St. Mary's Cathedral in Galveston has a long and eventful history. Built in 1847, this Gothic Revival structure has survived several major storms, including the Great Storm of 1900 which killed an estimated 6,000 Galveston residents. Most recently St. Mary's survived Hurricane Ike in 2008, which caused so much damage that the church was forced to close for nearly six years, only reopening earlier this year.
In those early years, some of the parishioners of St. Mary's included Catholics of French descent who came to Texas from Louisiana. Among the baptisms that took place at St. Mary's were those of the two youngest children of my 4x great grandparents, Ciriaque and Anaïs (Compère) Rachal. Creole natives of the Cane River area near Natchitoches, Louisiana, Ciriaque and Anaïs had moved with some of their kin to Liberty, Texas just prior to statehood. On 28 November 1851, their sons Edward Rene (b. 24 January 1849) and Albert Pierre (b. 22 July 1851) were both baptized at St. Mary's.
Prior to the discovery of these baptisms, it had never even occurred to me that the church records for members of the Creole colony at Liberty might be found in Galveston. The fact that the Rachal family appeared in these records of St. Mary's had an additional significance to me as well, as a Galveston native. As a child I spent every Wednesday morning at Mass at St. Mary's, when our teachers at the Catholic school next door would line us up, single file, and march us over to church. At the time it had never even occurred to me that it was anything more than just what we did on Wednesdays. Now, of course, I look back on it as the unwitting continuation of my rich Creole heritage, more than a century after my ancestors' names had been entered in St. Mary's register!
Photo credit: [St. Mary's Cathedral Photograph #1]. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth487039/. Accessed November 17, 2014.
