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Originally published in 1931, Old Families of Louisiana was compiled in response to a demand for a comprehensive series of genealogical records of the foundation families of the state--families whose ancestors settled with Bienville in New Orleans at the time the famous old city was laid out in the crescent bend of the Mississippi River. This book also answers the call for information on those who came to Louisiana when the golden lilies of France, the castellated banner of Spain, the Union Jack of Great Britain, or the flag of fifteen stars and fifteen stripes waved over the land.

During the compilation of the original data it became apparent that the present book would be greatly augmented in interest and value by the addition of genealogical records of other prominent foundation families besides the French and Spanish. For this reason, information was included on the English, Scottish, and Irish lineages whose representatives now form an integral part of the present-day population of Louisiana.

In the seventy years since its first publication, Old Families of Louisiana has exceeded the original scope intended. In order to set a limit to its range, it was agreed that only those families settling in Louisiana before and up to the time of the beginning of the American domination in 1803 should be included. Old Families of Louisiana traces the genealogy of such traditional Louisiana families as Fortier, Claiborne, Kenner, Percy, Wiltz, Chalmette, Landry, Derbigny, Butler, St. Martin, and Wilkinson.

A native of California, Stanley Clisby Arthur spent several years as a journalist and served as a war correspondent in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. Arthur arrived in Louisiana in 1915 and came to view it as his adopted home, dedicating much of his life to documenting its customs, culture, and history. During the Great Depression, Arthur was appointed regional director of the Survey of Federal Archives. This allowed him to delve even more deeply into the history of New Orleans and Louisiana, and he published several more historical and cultural works, including Pelican's Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em, Old Families of Louisiana, and Audubon: An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman. Stanley Clisby Arthur died in 1963 at the age of eighty-eight.