Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Louisiana Loustalots and the census search at Ancestry.com is not my friend. .

Well, I thought this would be revelatory and yield unbelievable results, but alas. . no. . Looking up Loustalots who have lived in Louisiana from the earliest years reveals little by way of "hits" in the Ancestry.com database. . I'm pretty sure it's due to a combination of census taker misspellings and transcriber ignorance of French names, but nonetheless. . here it is. .

The 1860 census reveals a Jean Loustalot (transcribed "F Lostotol" -- see what I mean?) living with his family in Covington, St. Tammany, Louisiana. . b. 1821 in France, working as a "house carpenter" and living with his family:  Elizabeth, 20yo, Elon, 9yo, Martha, 7yo, Emolee, 2yo, Mary, 2 months, Patric, 7yo, and Jane, 8yo. Now, my take is Elizabeth is a second wife and Elon and Martha belong to the first wife, likely dead. Emolee and Mary are most likely her children with Jean.  Patric and Jane are listed as being last named Loustalot (Lostotol) but that could be an error. There are no relationships included in this census. Patric and Jane are unusual names for French children, but I don't know where to go with that idea. .

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