While doing some research on Missouri Digital Heritage—one of my favourite Websites—I came upon something quite fascinating: A French physician’s ledgers, namely those of Antoine François Saugrain (1763-1820) who practised medicine in St. Louis, MO, at the outset of the nineteenth century.

The first ledger is dated 1804 and covers the period 1800-1816 and the second one, dated 1813, covers the period 1805-1816.

Unless you are fluent in French, you might be put off but don’t be! Peruse through the database and see if your early St. Louis’ ancestors are there and don’t forget to use various spellings in your search as the names were not standardized. I have read that they are working on a translation.

If you read my previous post about Véronique Caillou, you’ll know how excited I was to find entries for her grandfather, Alexis Lalande, as well as for her father, Louis Caillou. Both wives of these men underwent several bloodlettings, a common practice at that time. I don’t discard the idea of transcribing and translating those pages for the Caillous and Lalandes.

Dr. Saugrain even provided medicine for the famous Lewis and Clark expedition.

The images are wonderful but protected by copyrights. So you will have to see it for yourself. All the details here!