Terrebonne Genealogical Society TGS Newsletter Vol. 19 No. 10 January 2001 Visit our home page at http://www.rootsweb.com/~laterreb/tgs.htm

 CONTENTS:
HELP! | NEXT MEETING | DEATHS | HAPPY NEW MEMBERSHIP YEAR
CORRECTIONS FOR GENERATIONS | NEWS TID-BITS

Membership and/or address changes:
Please send by mail to TGS, Station 2 Box 295, Houma, LA 70360-0295

NEXT MEETING
Saturday, January 27, 2001
North Branch Library, Gray, LA 1:00 p.m.

     Although our joy was made bittersweet with the news of the passing of our dear friends Larue Smith LeBlanc, and Msgr. Philip Whitney, we enjoyed the presence of others who have been long absent from our midst. As promised, Minus and Pat S. Blanchard were there to help us celebrate the season, as well as (Surprise!) Ed and Emelie B. Quin and Godfrey Olivier. And we needed all the help we could get to do justice to the wonderful variety of goodies on the groaning table. Thank you to all who spent the time and effort to bring something. It was all delicious. Thanks to those who brought presents, almost everyone left with more than one gift.
     Those who come to the January meeting will receive their quarterly, if they haven’t already received it by helping put it together. Some of our members must have heard that it is a super-good issue. Of course, all of them are super, but this one is extra-super. And I’m not just saying that because I happen to know some of the contributors. I’m not going to tell you what is in it, but I’m sure you will be pleased. It is a treasure.

DEATHS
     Board Member Patty Whitney Gravois lost her “Parrain” and the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux lost a devoted priest in Monsignor Philip Whitney. He died at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, 5 December 2000. Of his closest family, he is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Ellis Peter (Claire) Lottinger and Mrs. Charles (Genevieve) Darsey Sr., and one brother, Stanley Bernard Whitney all of Houma. He was preceded in death by his parents, Philip L. Whitney Sr. and Claire Marie Tinney Whitney; three brothers, Stephen Douglas, John Donald and Leo Francis Whitney Sr., and one sister, Ella Catherine Whitney. He served the faithful of the diocese in many ways besides his assignments as pastor and member of many councils and committees; he was a chaplain for the National Guard from 1951 to 1959; spiritual director for the Legion of Mary; chaplain for the Catholic Daughters; Faithful Friar for the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus; and director of the Charismatic Renewal. In 1991 he was named a Prelate of Honor with the title of monsignor by Pope John Paul II.
     Charter member Larue LeBlanc passed away on Thursday, 7 December 2000 at 7:45 p.m. Larue is survived by two sons, Michael J. LeBlanc and wife, Charlene F. LeBlanc, and Keith T. LeBlanc and wife, Wanda V. LeBlanc; five grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Conrad M. “Boo” LeBlanc Jr.; her parents, Armon and Rosa Lee Ogden Smith; four brothers, Harmon Loy, Woody K., Robert M. and Curtis A. Smith; and one sister, Marie Smith Futch. She will be sorely missed by the members of the society who knew her and worked with her.
Andrew Charles Hebert Sr. was a new member, but one who became excited about finding out more about his family, and helped us “old-timers” get a renewed enthusiasm for genealogy. He died on Monday, 11 December 2000. He was the beloved husband of Cynthia Bock Hebert, father of Andrew Charles Hebert Jr. and Amanda Elaine Hebert. He is also survived by one brother, Robert L. Hebert. He was preceded in death by his parents, Andrew Mark Hebert and Elaine Latour Hebert. Andrew was a Jefferson Parish Police Officer for 32 years, a parishioner of St. Angela Merici Church and a member of the Fraternal Order of Police.
     Always ready to share his research with any who expressed an interest, Nelson Joseph Marcel will be remembered as a generous family historian [MARCEL website]. We will miss his willingness to take time to help others; whether in making coffee for the general meetings or showing some of his memorabilia. He died on Sunday, 17 December 2000 at 10:10 p.m. He is survived by his wife, Rita Hebert Marcel, one daughter, Charlotte Mary M. Bourgeois and husband Royce Bourgeois of Houma; two sons, Daniel Luke Marcel and wife Kayla Redden Marcel of Napoleonville, and Ronnie J. Marcel and wife Vicki Jennings Marcel of Houma; two sisters, Elsie Marcel James and Leola Marcel Gray; one brother, Rillias Marcel (who has since passed away); seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Freddie and Octavia Bergeron Marcel; two sisters, Hazel Marcel King and Lucy Marcel; and ten brothers, Levy, Easton, Raleigh “Roy,” Russell, Nolan, Gerald, Edgar, Aubry, Ivy “Duck” and Hayes Marcel Sr. He was a retired roustabout with Texaco and the owner of Southland Remodeling Siding contracting. He was a U. S. Army World War II veteran, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 3700, a member of the American Legion Post No. 0031, and a member of First United Methodist Church.

