From Yale to Cambridge, then New Orleans: When a Family Heirloom Becomes the Basis of Research 

Can a family heirloom become a legitimate research question? For Tom Attard-Manché, the answer arrived in the form of an honorary key his grandfather received in 1980 from New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial during what should have been a routine business trip. 

His great-grandmother's maiden name was Grima. While his grandfather was on business in New Orleans, local officials determined that he was related to one of the city's prominent "ancienne" families, the Grimas. "My grandfather was excited by the possibility," Tom recalls, "but he remained sceptical about how thorough the genealogical research had been." 

For young Tom, the key became an object of fascination. "I grew up seeing the honorary key displayed in his house and was fascinated by that potential family connection," he says. As his grandfather aged, the family mystery took on new urgency. When Tom discovered that the Hermann-Grima Museum still stood in New Orleans's French Quarter, everything clicked —he knew archival documents would exist. "From that moment, I knew I wanted to research my family's connection to the city and to study New Orleanian history" 

Little did he know, years later, that heirloom would lead him across an ocean, through the ancient libraries of Cambridge, and into the archives of a city he had never called home. It would result in a paper published in the Tulane Undergraduate Research Journal, titled "A French Émigré and The Ideological Origins of Louisiana." But more than that, it would teach him something about the nature of historical inquiry: how the past reaches forward to claim us, how personal mysteries can illuminate larger truths, and how research, real research, is never the solitary, linear pursuit we imagine it to be. 

By his junior year at Yale, Tom had studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, under the supervision of Dr Felix Waldmann, and he decided to delve deeper into his family history. While researching the Grima family, Tom's attention was drawn to Étienne Mazureau, who married Aimée Grima. Mazureau wasn't just any historical figure, but more than that, he was "the Eagle of the New Orleans bar”, as Alexis de Tocqueville called him. 

One of the biggest challenges Tom encountered while writing the paper was distance: He was in Cambridge while researching New Orleans, Louisiana, which limited his access to some on-site resources. However, Cambridge's libraries, it turned out, held surprising collections on New Orleans history, perhaps remnants of the colonial period or the fruit of some long-ago eccentric interests. When those holdings proved insufficient, his advisors, Waldmann and another Cambridge historian, Dr Emily Yankowitz, introduced him to WorldCat. This digital catalogue TURJ Interview: Tom Attard-Manché 2 

could locate documents in libraries across the globe. Tom would submit scanning requests, and weeks later, images would arrive in his inbox. "I ultimately realised how democratized research has become," Tom notes, "and how much research can be conducted from abroad with the right guidance and resources." 

Reflecting on his time at Cambridge, he shares, "One challenge that surprised me was how non-linear the research process could be". He found himself reading both deeply and broadly, and his central questions kept shifting as the sources led him in unexpected directions. The process was messier and more collaborative than any class paper he'd written. "I realised how many people it takes for historical writing to be developed and published," Tom says. It involved conversations with his advisor about framing an argument, emails to archivists seeking particular documents, and, later, rounds of edits with the student editors at the Tulane Undergraduate Research Journal. Tom discovered that historical scholarship is fundamentally a team sport. "It is a joy and privilege to see your paper improve and to collaborate with other passionate students." 

Back at Yale for his senior year, Tom was fascinated by a fragment of the primary resource he had encountered while researching Mazureau: the oath of allegiance required during the Union occupation of New Orleans during the Civil War. It became the seed for his Yale senior thesis: "Oaths and Allegiance: Religion, Gender, and Citizenship during the Civil War." Nevertheless, Mazureau's three terms as Attorney General of New Orleans have furthered Tom's interest in political and legal history, a passion that now guides his law school applications. 

For undergraduates wondering how to begin research, Tom offers some practical advice. Start with what captivates you, he suggests. Was there a lecture that made you sit up in your seat? A reading you couldn't stop thinking about? Follow that energy. Talk to your professors, peers and teaching assistants. Nurture curiosity through conversation. Read widely. Spend time in archives, wandering between primary and secondary sources without a fixed destination. "Research takes time," Tom notes, "so it's important to choose a topic that can sustain your interest. And be willing to approach the topic from new angles when necessary." He adds that it's worth looking close to home. "Personal connections can be a powerful starting point for original research." Family histories, hometown mysteries, and the stories we inherit are not distractions from serious scholarship but potential pathways into it. They give us reasons to care, and caring, in the end, is what sustains the long, non-linear work of understanding the past. 

After all, it worked for him. A grandfather's honorary key and a family mystery became a published paper exploring the ideological origins of Louisiana, launching an interest that's only just beginning and will continue throughout his lifelong career. 

Tom Attard-Manché is a recent graduate from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in History. His paper, “A French Émigré and The Ideological Origins of Louisiana”, was published in Tulane Undergraduate Research Journal 2025, Vol 6, No.1. You can read it here.