Sounds like you had a great time.

And hey, the graves in N.O.? The water table has only a little to do
with the prevailing burial custom there. There are some traditional
graves, with large concrete slabs poured over the top to prevent the
dead from "rising" unexpectedly...

More to do with the philosophy of death and the demise of the body
itself. Those big white tombs in a lot of the N.O. burial grounds are
just temporary rentals. Biodies are stuffed in from all four sides, and
sometimes on a number of different layers. After a year and a day,
whatever is left of the body is shoved into a central charnel pit,
where the bones continue to morph into dust. Some of the crypts are
exculsively reserved for certain famililes, but others are not. Your
bones wind up mixed with gawd knows who, and from whatever sort of
neighborhood, for all eternity. :-) After a year and a day, the church
can rent out the same slot in the tomb to the next poor dead SOB.

Were the settler on Tangier Island also of French heritage?

You guys on the east coast- when you boat to a "primitive" island you
have to rough it by settling for transportation in "old" golf carts.
:-)