Customer Reviews

Kaskaskia Under the French Regime (Shawnee Classics)

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I bought this book because I'm interested in my family history and three generations of my ancestors lived in Kaskaskia during the 1700's. It's a scholarly book that's directed at the professional historian, but it has lots of trivia to offer to anyone interested in early Illinois history.

Because it was originally written for a scholarly periodical ("Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences"), the writing is dry. But it does communicate clearly to the reader what life in the frontier town of Kaskaskia was like before the French lost their North American holdings east of the Mississippi.

There are some shortcomings in the book. Although the author pours over a census in the appendix, she never gives us a population estimate of the town at any time in its history. There is also a startling lack of continuity in the history because she just presents events that happen one after another, without linking the people involved in each event to other persons or happenings in the area. At the end of the book you'll have very little idea of who the promiment people in Kaskaskia were or the names of people who did the most to shape the life of the town.

But a handy book if you're family spent a few decades there. Chances are their name will show up at least once.