| Speaker:
| Sarah Waits
| Location:
| Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library (Jefferson Room, 1st floor), with optional Zoom participation provided by GRSNO for members and guests who live out of town or who are otherwise unable to attend.
| Topic:
| Archdiocesan Archives: Researching Your Catholic Ancestry
Archivist Sarah Waits will introduce attendees to the Archdiocesan Archives, focusing on the Archives’ vast collection of sacramental records. The Archives at the Archdiocese of New Orleans holds four centuries of records and is a vital resource for anyone researching their family’s ties to Louisiana. Sarah will discuss research methods and share her experience working with sacramental records to create an extensive family tree for Pope Leo XIV, which is now available for viewing as an online exhibit here.
Sarah Waits is the research archivist at the Archdiocese of New Orleans. She received a Certificate in Archival Studies from LSU, her Master’s degree in history from the University of New Orleans, and a Bachelor’s degree in history and creative writing from LSU. She previously worked at the Amistad Research Center, the National World War II Museum, and the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Historic House Museums. Sarah served as president of the Greater New Orleans Archivists Organization (GNOA) from 2023-2024. Sarah has presented on Catholic archives and research at conferences nationwide and recently received grant funding to scan and index some of the oldest sacramental records in the Archdiocesan Archives related to enslaved individuals. Sarah is a licensed tour guide and enjoys leading history-focused walking tours in the French Quarter.
Monday 27 October 2025 7:00 PM
| Speaker:
| Emily Ford
| Location:
| Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library (Jefferson Room, 1st floor), with optional Zoom participation provided by GRSNO for members and guests who live out of town or who are otherwise unable to attend.
| Topic:
| Tips for Tomb & Monument Care
In this talk, Emily Ford will present the basics of cemetery material conservation. Beginning with a discussion of preservation ethics and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, she will then show how these standards apply to monuments, tombs, and other cemetery features that families encounter at their own properties. After establishing this context, the presentation will conclude with technical do’s and don’ts for caring for your cemetery property.
Emily Ford is a cemetery preservationist, restoration mason, and architectural historian based in New Orleans. She is a graduate of the Clemson University Master of Science in Historic Preservation program at Charleston, South Carolina. As owner of Oak and Laurel Cemetery Preservation, LLC since 2014, Emily has performed hundreds of tomb and monument restorations throughout the Gulf South, including Pensacola and Natchez as well as South Louisiana. She continuously researches and analyzes historic craft and landscapes of historic cemeteries, regularly presenting to genealogical, historical, and preservation groups. Her work focuses on empowering cemetery stakeholders in the care and preservation of their properties. She also served as superintendent of cemeteries for the City of New Orleans from 2019 to 2024.
Monday 17 November 2025 7:00 PM
| Speaker:
| Pat Bedenbaugh
| Location:
| Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library (Jefferson Room, 1st floor), with optional Zoom participation provided by GRSNO for members and guests who live out of town or who are otherwise unable to attend.
| Topic:
| Barefoot Boys: Newsboys of New Orleans
1870s in New Orleans – It was a time of loss and suffering following the end of the Civil War. Yellow fever epidemics and mass immigration of the poor filled New Orleans with orphans and half-orphans. The newsboys were among those numbers. Many of those newsboys were family breadwinners. Pat Bedenbaugh’s grandfather was among them. His obituary said he was cast “upon the streets” at the age of 4 and lived in the newsboys’ home until he married. That obituary started her search to learn about the home.
Barefoot Boys is a brief history of the newsboys of New Orleans in the 1870s to the early 1900s. The story outlines the efforts made to get the newsboys off the streets and into a clean safe place to live and learn. The Sisters of Mercy, with the help of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, established the home and school. This is their story.
Pat is a native of New Orleans. She graduated from Dominican High School and McNeese University. She became interested in genealogy when she started researching the heritage of her Irish and Sicilian grandparents. During that early research, she met Sheila Larmann thanks to the Friends of St. Alphonsus in the Irish Channel. Sheila always had a wealth of information for Pat about the Irish in New Orleans. In the St. Alphonsus museum, Pat found a picture of the newsboys. It was like a miracle, and her grandfather was in the middle of that picture. Pat’s subsequent research led her to write a brief history of the newsboys’ home for St. Alphonsus in about 1990. She is still researching the home, the people who helped them, and the boys who lived there. | | |
Mark Your Calendars Now!
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Become a GRSNO member today to get your invitations to hear these and future speakers,
which we present free each spring and fall.
Click here to join GRSNO
OTHER ITEMS OF GENEALOGICAL INTEREST
The 1940 Census
Indexing project is complete! All 50 states are indexed by both the
LDS/National Archives initiative and Ancestry.com. Thanks to all members who
helped with the indexing project.
https://www.thisnation.com/government/learn/1940-us-census-records-project/
The Pen and Inks of Lola Legier Maduell is now available for $14.95 at Amazon.com. Many of Lola's sketches have been
used in Genesis.
Louisiana Marriage Contracts - Vol. 2 (1728-1769)
by Alice Daly Forsythe
These valuable records are, in some cases, the only records of marriage that have survived for this period, the ecclesiastical records
of St Louis parish church having been lost in the
destructive fires of the late eighteenth century.
Copies may be ordered for $26.50 , including postage and shipping, from
GRSNO
P O BOX 51791
New Orleans, LA 70151-1791
Greater New Orleans Genealogy Group on Facebook
You will need a Facebook account before you can access the group.
LSU received $210,000 grant to digitize old Louisiana newspapers from 1836-1922
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
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