NEW ORLEANS AREA GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES


A. New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division
New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division

Genealogical Materials in the New Orleans Public Library's Louisiana Division and City Archives, by Colin B. Hamer, Jr., Wayne Everard, and Irene Wainwright, 1998. (available on-line or can purchase for $10)


Resource materials:

Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index 1837-1972
Louisiana News Index
Justice of the Peace Marriage Index
New Orleans Newspaper Marriage Index
New Orleans Dept of Health Marriage Register
New Orleans Dept of Health Marriage Licenses
New Orleans Dept of Health Death Certificates
Eastern District Court Naturalization Index and Naturalization records
New Orleans Voter Registration records
Tax records
Divorce records
Will books
Probate and succession records
Land Claims Case File of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 1844-1880.


New Orleans Cemetery Headstone Inscriptions:
In the 1930's, the WPA recorded the inscriptions on headstones in New Orleans cemeteries. The collection includes:

Firemans Cypress Grove Cemetery 1825-1934
Girod Street Cemetery 1817-1930
Greenwood Cypress Grove 1840-1880
Hebrew Cemetery 1846-1933
Holt Cemetery 1876-1879
Lafayette Cemetery 1844-1933
Odd Fellows Rest 1849-1880
St. Joseph Cemetery 1805-1930
St. Louis Cemeteries # 1, 2, & 3 1770-1935
St. Patrick Cemetery 1847-1935
St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery 1847-1935


The Hebrew Cemetery inscriptions include:
Canal and N. Anthony Sts. (Dispersed of Judah)
Canal and S. Anthony Sts. (Beth Israel, Chevra Thilim, old Gates of Prayer)
Frenchman and Gentilly (possibly Ahaves Shalom and Anshe Sfard)
Garfield and Joseph (Gates of Prayer Joseph St. Cemetery)
Elysian Fields (Hebrew Rest)
Jackson and Saratoga (now demolished)

The original index is available at the LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM HISTORICAL CENTER which is located in the Old Mint, 400 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans LA 70176-2448 (568-8214). The center is open Tuesday-Friday 9 AM-5 PM. It is staffed by volunteers and there are far too few of them, so you must call to make an appointment in order to use their resources.

(If for some reason the above contact information is out of date, you can find the phone number for the Historical Center in the telephone directory under State of Louisiana/Dept. of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism/Louisiana State Museum.)

These same materials are now available on microfilm at the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library. The East Bank Regional Jefferson Parish Library has the microfilms of the Hebrew cemeteries in its collection.


Books of Special Interest at the New Orleans Public Library

Amos, Gray B., Corrected Index, Alphabetical and Numerical of Changes in Street Names and Numbers, Old and New, 1852 to Current Date. New Orleans, LA: City Hall Archives, 1938.

R976.3 C447 Chambers, Henry E., A History of Louisiana. Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925; available at New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division.

R976.3 F742 Fortier, Alcee, Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. Century Historical Association, 1914; available at New Orleans Public Library Louisiana Division.

R917.631 L25 Land, John E., Pen illustrations of New Orleans, 1881-82. Trade, Commerce and Manufactures. New Orleans, LA, Published by the author, 1882.

R910 M61 Meyer, Robert E., Jr. We Name Our Schools, available at New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division.

R296 M99 Myers, W. E., The Israelites of Louisiana: Their Religious, Civic, Charitable and Patriotic Life, N. O., LA, n.d. (about 1904); available at New Orleans Public Library Louisiana Division.

R917.631 New Orleans Louisiana, The Crescent City: The Book of the Picayune, also of the Public Bodies and Business Interests of the Place. New Orleans: George W. Englehardt, 1902 (N. O. Picayune Book); available at New Orleans Public Library Louisiana Division.

R920 P29 Patrick: Club Men of Louisiana in Caricature; available at New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division.

A710 1944 Walk, Darlene M. and Deborah G. Cobette, New Orleans Precinct Directory by Street. New Olreans, La.: MIS Data & Microcomputer Services, 1944.

LOU R 352.0763 B95w Wards of New Orleans. New Orleans, La: Bureau of Governmental Research, 1961.

Succession Index Materials (kept behind the desk in the Louisiana Divison, New Orleans Public Library)

Villere, A. J. General Index of All Successions Opened in the Parish of Orleans from the Year 1846 to the month of August, 1880. E. A. Peyroux, N.D.

LOU R 929.3071 v. 1 1805-1846
Berten, P. M.: General Index of All Successionns Opened in the Parish of Orleans from the Year 1805 to the Year 1846. New Orleans, LA: 1849

LOU R 929.3071 1880-1894 v. 3
General Index of All Successions, Emancipations, Interdictions and Partitiion Proceedings, Open in the Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans, LA Aug 1, 1880-Aug 31, 1894.

LOU R VT 161T
Inventory of Records Transferred from the Second District Court and the Court of Probate to the Civil District Court.


B. CITY RECORDS: Real Estate records: 5th floor, City Hall (565-6017), open 2-4 PM M-F Clerk of Civil District Court's Office 4th Floor, 421 Loyola (legal matters that are not criminal)


C. NEW ORLEANS AREA SYNAGOGUES: Anshe Sfard 2230 Carondelet St. 522-4714
Beth Israel 7000 Canal Blvd 283-4366
Chabad 4141 W. Esplanade Av Metairie 454-2910
Gates of Prayer 4000 W. Esplanade Avenue Metairie 885-2600
Shir Chadash 3737 W. Esplanade 889-1144
Temple Sinai 6227 St. Charles Ave. 861-3693
Touro Synagogue 4238 St. Charles Ave. 895-4843


D. OTHER MATERIALS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO JEWISH GENEALOGICAL RESEARCHERS:

1. Microfilms of Gates of Prayer Cemetery Interment Records 1860-1870 and Hebrew Rest Cemetery (Congregation Temple Sinai, Touro Synagogue, and Dispersed of Judah Congregation) Indices and Interments 1830s-1982.

Available at the HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, Williams Research Division, Manuscripts Division, 410 Chartres St., New Orleans LA 70130 (598-7171) The collection is open 10 AM-4:30 Tuesday through Saturday.

2. The Temple Sinai Collection (223) and The Touro Synagogue Collection (224), which are parts of the MANUSCRIPTS Department, include marriage and burial records, along with other interesting materials.

The marriage records include marriage contracts from Congregation Shangarai Chassed and marriage certificates which are signed by the bride, groom, and witnesses as well as the rabbi for Gates of Mercy of the Dispersed of Judah and Touro Synagogue.

The Jewish Children's Home Collection (180) includes restricted records which can be accessed by anyone who will agree not reveal specific names of individual clients.

Also of interest may be the Louisiana Collection citation file. This is an index of certain materials included in the Louisiana collection. You may find references to an ancestor here. This file is VERY LIMITED and it has NOT been added to recently, but it may be worth consulting if you have an ancestor of notoriety.

Available at TULANE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, Special Collections JOSEPH MERRICK JONES HALL -- Room 202 (865-5685). The library is open Monday-Friday 8:45 AM-4:45 PM

3. