To see old and new pictures associated with the family sites click the "Family Picture Link".
Welcome to the Young -Thomas-Dorty Website which has been created in memory of our family descendants and to empower our present and future generations by knowing their history. The information contained within this website has been compiled though various U S Census and speculative information from remaining descendants.
Creating this website is just a small portion of what it took to get this far. Many years of commitment went into researching the information contained in this website and the accompanying sites for the Dortys, Williams, and Browns. Thanks go out to my brother Louis Brown Junior of Alexandria Louisiana, who researched and collected this information. Mrs. Alice Faye Belmen helped him but passed a year ago, and we pray she is now resting in peace.
As this information is being transferred to this site, I am enlightened, because much of it is knowledge I was unaware of. My hopes along with my brother’s are that our generation and those to come will appreciate having it available. Click on one of the above links for more information about our family who may also be family members of yours.
Thank you for visiting the site and if you are a family member we hope you are enlightened by the information presented here. As always, your comments and suggestions are invited and appreciated. In addition, if you wish to add your family information, photos or upcoming events please feel free to e-mail me by clicking the email link below.
Our family history was first documented in 1870 when the US Census recorded William (James) Young age 50, born about 1820 as the head of household. He was living in a dwelling in Rapides Parish Bayou in Louisiana with his family, and was a farm laborer. It was also about 1870 when it was reported some of the “Young” family members changed their surname to “James”. Readers also need to know historic records showed it a common practice to repeat the first names of both male and female members of the family from generation to generation. As you are attempting to locate relatives, make sure you check birthdays as well as names...
Since many of our earlier family members lived on plantations and were not schooled it is apparent they did not write diaries so much has to be surmised. This includes the enunciation and spelling of first and last names, which in most cases were written by others such as officials when marriage were performed. In the case of births, it is common knowledge that most families wrote the births of new borns inside the covers of bibles.
According to US census reports many of the family members lived next door to each other and within extended families with as many as twelve in one household. It was also apparent in many cases many of the women in our family had an average of seven children. Many more times they had more than ten children, records also showed elder members lived with their children and grandchildren.
The earlier family births were predominantly in Louisiana on several Plantations including Archinard Place, the Sousand Plantation, and the Levin Luckett Plantation where more than one hundred slaves resided and were married. In addition, it is a matter of record twins run consistently in the family. According to death records a number of the older family members were shown to have been previous residents of Virginia where the Luckett’s had at least one other plantation.
The men in our family seemed to live longer than the woman who died years earlier than their husband many times after giving births to multiple children at a time.
A number of family members were ministers and owned their own homes and business as early as the 1870. Many also paid what would be considered hefty fees of $100.00 to be married, and one record showed a payment of $200.00, which was a lot of money in those days.
Some of the family members were buried at 1st Evening Star Baptist Church Cemetery at Bayou Rapides including our great-great grandmother Diana Young (maiden name Thomas) and great-great grandfather William (James) Young who also was the pastor of the church at one point. Other family members were buried at Garden or Memories, Holly Oak Cemetery
This page was last updated: January 28, 2012
YOUNG, THOMAS, DORTY INDEX PAGE
SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL, MAY YOUR HOLIDAYS BE FILLED WITH LOVE, JOY, PEACE, AND HAPPINESS WITH LOVED ONES AND FRIENDS.
Louis and Kay
