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18 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA the place where the marriage takes place; otherwise they require the permission of the pastor of at least one of them. (4) Persons having no fixed abode can not be law fully married without permission from the Bishop. (5) The marriage ceremony should be performed by the parish priest of the bride, unless some just cause excuses from this. (6) The parish priest or Bishop may grant per mission to another priest to assist at a marriage with in their district. (7) When it is absolutely impossible to get a priest, marriage may be validly contracted before a civil magistrate and at least one other witness, but in such rare cases the record should be sent promptly to the nearest parish priest to be entered upon the parish register. (8) A certificate of baptism is required from every one before contracting marriage, if they come from another parish or district. (9) The above laws are binding on all persons bap tized in the Catholic Church and on all those who have been converted to it, even if they have after wards fallen away by heresy or schism, whenever they contract marriage with one another. (10) No dispensation from all publications of the banns will be granted except to avoid serious scandal or for other equally grave reason. Dispensation from one or two publications may be obtained when there is a valid reason given. (11) Non-Catholics, whether baptized or unbap tized, who contract marriage with each other, are nowhere bound to observe the Catholic form of mar riage. + BENJAMIN JOSEPH KEILEY, Bishop of Savannah. Bishop’s House, Savannah, Ga., February 23d, 1921. HISTORICAL SKETCHES. (Continued from Page 9) them were many of the nobles and gentry of France who had fled, to San Domingo for safety at the out break of the French Revolution. Most of them came first to Philadelphia, but Georgia offered a better asylum for their slaves, and they gradually settled in Savannah, Charleston and Augusta and the islands along the coast. From 1793 to 1811 Savannah was the home of most of these refugees. Those who came first were able to save a great deal of their wealth, consisting chiefly of slaves; but as the years went on and the massacres increased in violence, the condition of the later refugees became one of abso lute destitution. There was no opposition made to their coming to Savannah at first, but the stories of the horrible massacres at last made the citizens fearful lest the San Domingan negroes might incite the other slaves here to a similar revolt. The result was that the people of Savannah held a mass meeting in 1795 and decided to prevent any more French slaves from being landed. The city council advised their owners to land them “at such other places as would be less obnoxious to the people’’; and this party explains the San Domingan settlements on the coast islands of Sapelo, Little Sapelo, Jekyl, St. Simon’s and St. Cath erine s. The objection of the citizens of Savannah does not seem to imply any antipathy to the refugees themselves; for in 1 794 congress had appropriated $500.00 for the relief of these people, and had placed the amount in the hands of the Mayor and Aldermen of Savannah for distribution; and even as late as 1809, when one of the City Aldermen had taken $748 from the owners of some of these negroes in order to have them landed, he was reprimanded by council not only for breaking the law, but “for taking money from these people who were more worthy of charity than extortion.” It is hard for us to realize the pitiable and helpless condition of these refugees who had fled from the horrors of the insurrection. Most of them of noble birth—some the former courtiers of the King and holding high positions of honor and trust in old France—driven from their homes first by the reign of Terror to San Domingo, and afterwards driven on again by the no less horrible massacres on that Island to Savannah they finally came, abandoned and pen niless; to a strange land, among a strange people and speaking a strange language in a new and undevel oped country. But they bravely faced their condi tion and entered into the life of their new home. Some of them became merchants, others professional men, and others taught schools; and all of them did their part in founding the first Catholic congrega tion. They were well received by the best people; there is little or no indication of bigotry in those days. Their position in society was recognized, and those who remained in this country occupied posi tions of prominence in civic affairs. Most of those who had estates that could be re-claimed returned to France or to San Domingo after the troubles were over, but others stayed in Savannah and Augusta, and their descendants are still living in these two cities. Among the French and San Domingan fam ilies that have representatives still living in Savannah who have remained true to the Church of their fa thers may be mentioned the names of Gaudry, Ros- signol, Thomasson, Blois, Boisfieullet, Cabos, Du Gas, Couquillan, Barie, Roma, du Bignon, Boulineau, Con stantine, Teynac, and others. Some branches of these families are lost to the Church, but others have lived on to help in the upbuilding and preserving of the Catholic faith in Georgia. Through inter-mar riage, the family names are in some cases lost to view, but the present parishes of Savannah and Au gusta still number among their people the descendants of those who bore the old French Catholic names above mentioned. The First Irish Settlers. Does the Catholic Church exist anywhere in America without the Emerald Isle being represented? The Irish did not come in very great numbers to Georgia until the first quarter of the Nineteenth Cen tury was well under way; but there were some of this wonderful Catholic race already in Savannah and Au gusta before the French had formed their congrega tions, and they soon added to the colony at Locust Grove as well. From the beginning they took an ac tive part in the affairs of the Church, and so far as the records of Savannah can tell us, they aided ma terially in the maintenance of Church and Priest. The first Irish people who came to Savannah were not the poverty-stricken immigrants of the early 20’s and 30’s, who were literally driven from their native country by the tyranny and oppression of British rule or rather mis-rule. These early Irish families who lived in Savannah before that time were people of moderate means and good education, who seized the opportunity to come to America to better their con dition and enjoy the blessings of freedom denied them at home. They were respected members of the com munity, and mingled with the best people of the city. There were some fine Irish Protestant families here also, who formed the Hibernian Society for the wel fare of their less fortunate fellow-countrymen, and they welcomed the Catholic Irish as their friends and confreres. The records show the names of some of these Irish members of the Savannah congregation present at many of the social functions of the French refugees, as well as inter-marriage between the two races. In fact, quite a few of the Catholics still living in Savannah and Augusta are of both French and Irish descent. Among the Irish names we find in those early days on our records are Dillon, Dollaghan, Callahan, Halligan, Murphy and O’Keefe—some of their distant relations or descendants being with us even today.