Welcome to Winn Parish! This parish is available for adoption. If you don't have any html experience, but would like to help, please consider being a co-county coordinator. If you have any questions or have something to add to the site, please contact the State Coordinator, Marsha Bryant.
Winn Parish was created in 1852 from three parishes: the east part of Natchitoches, the west part of Catahoula and the north point of Rapides. Later Grant Parish was carved from the south part of Winn. The parish was named for Rapides legislator Walter Winn. Because there was such a debate about which town would become the parish seat, it was decided that it would be placed in geographical center of the new parish.
Many towns were
listed in the first census of 1860 and included: Pine Ridge, St. Maurice,
Montgomery, Wheeling, Winnfield, Kyiche, Goodwater, and Winnfield, which was
the smallest settlement of any of them! According to an article that Gregg
Davis wrote (can be found in the Winn Paish online archives) it has been
said that "Winn Parish was poor from birth." and others have added "It
hasn't gotten any better!" Descriptions of Winnfield found in the diary of a
passing Confederate soldier state that "it had only about five buildings,
ugly ones at that"... and the soldier was even critical of the parish jail!
It was only after the timber industry came at the turn of the century at
Winn Parish began to prosper.
But the condition of the parish or the towns relinquished by Natchitoches and Catahoula did nothing to stop the colorful characters that made this "poor" area their homes, maybe because of the isolated conditions. As early as 1528, Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer stopped at Lewisville (now Gansville), to 1690 when De Tonit was trading in the same place with Indians who had established a village and trading post there, throughout the late 1800's when all the outlaws such as Laws Kimbrell and the West gang made the area their homes, to the boom towns of the early timber industy to the CCC camps and the maneuvers of WWII, and even today with the fact we have had no less than three Louisiana governors from the area, people just kept coming.
Colorful characters, colorful towns, and even rumors of gold and silver mines! We even have our own Revoluntionary Soldier buried here. Whatever the reason, Winn Parish's history is as colorful as any place in Louisiana!
Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section!
Check out our "Families" to add your information
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."
In March and April, 1996, a group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored. In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index. At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. The Louisiana GenWeb Project is an extension of the KY GenWeb Project. The first Winn Parish site came online on November 14, 1997!
Coordinator: Vacant
State Coordinator: Marsha Bryant
If you have questions or problems with this site, email Marsha Bryant, State Coordinator.
