Louisiana, Orleans Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Louisiana Orleans Parish

What is in the Collection?
The collection includes civil case files from the Parish Court, 1822-1840; Commercial Court, 1839-1846, First Judicial District Court, 1839-1842; Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Judicial Court, 1846-1880 and the Sixth and Seventh Judicial District Courts, 1854-1880. This collection is being published as images become available.

Between 1846 and 1880, New Orleans had a system of nine numbered district courts. Despite their name, these district courts weren't divided by geographical location; each district covered the entire Orleans Parish. After 1853, however, each court handled civil mattersuits of a specific type:


 * First District Court -- Criminal Jurisdiction
 * Second District Court -- Probate Matters
 * Third District Court -- Family Matters
 * Fourth/Fifth District Court -- General Civil Jurisdiction
 * Sixth District Court -- Cases Pending in the City of Lafayette/General Civil Jurisdiction
 * Seventh District Court -- Possibly shared Family Matters with Third District Court
 * Eighth District Court -- Disputed Election Cases during the Reconstruction
 * Superior District Court -- Tax-related Cases

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Information found in this collection may include:


 * Name
 * Death or recording date
 * Death or recording place
 * Name of administrator

Records may also contain the following:


 * Names of heirs or other family members
 * Witnesses
 * Guardians
 * Relationships
 * Residences
 * Property descriptions
 * Inventory of the estate

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. To begin your search, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * The date of the event or the name of a spouse or child

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page.
 * 1) Select Court
 * 2) Select Volume Title and Date Range

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor in the court records, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the names along with the residence to locate census, church, and land records.
 * Use the occupations listed to find other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The information in the records may give clues to, or the names of relatives. *You may be able to use the probate record to learn about land transactions.
 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the primary individual; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * The information in the records is usually reliable, but can occasionally be subject to errors by the transcriber.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after 1900.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another record.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

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