Excerpt from Marriage Contracts of Natchitoches, 1739-1803 The early contracts of marriage reveal some of the clearest pictures of colonial society. Henry P. Dart realized their importance when he wrote in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly: It seems unnecessary to stress the value of these ancient contracts. They form an essential part of the social history of the Colony, preserving as they do the intimate family connections of the participants and of their relatives and friends. They introduce us to the people of the Colony, for here we find the names of the great and the small, most of whom missed their page in the his tories of this era, but who nevertheless did their part, carried on and are still remembered by countless descendants in all parts of the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.