This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

FOREWORD
The following brief history of Annunciation Parish, Kiln, and surrounding areas has been an interesting project for me for the past few months. However, due to the constraints of time and a deadline for our anniversary celebrations, I found myself with many inadequately answered questions. No doubt more time and more research would uncover the answers but right now I do not have that luxury. Consequently, many of you may detect some inaccuracies in this booklet, either of an historical nature or some factual information. Please feel free to make your own corrections.
As my research progressed, I found myself getting information from further afield. You will note that in the early days of this parish, the priests here were given responsibility for most of present day Hancock County, excluding Bay St. Louis and Waveland. At that time (1860-70?s) Hancock County was considerably larger geographically than it is today. As a result, even parts of Harrison County (DeLisle-Dedeaux-Lizana) were also missions of this parish. To do justice to the history of these areas would require much more time.
One of my major questions that remains unanswered is the date of construction of our present church structure. 1886 emerges as the date of construction of a newer church but some other record also points to 1906 as the date of another church construction. So if this structure is not the one built in 1886, it seems that 1906 stands as its construction date. In either case, this parish still holds the record for being the second oldest parish in Hancock County and based on these dates-quite possibly also holds the record for being the single oldest Catholic church structure still in active service in the entire diocese of Biloxi (comprising the 17 most southern counties of the state). In either case, these are facts worth celebrating at this time.
Feel free to bring any inaccuracies to my attention, or make your own corrections based on your own history. This is simply intended as a little record of some of the parish?s interesting history and may serve to encourage others to dig a little deeper into the past to unearth the vast amount of unrecorded history that still awaits discovery'.
Whatever you do-enjoy it for what it is worth, and I hope you also enjoyed our parish's celebrations on June 12th. That date was chosen at the Bishop?s request. It has no historical relevance to the establishment of the parish to my knowledge, except that it also happens to be the 17th anniversary of my own ordination.
Enjoy Fr. Henry