My Family Tree

This is a photo of my great-great Grandmother, Marie Theresa Palms, who was a native of Antwerp, Belgium and was born in 1813. She married William Heatley Wilder who was born in 1812 and he was a lawyer and an architect who in 1847 drew out plans of the layout of New Orleans. He married Ms. Palms at St. Ann’s Church in Detroit, MI in 1838. They had a daughter by the name of Emelie Frances Wilder, who was a linguist and harpist. She married Numa Joseph Mazerat in 1873 and they had four daughters, Laura who never married, Della (my grandmother), Marie Eulalie (who entered the Congregation of the Marianites Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1900) and Myra Cecilia Clark Gaines Mazerat. Della Mazerat married my grandfather, James E. Love. My father, Marion E. Love was the only son/child of this union.

My great-great-great grandfather Francois Mazerat came to New Orleans, LA around 1809 from Bordeaux, France where he held the office of professor in a University. He was an architect who was instrumental in helping to build the French Quarters. He was also a Quarter Master for the French Army under Napoleon. His father fought in the Continental Army under General George Washington.

Most of the information that I gather of my ancestors was from my late Great Aunt, Sister Mary Ligouri and my cousin Sidney Mazerat. Sidney had accumulated enough information through the years of our family tree that would have been published in two volumes. When Katrina hit, he lost most of the pictures for the books which he had left downstairs in his office. By luck, he had taken his computer upstairs and placed it in one of the bedrooms. Most of the written material was saved on his computer. It was not all lost!