10/12/2026
The next monthly meeting of the Terrebonne Genealogical Society is Saturday October 31, 2026 at 1:00 PM in the Main Room downstairs at the Terrebonne Parish Library. If you are not a member and interested in attending feel free to join us.
David D. Plater will be our guest speaker. He is a TN native but moved with his family to Acadia Plantation in late 1939 until attending Woodberry Forest School in VA, followed by Williams College in MA, where in 1958 he received his Bachelor of Arts with honors in history.
After earning a law degree at Tulane he practiced maritime law in New Orleans for several years, then taught at Metairie Park Country Day School, then earning a Master's in history at Tulane in 1969.
In 1973 he returned to Thibodaux where he participated in the management of the family plantation until 2003. Since then he has undertaken research and writing of United States history.
His publications include articles and reviews in the Sewanee Review of Literature and other journals. He has written or edited other histories set in the antebellum American South, The Remarkably Neat Church in the Village of Thibodaux; An Antebellum History of St. John's Episcopal Church; and The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s.
His new history book is about six master carpenters who settled in the antebellum region. It was nine years in the making and he continues his endeavors in the study and writing about regional and local Louisiana History.
He resides in Thibodaux with Sheela, his wife of 64 years, and they are parents of three children and eight grandchildren. Sheela. They spend time reading and support the String Music Program at Nicholls State.
