PBS kicks off the second season of Genealogy Roadshow (http://www.pbs.org/genealogy-roadshow/home/)Â tonight, Tuesday, 13 Jan 2015. In the Greater Cleveland (Ohio) area, it will be aired on Channel WVIZ (http://www.ideastream.org/) at 8 pm. It also will be available at the same broadcast time on Channel WEAO (http://westernreservepublicmedia.org/).
The setting for this episode is the Cabildo, the present-day Louisiana State Museum, but over 200 years ago, a key government facility. In 1803, it was the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer, the event that acquired the Louisiana Territory for the United States, doubling its land area.
The hour will include: a couple whose ancestors hail from the same small Italian town who explore the chance they may be related; a woman desperate to find out who committed a gruesome murder in her ancestors’ past; a home held by one family for more than a century that renders a fascinating story; and a woman who discovers the difficult journey her ancestor took on the path to freedom from slavery.
Located next to St. Louis Cathedral and facing Jackson Square, the Cabildo was built under Spanish rule in 1795-1799 and named after the municipal governing body that was located there. Before the transfer of the building to the state museum in 1908, the Cabildo served as a city hall, a courthouse and a prison. The building was designed by Gilberto Guillemard, who also designed St. Louis Cathedral and the Presbytere but the third story mansard roof with cupola was not added until 1847, replacing the original flat Spanish roof and balustrade. On the second floor is the Sala Capitular, or “Meeting Room”, in which much of the official business of the building took place.
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