West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society

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West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society

A group interested in learning more about family histories relating to West Baton Rouge.

07/07/2026

The third quarterly meeting of 2026 for the West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society will be held Saturday, July 11, 2026 at the West Baton Rouge Museum located at 845 N. Jefferson Ave., Port Allen, LA 70767.

The meeting begins at 9:45 a.m., followed by an "Explorations in Genealogy" presentation by Kim Wyble titled "Bloodlines and Storylines, Identity, Memory, and the Modern Search for Belonging" which begins at 10:30. The presentation will examine how the stories we inherit and preserve shape both personal and collective identity across generations.

Kim Wyble is a graduate of Brusly High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing and a master’s degree in Leadership and Human Resource Development from LSU. She is a motivational speaker and Chief Happiness Officer at Positively Indelible, an organization she founded to help people rediscover their potential and rewrite their story with confidence and purpose. She is also Cajun, with family roots in Pierre Part, Louisiana.

Explorations in Genealogy is hosted by the West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society and is sponsored by the West Baton Rouge Museum. This program is FREE, open to the public, and no registration is required.

We hope to see you there!

06/17/2026

If you are researching your Acadian roots, and your genealogical search leads you to France, you should check out the link below.

Novacadie Tours guide Richard Laurin is the best in the business. His tours not only take you to the places you want to go, he takes you to places you need to be -- and sometimes, places where few others have access.

Richard will be leading a "Return-to-our-roots" tour in France September 23 to October 6, 2026.

Several of your Board Members have taken this tour, and -- trust us -- you don't want to miss this opportunity!

Novacadie In France:
• Explore France on our amazing “Acadian/Cajun Heritage Tour” in the land of our ancestors. Experience monuments, mysterious megaliths, world renowned cathedrals, abbeys, castles, ancestral villages and regions where the forefathers originated and likewise, where Acadian deportees re-established or transited after the ordeal.

• Add to this the finest of food and wines, the proud typical people that make it and these countless historic/natural sites all over France, and you have yourself an everlasting experience.

Please contact Richard Laurin at Novacadie Tours for the tour application or for further information.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EC8Tfh6yP/

04/09/2026

Please join us for our second quarterly meeting this year Saturday, April 11, 2026 at the West Baton Rouge Museum. The meeting begins at 10:00 a.m. followed by an "Explorations in Genealogy" presentation beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Our presenter at this meeting will be family historian and genealogist Marlon Bourque, a Louisiana native born into a French-Acadian community in rural Lafayette Parish. Mr. Bourque has traced his family genealogy back to 1590s France, and has traveled to his Acadian homeland in Nova Scotia, Canada in order to further his research and to attend several Congrès Modial
Acadien (Acadian World Congress) events. He has completed a nearly 15 generation Bourg/Bourque family tree, and will speak about what motivated him, how he gott started, where he researched, and his research methods.

Explorations in Genealogy is hosted by the West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society and is sponsored by the West Baton Rouge Museum. This program is FREE, open to the public, and no registration is required. The West Baton Rouge Museum is located at 845 North Jefferson Avenue in Port Allen. For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/TheWBRM or www.WestBatonRougeMuseum.org

01/10/2026

Please come out and support me. If you were part of our Acadian Heritage tour, you got to see a glimpse of the endangered cemeteries. This exhibit displays all of those and more! Beautiful artwork and photography help to tell the story.

01/07/2026

Please join us for our first quarterly meeting Saturday, January 10, 2026. The meeting begins at 9:45 a.m., followed by an exciting presentation by Ja'el Gordon, which begins at 10:30 a.m. (see below).

The meeting and presentation are FREE and open to the public!

The West Baton Rouge Museum is located at 845 N. Jefferson Avenue
Port Allen, LA 70767.

Using detailed archival research, plantation records, and art analysis, Gordon will demonstrate how these methods uncover the real lives behind figures who were deliberately erased or left unidentified. This work shows how combining genealogy with material culture allows museums to restore identity, agency, and historical truth to the enslaved people represented in these images.

Ja’el Gordon is a historian and genealogist specializing in Deep South antebellum history, genetic genealogy, cultural exhibit installations, and descendant outreach. As a researcher, Ja’el works for and on current and “lost” plantation sites, where she conducts investigative research and provides corrective narrative education programming. Her expertise also includes repository research, collection curation, exhibition installations, cemetery preservation, and event/programming planning. Ja’el holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Southern University New Orleans, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Higher Education at Jackson State University.

This presentation coincides with the opening date of the current exhibit on display through March 8, 2026, Gone But Not Forgotten: Black Cemeteries of West Baton Rouge. Guest curated by fellow genealogist, cemetery mapper, and founder of the nonprofit, Westside Cemetery Preservation, Debbie Martin, this exhibit examines the historic lost burial grounds of enslaved Black people across the parish as well as those cemeteries that are in danger of becoming lost to Mother Nature or land development.

Explorations in Genealogy is hosted by the West Baton Rouge Genealogical Society and is sponsored by the West Baton Rouge Museum. This program is FREE, open to the public, and no registration is required.

Hope to see you there!

12/31/2025

Hope to see you there! If you cant make the reception, the exhibit will be available from Jan. 10, 2026 - Mar. 6, 2026.

Artwork by Ellen Ogden
Photography by Jazz Bishop
Music by Leroy Bishop Toussaint

In addition to the exhibit, there will
3 great presentations in the month of January!
Featuring YaYa YaYa, Jazz Bishop, and Dr. Brendan Harmon

Address

369 Maryland Avenue
Port Allen, LA
70767

Telephone

+12257492874

Website

https://wbrgenealogicalassociation.shutterfly.com/

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