'Keep it Local: Invest in your community', says LA Genealogical and Historical Society’s Chairman Robert Brevelle

Louisiana is blessed with a diverse history, architecture and cuisine. To keep the qualities that make your local community special, you must invest locally.

ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA, USA, July 10, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society (LGHS) is one of the state’s oldest historical societies. It has survived economic downturns, hurricanes, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and a growing loss of interest in the state’s history and genealogy. Earlier this year, the LGHS elected a new chairman to help usher in the new era and to attract younger members.

“If you want to keep the charm and qualities that make your local community unique, you must invest locally,” says Robert Brevelle, Chairman of the LGHS. “Louisiana and its communities are blessed with a diverse history, architecture and cuisine. Pair that with genres of music invented here, such as jazz and zydeco, and throw in a splash of French, Spanish, and Native American flare…now you have something worth talking about and preserving. Invest your time and with your pocketbook.”

“Learn the local history and your family’s history. You may be surprised to discover you are a descendant of an Acadian refugee from Canada, or the famous slave turned slave owner Coincoin, or one of Jean Lafitte’s Filipino pirates who helped saved New Orleans.”

“Eat at locally-owned restaurants such as Prejeans in Lafayette that serve the area’s cuisine with products grown, raised, or harvested in Louisiana. Give Community Coffee, Tabasco, Slap Ya Mama, and Abita Beer a try. Shop at locally owned businesses like the Kaffie-Frederick General Mercantile store in Natchitoches and buy products made in Louisiana. Stay in locally owned lodgings like the Steel Magnolia House or Oak Alley Plantation. Buy a locally-made mud or bass boat. For you paddlers, try a pirogue. If you need custom work done, hire your local welder, carpenter, plumber, repairman, painter, craftsman. If you pay some national or international company to do this work, you are helping those skills, jobs, money, and opportunities leave the state.”

Brevelle said the same applies to local businesses.

“It always amazes me how local businesses and organizations go hundreds or thousands of miles away to spend their money or to grow their operations when those same services, products, and opportunities are found locally in great abundance. Hire, partner, contract, subcontract and invest locally.”

“Unfortunately, LGHS was no exception. Here we were, a state organization focused on the history and people of the state. But, we spent our members’ dues outside of the state. We even banked outside of the state. One of my first actions as chairman was to invest locally. We now bank at Merchants and Farmers Bank, one of Louisiana's oldest hometown banks. Our print services, web development, graphics design, web hosting, and other work is now done locally. Not only have we maintained or improved the level of service, we have saved money by staying local.”

Brevelle knows a thing or two about business. He is not just a historian and certified genealogist. He is an award-winning entrepreneur and investor who is regularly featured in Yahoo Finance News, NASDAQ News, and business journals. He made Silicon Valley’s Top-10 Angel Investors list and the Top 100 Investors Magazine in 2023. He is a graduate of the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University and he has advanced degrees and certifications in engineering and business.

“I am excited to work with LGHS,” says the society's new social media and IT specialist Donny James. “Being born and raised in the Shreveport area, I have always been proud of my Louisiana roots but didn’t really know much about it. Learning more about my family’s history here and the history of Shreveport has been fascinating thanks to LGHS and talking with its members.”

“My maiden name is Dauzat, and I can’t believe how little I knew about my family or its role in Louisiana history,” says the society's new communications and marketing specialist, Melissa Collins. “Now I can’t stop researching and learning about my ancestors’ impact in my local parish. Thanks to LGHS and DNA testing, I’ve found so many local cousins I had no idea existed.”

Brevelle said that if local culture, architecture, businesses, and way of life are not preserved through local investment efforts, “our communities may end up looking like cookie-cutter suburbs indistinguishable from those found all over the country where all of the buildings, goods, food, services, art, music, names and accents are the same. How boring would that be?”

LGHS plans to expand its First Families Program, which is the official registry of families who settled within the present boundaries of the state before the Louisiana Purchase and provides certificates to their descendants. LGHS will offer similar registry programs for Louisiana’s indigenous Native Americans, Creoles, Cajuns and their descendants.

LGHS is working on a new website that will go live later this year (http://www.laghs.com/) and embarking on a project with a Native American historian and genealogist to publish a volume set on the history of the first peoples of Louisiana and their contributions to the establishment of the state. LGHS also publishes a newsletter and the Louisiana Genealogical Register. Over 100 libraries subscribe to their publications.

Please visit the LGHS-website and Facebook page to learn more about the LGHS, your genealogy and Louisiana history. Join and become a member. There are volunteer opportunities for graphics designers, editors, web developers, and leadership positions.

Melissa Collins
Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society
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