Researchers interested in the early German and Swiss settlers of Louisiana, and particularly in that area along the Mississippi west of New Orleans known as the German Coast, should begin with this source. Deiler devotes the preliminary sections of this work to the early German families and their settlements in Louisiana. Nearly one-half of the book lists, along with genealogical notices, some 2,000 "Names of German Habitants on Both Banks of the Mississippi Above New Orleans," as based on the official census of 1724, and a roster of "Additional German Names . . . Not in the [1794] Census." Included among these families, it should be noted, are Germans from Maryland and Creoles of German descent.