genealogy interest, resources abound in south Louisiana

By JOEL LEVY
Advocate staff writer
Published: Aug 27, 2007 - Page: 1D

From research tools to novels, the “Genealogy: Histories and Mysteries” seminar at the East Baton Rouge Parish Bluebonnet Regional Branch Library this month covered lots of territory.

Baton Rougean Charlotte Hudson Ewing, a retired business owner and first-time novelist, described how she felt compelled to write a book by the mysterious threads she uncovered while investigating the life of her great-great-grandfather’s family in the early 1800s. The result was her novel “Red Land.”

“Although this is my first novel with sections fictionalized and embellished, the historical and genealogical data are factual. (My main character’s) strength to merely survive amid hardships and heartaches, has always amazed me.” Ewing said.

Combined with the unveiling of secrets of the Hudson and Tyree families in the Gulf South region are family charts and census and land records.

Ewing will speak again locally at the Sept. 9 West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society meeting.

Introducing the speakers was Cassie Fedrick, genealogy librarian at the Bluebonnet Branch, where the parish library system centralizes its genealogy resources.

In addition to briefly running down the materials the department offers — which include access to two huge Web databases which operate by paid subscription only — she shared the bittersweet story of finding one of her own ancestors and coming to closure with events which have shaped her life.