Catholic Records
Without the parish registers of Kaskaskia, St. Louis, and Florissant, it would be impossible to track the genesis of the Creely family in the New World. The Kaskaskia register exists in fragments that survive today (Nicholas de Beaubois, the parish priest in 1720, even comments how the register until that time the register "was not in order, and . . . kept on scattered leaves . . ."),1 but the St. Louis and Florissant parishes are more complete.
1. La population des forts français d'Amérique (XVIIIe siècle), by Marthe F. Beauregard. This is a two-volume set published in 1984 by Bergeron. Beauregard's books are indispensable when tracking the first four generations of the Creelys. The work contains the parish registers of most of the French forts in North America in the 18th century. The records are organized alphabetically, which helpfully places family members near each other. A well-organized index makes looking up a particular person easy. The work is completely in French, though. However, it is easily discernible with help from the French Word List (below).
2. Microfilms of the parish registers of Old Cathedral parish (St. Louis) and St. Ferdinand parish (Florissant) are available widely. Both are listed under the the Drouin Collection at ancestry.com. You may also order them through the LDS Family History Center system for a nominal fee (see below). Click for Old Cathedral parish and St. Ferdinand parish microfilm details. Microfilm copies are also available at the Archives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis for free, although the archdiocese does request a donation for using their equipment. If you do decide to visit the archives, call for an appointment first.
3. Catholic baptisms, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1765-1840. is a microfiche of a book compiled by the St. Louis Genealogical Society. It is available for 30 cents through the LDS Family History Center system. Subjects are listed alphabetically by last name for each parish. Please note that the dates given in this microfiche are christening dates, not birth dates.
Ancestry.com Resources
Ancestry.com is a wonderful resource for any genealogist. When searching for Creelys and other families, though, remember that many of the family members were illiterate and their last names were highly variant in their spelling.
1. The Drouin Collection is a digitized collection of microfilms of original parish registers and transcripts of registers and other Catholic records. The Kaskaskia transcript is only a portion of the surviving register and not nearly as helpful as Beauregard's books (above). The Old Cathedral and St. Ferdinand registers, though, are high quality copies of the originals and easily navigable.
2. With a basic U.S. membership you also can have access to several marriage databases that cover early St. Louis. The parish registers are better, though, because the marriage records almost always give the name of both the bride and groom's parents, whereas the marriage databases will only list the names of the bride and groom.
Civil Records
When the United States took over Illinois in 1778 and purchased Louisiana Territory in 1803, the Catholic Church ceased to play any official record keeping role, though the Creelys did continue to record many vital events in parish registers. Civil records for the family, though, don't take on vital importance until the early 1830's when they start appearing in censuses and probate proceedings
1. Saint Louis probate records online is a web site from the Missouri Secretary of State. It has all of the probate records for Saint Louis County from 1804 through 1876 and Saint Louis City from 1876 through 1900.
2. Censuses are also useful Creely family records. French censuses of Illinois are irregular and were taken in 1726, 1732, and 1752. The first two are available in The Census Tables for the French Colony of Louisiana from 1699 through 1732, by Charles R. Maduell, Jr, published in 1972 by Genealogical Publishing Company. The 1752 census is in Belting's book (listed below). A 1787 American census of Kaskaskia is listed in Alvord's book (listed below). A 1791 Spanish census of Missouri is in The Spanish Regime in Missouri, v. 2, p. 376-377. No U.S. Federal Census shows the Creelys before 1830, because no earlier census records from Missouri survive.
3. "Kaskaskia manuscripts [translated]" is my own term for what is officially called "Kaskaskia manuscripts, 1714-1816" in the LDS Family History Library catalog. This is an assortment of microfilms, only one of which (#956814) is in English and has a partial index. The English microfilm covers 1733-1784 and is almost entirely property transactions. It was translated in the nineteenth century by the government in order to have a record of property owners available in English. All citations on this web site are to the English microfilm.
4. "Raymond Hammes manuscripts" is my name for the microfilm #1543598 in the LDS Family History Library catalog. This microfilm contains an incomplete extract in English of the public records from the Kaskaskia manuscripts. Most record synopses are 1-5 sentences in length and summarize the date of a transaction (usually a property sale or inheritance being issued), the parties involved, any interesting notes about the transaction. Although Hammes divided up the manuscripts by location and date, it is profitable to search all the sections for a particular person. Hammes died before he was finished with his extracts, so in some places the indexes are disorganized. Some other characteristics of the collection are highly idiosyncratic.
