Hello Dawn,
My father gave me what looks like a family member's research into our connections with Santo Tomas. Charles Courtois (arrived June 11, 1844 on the Auguste) was married to Pelagie Genonceaux, who dies in Santo Tomas. He then married Anne Wahle. It seems Anne came to Santo Tomas on the Jean Van Eyck on March 3, 1844. The short story seems to me that many folks got sick and died in Santo Tomas. Charles and Anne had some daughters in Santo Tomas then they all shipped out to New Orleans in 1856. According to what I have, the local Jesuit chaplain had the church records (birth, marriage, death) and took them with him when he returned to Belgium after the colony's collapse in 1856. Sadly the Jesuit and the records seem to be lost to history. Could you confirm Wahle as a passenger on the Van Eyck as I only have a family write up that lacks a bibliography. Thanks, Paul McDonald (3rd great grandson of Charles Courtois and Anne Whale)