Louisiana Land and Property

Online Resources

 * See United States Land and Property for more databases and resources.
 * Pre-1908 Louisiana, Homestead and Cash Entry Patents, Pre-1908 at Ancestry - Abstracts ($)
 * Pre-1908 Land Patents - Louisiana, Pre-1908 at MyHeritage - index ($)
 * 1770-1957 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection, index
 * 1788-1960s U.S. Land Patent Search at Bureau of Land Management, index and some records
 * 1820-1908 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
 * 1861-1932 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection, images
 * 1863-1908 U.S., Homestead Records, 1863-1908 at Ancestry - index and images ($)
 * Survey Plats and Field Notes at Bureau of Land Management - index
 * Land Owner Search at Historygeo.com ($), index to maps of original land owners

Louisiana Land Records
The French and the Spanish kept the earliest land records of Louisiana, and the documents are in their languages. Since most of these records were filed with notarial records, please refer to Lousiana Notarial Records.

The FamilySearch Library has microfilm copies and indexes of the records kept by the French Conseil Superieur and the Spanish cabildo.

When Louisiana was ceded to the United States, the landowners registered private claims to verify their ownership. Most of these claims have genealogical value and have been published. Useful indexes to pre-1837 claims in the American State Papers (on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library), are:


 * McMullin, Phillip W., ed. Grassroots of America, Salt Lake City, Utah: Gendex Corporation, 1972.


 * Maduell, Charles R., Jr. Federal Land Grants in the Territory of Orleans: The Delta Parishes. New Orleans, Louisiana: Polyanthos, 1975.

Unclaimed land became public domain and was surveyed and sold to private owners.

The Bureau of Land Management has an online index to land patents in Louisiana. The patent search usually provides a digital image of the original patent.

The Bureau of Land Management has an index and digital images of the original survey maps for Louisiana. The original survey creates land boundaries and marks them for the first time.

The FamilySearch Library and the Division of Archives, Records Management, and History have microfilms of the nineteenth-century claims and original land sales recorded by the United States District Land Offices, such as those in Ouachita, Opelousas, St. Helena, and New Orleans. The original records are in:


 * State Land Office 1201 N. Third St. Suite G-150 Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Telephone: 225-342-4578 Fax: 225-342-5458 Mailing Address: Box 44124 Baton Rouge, LA 70804 http://www.doa.la.gov/SLO/DocumentAccess.htm

Some tax records, land grants, state patents and state tract books are available online. Follow the link above to the State Land Office to accesst these records online.

Each office created several sets of records and indexes. arranged by ranges and townships for the years 1807 to 1870 are also at the State Land Office and the FamilySearch Library.

Since statehood, subsequent transfers of land between private owners have been recorded by the local clerk of court in each parish. Some records are filed in notarial books. They are often called “conveyances” and have vendor/vendee indexes.

The FamilySearch Library has microfilm copies of the deeds for most parishes. For example, for New Orleans the FamilySearch Library has 181 microfilms covering the years 1827 to 1887 and an index to 1900.