HAPPY NEW MEMBERSHIP YEAR
     We begin our new year after the February meeting, so you just have a few days to send in your dues for the 2001-2002 membership year. Last month I forgot to tell you the amount, as I was reminded by long distance telephone call from Arizona. If you want an individual membership, it will cost you $25.00 for one year, unless you wish to be a “Contributing” member. In that case, we’ll take a check for $30.00 and it will help us to help you that much more. If you want to include your spouse as a member, it will be $30.00. For the value received, all you have to do is look at our excellent quarterly and our (ahem) valuable newsletter. If you are buying a membership for a library, you will only have to pay $22.00, but you don’t get the newsletter, and we feel sorry for you. You are probably under funded and your librarians are all underpaid.

CORRECTIONS FOR GENERATIONS ...
     By now you have had time to pore over every page of our publication: Generations I .... Past to Present (Revised, Corrected, Annotated), and you may have found errors. We heard about one, already, where two persons who shared the same name married spouses with the same name and had children and named them alike, but are two different people. What’s a genealogist to do? Tear out his or her hair? Anyway, if you find where we need to correct our information, do not hesitate to contact Jess Bergeron at the society’s address: Station 2 Box 295, Houma, LA 70360-0295. We need your input, honest.

NEWS TID-BITS
     In the E-mail from Cynthia Daigle, she says she spoke to Bonnie Sanford with Hebert Publications this morning (Monday 11 Dec. 2000) and she reported that they are out of volumes 7, 8 and 10 of the Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records. Bonnie has decided to sell Father Hebert’s personal collection. She has 1 volume each of Volumes 5 through 18 (Diocese of Baton Rouge?) and they are $30 each (presumably $3.00 each for shipping). Bonnie can be reached by phone at (337) 873-6151 (but not every day, so keep trying) or mail Hebert Publications, P. O. Box 147, Rayne, LA 70578. She is still unable to accept credit card charges.
     The Bibliotheque National du Quebec has Tanguay’s Dictionnaire genealogique des familles canadiennes online. To find it, you will want to go to <http://www.genealogie.org/tanguay/> According to Claire Bettag, it takes forever to download the various parts, but it is all there.
     Sorry, folks, I let you down. I am sorry I missed it, but the new series of Ancestors on public television is well into its broadcast of its second season. In the New Orleans area you can catch it on WYES-TV (Channel 12 over the air) or WLAE-TV (Channel 32) on Sundays at 1:00 p.m. If you want to know more, you can consult http://www.kbyu.org/ancestorsbroadcast/ to locate the public stations in your area. Or go to <http://www. pbs.org> where you can key in your zip code to find the local station. The topic on 28 January is Immigration Records. I’m not going to tell you about the ones you missed. You might get real mad at me.
     This next one is really on the up and up. I got it from Rootsweb. “WORLD WAR II VETERANS: HAVE YOU MET MARLENE DIETRICH?” This Los Angeles-based group is looking for veterans who met or saw Marlene Dietrich when she toured with the U.S.O., performing for the Allied troops. Photographs and film footage are also sought. Contact: Howard Leder at <DietrichDoe@aol.com> or by phone at (310) 858-2207, or write to him at 9028 Sunset Blvd., PH1, Los Angeles, CA 90069. And the name of the company is Associated Producers Group. Let me know if any of you qualifies— I’m curious. What do you think it is? A new biography for the A&E channel?
     If you have French ancestry from the Illinois area you may be interested in the early marriages (1700) in Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Illinois. Go to <http://www.iltrails.org/kaskaskia/sub23.htm> or for early baptisms (1723-1724), try <www.iltrails.org/kaskaskia/sub22.htm> It’s a fun site. You may want to find out more about these French people who were in “America” before the Grand Dérangement that took place in Acadia in the 1750's.
     You may already have found this out, but I’m going to tell you, anyway. Les Voyageurs, the publication of the German-Acadian Coast Historical & Genealogical Society has an index of the articles that appeared there from 1995-1999. The index appeared in the December, 2000, issue (Vol. XXI, No. 4). I’m sure it will come in handy for those of us whose families called the German Coast home at one time. (That’s the parishes of St. James, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, in that society’s stated goals.) Their address, should you wish to contact them: P. O. Box 517, Destrehan, LA 70047.

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