An essential series for genealogists, abstractors, attorneys, historians and anyone interested in early Louisiana History.

Part 2 of the second volume of Land Records of the Attakapas District examines the estate records of the Attakapas County for the period 1804 to 1818. Attakapas County, originally including the present-day parishes of St. Martin, St. Mary, Lafayette, Vermilion, and Iberia, was subdivided into St. Mary and St. Martin parishes in 1811. St. Mary Parish estates are not included in this volume for the period after 1811.

The estate records contain a broad range of documents, including last wills and testaments, succession inventories, succession sales, and family meetings. But these records also contain documents reflecting upon estates such as procurations, legal emancipations, inter vivos donations, etc.

The raw data gleaned from these materials has been carefully analyzed by the author in the preface as part of his ongoing narrative of everyday life in the old Attakapas District. Among the topics discussed are the emergence of the local class structure, the disposition of lands and family wealth, slaveholding, ranching operations, the material culture of the times, architecture, diet, textile consumption, merchant activity, and clothing styles.

Land Records of the Attakapas District Volume II Part 2, Attakapas-St. Martin Estates, 1808-1818 continues Professor Conrad's multi-volume series on life in the Attakapas District before the Civil War. The series is a must for genealogists, abstractors, attorneys, historians, and anyone interested in life in South Louisiana in the first half of the nineteenth century.

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