5. Later generations of the Creely family may have a death certificate online at the Missouri Death Certificates web site. The web site has every Missouri death certificate from 1910 to 1957 in an easily searched format. Selected pre-1910 death certificates are also available.
LDS Resources
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns the world's largest collection of genealogical records through their LDS Family History Library system. Branches of the library are all over the world and you can easily find one near you. (Please note that hours vary by location.) Any microfilm or microfiche in the library catalog can be sent to any branch in the world for a nominal fee, though materials must remain at their facility. Where I live, delivery time is 2-4 weeks. At my location microfilms cost $5.50 for thirty days' use, $11 for sixty days, and $16.50 for indefinite use. Microfiches are 15 cents per sheet for indefinite use.
1. The main branch of the LDS Family History Library system is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Open six days a week (closed Sundays), it has hundreds of volunteers available to give one-on-one help, including bilingual English/French staff always on site.
2. Another helpful LDS resource is their French Genealogical Word List. I don't speak or read French, but having this simple genealogical dictionary makes most records easily discernible--even hand written ones. A Latin Genealogical Word List is also useful for some of the Catholic Church records on the Creelys. Although not needed for Creely research, you may need some of their other word lists.
3. The LDS Church is also undertaking a massive indexing program in an attempt to make more original records available online for free. You may search these original records on their pilot site. Although not many records that pertain directly to the Creelys are available right now (probably just the 1850, 1860, and 1880 censuses), the site is constantly updated and literally tens of thousands of names are added monthly.
4. You may also download free Personal Ancestry File software to organize electronically your family tree. This program is intuitive and customizable for your family. It's how I organize all the Creely's on my personal computer. Click the "Download PAF" link at the Church's FamilySearch page.
A word of caution on LDS resources: Despite the LDS Church's wonderful one-stop resources, I beg you to be careful when using the search box at their FamilySearch page. This is a database of submissions from users worldwide, and the Church has not required people to verify their information. Some submitters aren't as exacting in their research as I would prefer. If you submit new data to my web site that comes directly from FamilySearch, I will not add it to this site. However, the database is useful in suggesting where to look for a particular person's records and I have often been pointed in the right direction thanks to a quick search at FamilySearch.
Histories and Compilations
Local histories--especially about Kaskaskia and early St. Louis--are useful sources about the Creelys. Here are the major sources I have used (ranked in order of importance).
1. Without question the definitive early history of Kaskaskia is Kaskaskia Under the French Regime, by Natalia Maree Belting. Originally published in Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences in the 1940's, Belting's book was republished in 1976 by Polyanthos and is currently published by Shawnee Classics. It is easily available at amazon.com, which also allows you to do a limited search inside. I have problems with the continuity of Belting's book, but her ability to give her reader an idea of what life was like in French Illinois is uncanny.
2. A later period of Kaskaskia history is Kaskaskia Records, 1778-1790, by Clarence Walwoth Alvord. The book covers the early American period and is a transcription of French documents with an English translation immediately below. Through Google Books, this is book is searchable online for free.
3. The Earl Fischer Database of St. Louisans is sponsored by the St. Louis Genealogical Society, and is an attempt to document every St. Louisan until 1840, organized into families when possible. There are errors in this database, and Fischer did not always cite where he got his information, but the information is usually verifiable with other sources and is correct far more often than not.
4. Louis Houck is author of two useful books on early Missouri: A History of Missouri from the Earliest Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union, and The Spanish Regime in Missouri. Both are available and searchable online for free at Google Books.
5. A Directory, Business Mirror, and Historical Sketches of Randolph County, by E. J. Montague is the first history of Randolph County, Illinois. Searchable and free online at Google Books, this 1859 book does not mention the Creelys, although it does give an interesting account of Kaskaskia in the early nineteenth century. It's prose is probably more poetic than what we're accustomed to these days, and Montague's view of French Kaskaskia is highly romanticized.
Notes
1. Mason, Edward Gay. Illinois in the Eighteenth Century, p. 10.
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