The Knowles Collection: The French Connection

19 August 2010

The French Connection

The city of New Orleans has always been known for its great French heritage, from its founding on 7 May 1718, by the French Mississippi Company till today with the strong influence of its French Quarter and French architecture. During the 1840's -1860's, New Orleans was one of the largest cities in the United States, and probably the largest in the south.

The large french influence was also felt among the Jews of New Orleans. In the marriage records of Congregation Gates of Prayer (FHL film #1012748 item #3), a large number of those being married list their nativity as being France. On the record below, Fanny Bacharach of New Orleans and Michel Schmulen of France were married on 18 Sep 1873.

As we turn to the 1880 United States census (http://www.familysearch.org/) we find a little more about the family. Michel and Fanny Schmulen are living with their 2 daughters in St. Mary's parish. Their ages at the time of the census are 44 and 25. Therefore if those are correct they would have been 37 and 18 on the day of the wedding.

The records of the Jews of New Orleans can be found in The Jews of the Americas.

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Growth and Change

In the 12 years since the Knowles Collection was first published, the numbers have climbed from 7,500 to over 1,4000,000. So many of our ancestors left their native lands for new homes. Because of that movement the collection will now be in 6 different databases. All of them will be under the Knowles Collection umbrella. They are Jews of The British Isles; Jews of the North America; Jews of Europe; Jews of South America and the Caribbean; and Jews of Africa and the Orient and the newest one, Jews of the Southern Pacific.. This is a great indication of how universal our families are, and of how much still needs to be done.