowledge of the first families or corrections to the data presented here may send his or her contribution to LV Hayes at lvhayes@worldnet.att.net, and it will be added to the list after evaluation. As gaps are filled or corrections made, updated versions will be posted online. Those who send data used in the project will be acknowledged on the list of contributors acessible below.
List
of First Families [last updated 5/30/02]
List
of Heads of Household
List of
Contributors
1) Robert Bruce L. Ardoin, Louisiana Census Records, Volume I, Avoyelles
and St. Landry Parishes, 1810 & 1820, 1970 (reprinted 1995 by
Genealogical Publishing Co, Baltimore, MD), pp. 21-35.
2) "The Colonists" on
Gladys DeVillier's
web page.
3) Various family group sheets on the
LDS web site.
4) Various GEDCOMs on the Ancestry.com
web site.
5) LV Hayes's gen database.
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