More specifically relating to the Church in Louisiana are Roger Baudier's The Catholic Church in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1939), Jean Delanglez's The French Jesuits in Lower Louisiana (1700-1763) (Loyola University of New Orleans, 1935) and Charles Edwards O'Neill's Church and State in French Colonial Louisiana: Policy and Politics to 1732 (Yale University Press, 1966), all of which contain extensive bibliographies citing both published and archival sources. A special supplement to Catholic Action of the South, XI (July 29, 1943), no. 35, edited by Roger Baudier and published in celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Diocese of New Orleans, has been very helpful and informative.
The history of Catholicism in Florida has been traced recently in Michael V. Gannon's The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida 1513-1870 (University of Florida Press, 1965). An earlier but still very useful account of a more limited period of that history os Michael J. Curley's Church and State in the Spanish Floridas (1783-1822) (Catholic University of America Press, 1940). Both Gannon and Curley also supply extensive bibliographies.
Finally, among the many useful secular histories are Alcee Fortier's four-volume History of Louisiana (Paris, 1904), Henry E. Chamber's three-volume History of Louisiana (American Historical Society, 1925), and Caroline Mays Brevard's two-volume History of Florida from the Treaty of 1763 (The Florida State Historical Society, 1924).
This list contains the names of the authors of the various items to be found in the collection, as well as the names of particular persons and places under which various dossiers in the collection have been calendared. Dates have been given in the same chronological sequence in which the items themselves have been microfilmed. Where the item is dated only by month and year, it will be found at the beginning of that month. Where it is dated only by year, it will be found at the beginning of that year. In a few instances, namely in the case of enclosures and certain items which were filed and consequently have been calendared and filmed with other items, two dates have been given: first, the date of the item itself, and second, in parentheses, the date of the item with which it has been filmed. For example, Saturnino Domine's letter of March 12, 1796 is listed thus: 1796 March (encl'd in 1796 March 22, Archbishop Despuig y Dameto to Bishop Penalver y Cardenas). On the microfilm the letter will be found by referring to the date of the item in parentheses. Where the particular item is a simple letter or document, not part of a larger dossier, the date given is that of the letter or document itself. However, where the item -- in many cases merely a copy of the original -- is to be found in a larger dossier, the date given is that under which the dossier has been calendared and, consequently, filmed. In most cases this is actually the date of the last item in the particular dossier. In order to avoid any confusion that this might cause, targets bearing the date of the calendar have been filmed before each item or group of items which is the subject of a specific calendar. To locate the various items within particular dossiers more specifically, reference should be made to the calendars which have been filmed on the first roll of microfilm in the same chronological order in which the documents themselves have been filmed. By using this list in conjunction with the calendars and the date targets, the researcher should be able to locate quickly any particular items of interest.