Connecting the dots -- how are the Louisiana and California Loustalots related?

I know that Louisiana and California aren't the only game in town when it comes to Loustalot landings on American soil, but it does seem that the two main branches landed there and prospered (tho I gotta say, procreation seems at lower levels than in the past, IYKWIM. . ) somewhat, at least in the early years of the 20th century. .

I've found a record at Ancestry from the New Orleans passenger lists (didn't I post that before? gotta check) of a Vincent Loustalot, b.1861 in France who departed from Pau, Basse-Pyrenees and arrived in New Orleans in around 1876. .that's earlier than the crowd who eventually populated  California (who were being born at that time) and claimed origination at Pau (at least my husband's family) but who may have actually lived up the road in the town of Lurbe in that region. .

Researching the French Loustalots

Here is a link to a valuable research tool I was referred to by one of my husband's very savvy family researchers -- thanks, Lynne! It's scanned documents from the Basse -Pyrenees region of France (also known as Basse-Atlantique or Aquitaine) and you can reach it here --

French archives click here. .

As you may have guessed, this information is in French, but my Google Chrome offers to translate it for me, which is awesome. . before I had Chrome, I got a Google translator for my toolbar (I just searched for it online and found the instructions to install it -- it wasn't difficult, thank goodness!)

I have not had any luck actually using the blue-green search box, but just click on the "direct access..." information and it will bring you to a page with the alphabet on the bottom. Click on the letter of the alphabet that begins the name of the region you are looking for. . eg. my husband's family always said they were from Pau, but their info is actually found in the section on Lurbe Sainte Christau (this saved me time, as my husband's cousin was able to share this with me. . ) A warning. . these are scanned documents -- meaning it is not searchable except by the human eye -- LOTS of clicking around and trying to understand the really ornate writing and it's in French! Helpful tip -- "naissances" means births, "deces" is deaths, and "mariages" is marriages.  .

Bonne Chance!

A Bit of regional history. .

Basses-Pyrénées is one of the original 83 departments of France created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne, Béarn, and Gascony and included the three traditional provinces of the northern Basque Country: Labourd, Soule and Basse-Navarre. It also included two tiny exclaves of Bigorre which were located within Béarn.

The previous history of the region, under the Ancien Régime, can be found at those individual articles.

On October 10, 1969, Basses-Pyrénées was renamed Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

.. from www.absoluteastronomy.com. . .