Louisiana Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful for genealogical research in Louisiana.

Wiki Articles on Major Repositories in Louisiana
National Archives at Fort Worth· Dallas Public Central Library

Archives
Division of Archives, Records Management, and History 3851 Essen Lane Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Telephone: 225-922-1000 Fax: 255-922-0433 Website Website Website WebsiteLouisiana Lousiana Digital State Archives Official State Archives, Media State Archives and much more.
 * Serves Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.[3] Includes federal censuses of all states, 1790-1930 (and indexes for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920); military service records, pension and bounty land warrant applications; passenger arrivals; Dawes Commision for the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Manuscripts, photos, maps received from federal district and bankruptcy courts and 85 federal agencies in four states. Subjects emphasized are regional and national history, westward expansion and Southwest settlement, American Indians (especially Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles), Revolutionary War, American Civil War and Recontruction, slavery, Chinese exclusion, segregation, World War I, World War II, economic development, oil, U.S. space program, public administration, political science, law, ethnology, and U.S. diplomacy.

National Archives at Fort Worth 501 West Felix Street, Building 1 Fort Worth, TX 76115-3405 Telephone: 817-831-5620 Fax: 817-551-2034 Website [mailto:ftworth.archives@nara.gov/ Email]

Louisiana Digital Library (LDL)


 * Serves Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.[3] Includes federal censuses of all states, 1790-1930 (and indexes for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920); military service records, pension and bounty land warrant applications; passenger arrivals; Dawes Commision for the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Manuscripts, photos, maps received from federal district and bankruptcy courts and 85 federal agencies in four states. Subjects emphasized are regional and national history, westward expansion and Southwest settlement, American Indians (especially Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles), Revolutionary War, American Civil War and Recontruction, slavery, Chinese exclusion, segregation, World War I, World War II, economic development, oil, U.S. space program, public administration, political science, law, ethnology, and U.S. diplomacy.

Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society P.O. Box 82060 Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2068 Telephone: 504-766-3018 Website
 * The Society carries out its functions through member volunteers rather than a paid staff. Although it cannot conduct individual research in response to queries, it strives to assist individuals by publishing queries free of charge in its journal and by providing direction, whenever possible, to other sources of assistance.

Louisiana State Library 760 Third Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Telephone: 504-342-4913 Fax: 504-342-3547 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 131 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0131 Website
 * The State Library’s comprehensive collection of Louisiana materials includes the following genealogical resources:
 * •Census records for the southeastern U.S.
 * •Ship passenger lists for the Port of New Orleans
 * •Military service and parish records on microfilm
 * •Current and historical city directories and telephone books for Louisiana cities and towns
 * •Journals published by state genealogical and historical societies
 * •Louisiana and southeastern U.S. genealogy and family histories


 * Louisiana Secretary of State, Click on Locate Historical Records to search indexes to death records (mostly 1804-1965), birth records (mostly 1790-1915) and Orleans parish marriages (1831-1965). Other online databases cover passenger lists from January to July 1851 and Confederate pension applications.

Louisiana Historical Association University of Southwestern Louisiana 929 Camp Street New Orleans, LA 70130 Telephone: 318-482-6871 Fax: 318-482-6028 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 42808 Lafayette, LA 70504 Website

Historic New Orleans Collection William Research Center 410 Charter Street New Orleans, LA 70130 Telephone: 504-598-7171 Fax: 504-598-7166 Website [mailto:wrc@hnoc.org/ Email]

Louisiana State Museum Louisiana Historical Center Library 400 Esplanade Avenue New Orleans, LA 70176-2448 Telephone: 504-568-8214 Fax: 504-568-4995 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2448 New Orleans, LA 70176 Website
 * The Louisiana State Museum will house its online exhibits, searchable databases, permanent collections, publications and board meetings/agenda archives here at this new website Website

Hill Memorial Library Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803-3300 Telephone: 504-388-6551 Fax: 504-344-6773 Website
 * More than 5000 manuscript groups encompassing over 10 million items are preserved in LLMVC. Recognized as one of the nation's premier repositories for materials relating to the antebellum plantation, Civil War, and Reconstruction South, LLMVC includes the papers of individuals and families, records of plantations, merchants and financial institutions, and the records of political, social, and labor organizations.

Howard Tilton Library Manuscripts &amp; Rare Books Department Tulane University 7001 Freret Street New Orleans, LA 70118 Telephone: 504-865-5131 Fax: 504-865-6773 Website
 * Information mainly about prominent people in early America and during the Civil War.

Le Comité des Archives P.O. Box 1547 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-1547 Website [mailto:riffelj@bellsouth.net/ Email]

Linus A. Sims Memorial Library Southeastern Louisiana University 1211 SGA Drive Hammond, LA 70402 Telephone: 985-549-3860; after 4:30, weekends 985-549-2027 Online list of free databases for Louisiana genealogy

New Orleans Public Library 219 Loyola Avenue New Orleans, LA 70140-1016 Telephone: 504-596-2612 Fax: 504-596-2609 Website

An inventory of the records in this important collection is Collin B. Hamer, Jr., Genealogical Materials in the New Orleans Public Library(New Orleans, Louisiana: Friends of the New Orleans Public Library, 1984;Family History Library ).

Orleans Parish Notarial Archives Civil Courts Building 421 Loyola Avenue, Room B-4 New Orleans, LA 70112 Telephone: 504-568-8578 Fax: 504-568-8599 Website

A helpful guide to Louisiana libraries is Resources in Louisiana Libraries: Public, Academic, Special and in Media Centers (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State Library, 1971; Family History Library ).

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of Louisiana parishes, use any of the 22 inventories of the parish archives produced by the Historical Records Survey about 1940. The library has most of these inventories.