I live in the free west state of AZ.  We have towns, city's and county's.


TIA

Parish is a county. Louisiana is just too bass-ackwards to get with the county thing. The president is like a mayor of a city.

Don't you get GOOGLE in your part of the world?

Definitions of parish on the Web:

a local church community
the local subdivision of a diocese committed to one pastor
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A parish is a subdivision of a diocese or bishopric within the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, and of some other churches. In Roman Catholicism, each parish has the services of a parish priest, who acts as the chaplain to the area. In some countries, a parish priest may have a fellow priest, called a curate, working along with him. Each parish usually has a central church or chapel, called the parish church, where religious servic
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish

Parish is a village located in Oswego County, New York. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 512.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_(village),_New_York

the group of people of a certain area who are organized into a local church; sometimes the word also refers to the geographic region around a church. In the South many of the present-day counties were once referred to as parishes [as is still the case in Louisiana]; mostly a reference to the local congregation.
saintpauls.org/glossary/p.htm

The Parish is the congregation that is financially independent.
www.saintandrewschurch.org/terminology.htm

The smallest unit of English local government. The parish is normally governed by the vestry, and appoints officers such as churchwardens, scavengers and overseers of the poor.
www.oldbaileyonline.org/history/glossary.html

In some churches, the geographical territory of a local church. In general, the constituency of a local church; that is, all the people who are members or who informally consider it to be their church. In many churches, congregation is used for this term.
www.kencollins.com/glossary/polity.htm

an area under the pastoral care of a priest, himself under the jurisdiction of a bishop; the parish church was the centre of worship for the parish
medievalwriting.50megs.com/churchglossary/glossaryn.htm

The area around a Church for which a priest is responsible.
www.saburchill.com/history/hist003.html

Louisiana is divided into parishes which would coincide with a "county" in other states. This system is a long outdated holdover from the French influence that once held this region.
www.mardigrasdigest.com/features/dictionary22.htm

(English) A church district.
www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/glossary1.htm

1. An area with its own church and incumbent (vicar or rector), sometimes called an ecclesiastical parish. 2. A unit of local government, sometimes called a civil parish.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/glossary.htm

Not to be confused with church parishes, in this context parish refers to an area of land created by the government of Victoria for the purposes of administering land ownership.
www.prov.vic.gov.au/exhibs/lucy/glossary.htm

The territory covered by one parson or minister.
collections.ic.gc.ca/ghost/glossary.html

The smallest unit of diocesan jurisdiction, by which is meant not only the church building itself, but also a geographic area around the parish, such that the entire diocese is divided into parishes. The spiritual needs of those living in this geographical area are provided for by the parish.
www.catholic-church.org/kuwait/glossary.htm

A Louisiana state district. Analogous to the word "county".
wworks.com/~cajunworld/cjndefs.htm

A stable community of the faithful within a particular church or diocese, whose pastoral care is confided by the bishop to a priest as pastor.
www.thesacredheart.com/dictnary.htm

A local congregation that is in union with the diocese.
www.dioceseny.org/index.cfm

Generally a subdivision of a diocese; administered by a resident priest who might have other clergy as his assistants; it was the basic unit of ordinary church life in western Europe.
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergrad/modules/hi127/glossary/

The area of land in a benefice - a benefice can be made up of one or more parishes.
portsmouth.anglican.org/info/resources/the_diocesan_handbook_online/section_k_the_pastoral_measure_1983_and_pastoral_reorganisation/k11_glossary_of_terms.html

In the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and some other churches, a district, usually part of a diocese, with its own church, and in charge of a priest or other clergyman
www.innvista.com/culture/religion/diction.htm

In Roman Catholicism, a subdivision of a diocese with the priest as its head.
www.carm.org/equip-a/intro/terms.htm

per "A Hornbook of VA History", "When the first English settlers came to Virginia in 1607 they followed the familiar patterns of the Church of England and established parishes that served as local units of ecclesiastical and community organization. ---In Colonial Virginia the General Assembly established parishes and fixed their boundaries, often at the same time that it created or altered counties. A decade after independence, on 16 Jan 1786, the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, ending state-enforced support for the formally established church and its parishes."
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~randyj2222/gendictp.html

An ecclesiastical administrative unit, just below the rural deanery, containing a part of or an entire community, or sometimes multiple villages. The laity in each parish are cared for by the resident priest, whether a vicar or a rector. The parishioners, in turn, are expected to pay tithes and other fees to the priest. Each parish has at least one church and possibly one or more subordinate chapels.
www.aedificium.org/Glossary.html

A parish is the smallest unit of administration within the Anglican church.
www.trinityswedesboro.org/Glossary.htm

A gathering of the people of God united in faith and dedicated to continuing the universal mission of the Church in their local setting. Its life is expressed through the elements of COMMUNITY, EVANGELIZATION, LEADERSHIP, SERVICE, STEWARDSHIP, SUNDAY EUCHARIST, WORD AND WORSHIP.
www.catholicgbg.org/DOGWeb/WSOTFT3.nsf/PageByKey/F26E878AFDA2377185256C3E006324B8.html

The district assigned to the ministration of a single priest (with or without assistants).
www.goodshepherd1.com/A_Simple_Church_Glossary.htm

The Louisiana equivalent of a county, used first by the Spanish. Louisiana is the only state in the union with parishes.
www.katsandrats.net/glossary.html

The parish president is like the county judge.  

R.