LSU grad recording history of 9th Ward

 Published: Wednesday, August 08, 2012, 2:51 PM     

By Annette Sisco, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune
 
A young researcher with family roots in New Orleans’ 9th Ward is seeking people who lived in the community between 1920 and 1960 for an oral history project financed by National Geographic. Caroline Gerdes, a recent LSU graduate, will record stories of the 9th Ward at Grace Lutheran Church in Lakeview on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Caroline Gerdes wants to interview people who lived in the 9th Ward between 1920 and 1960.
Gerdes is doing the research with a Young Explorers grant from the National Geographic Society. The program gives grants to young people interested in research, exploration and conservation.

“My objective for collecting these histories is to create a historical record of the community and to tell the full story of the 9th Ward, from the neighborhood’s immigrant origins onward,” Gerdes said.

She has been working throughout the summer, collecting oral histories from those who have called the 9th Ward home. Her research has focused on the area as a melting pot, on New Orleans’ unique culture and on firsthand accounts of life in the community.

Residents and former residents Gerdes has interviewed so far — mostly elderly — recall corner groceries and small family-owned businesses.

“Those who lived in the community at the beginning of the 20th century discuss an almost pastoral, non-urban environment, with livestock grazing on the levee,” she said.

A native of Mandeville, Gerdes majored in print journalism at LSU and minored in history. Gerdes decided to host an event Saturday in Lakeview where any person who called the 9th Ward home at any time between 1920 and 1960 can attend and share stories.

“So many of the 9th Warders I am interviewing have dispersed over the years” throughout the Greater New Orleans area, Gerdes said. “I chose the Lakeview location because after two months of making house calls (in Slidell, Metairie, Mandeville, Lakeview, etc.) and almost weekly trips to the 9th Ward, I wanted to choose a central location for participants to come to me.”

Gerdes added that she also is working with several organizations still located in the 9th Ward. “This project is especially close to me because my father and both paternal grandparents were born and raised in the 9th Ward,” Gerdes said. “The neighborhood was once a cluster of immigrant boroughs. Those who remember the origins of the community are now up in age, and Hurricane Katrina also created an urgency to document the community. I want to record this culturally important area before it is too late.”

Stories will be recorded at Grace Lutheran on Saturday in 30-minute interview sessions on a first-come, first-served basis from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, contact Gerdes at ww.carolinegerdes.com.