Clara Lazzaretti and Alexandre Bienvenue

I spent much of the day at the notarial archives in NOLA researching some properties. Mostly I was overwhelmed, but I learned a few things and met some very nice people - including stunningly beautiful Tabitha who is headed off to graduate school in conservation soon, she hopes. I met Erin and Natalie, too, who helped me understand a bit about how to go about getting information, and Leslie (or Melissa?) who spent a lot of time with me educating me about the work that some Tulane students did entering the buildings of French Quarter into a wonderful database. The property I was researching, unfortunately lies directly across North Rampart, so it was not included in their wonderful database.

I did, however, find these maps:



This map seems to show the division of Mr. Treme's property into lots. It appears to me that this map was created by Jacques Tanesse on June 13, 1810. Mr. Treme seems to have owned the house and orchard in the upper right hand area. I took this map from here.

I also found this funny map. The reason it interested me and I saved it because it mentions the name Alexandre Bienvenue, who is Clara Lazzaretti's brother-in-law and the person from whom she buys a property on North Rampart designated as No. 25.

I finally have this last image which I love. I assume it is not the Lazzaretti-Bienvenu house, but I wanted to share the image. I bought it today at the Notarial Archives. These are the wonderful watercolors made as advertisements when the property was sold by the sheriff. I paid $1.00 for this black and white image, but one can buy a very large mounted color poster for $350 which is lovely.

One can see the facade of the house and the floor plan - which has a second building in the back, and perhaps an outhouse in the very back? This property was put up for sale in April 1845. I was trying to find it on Google maps, but I believe it is gone. How sad. This is what I found in the approximate location: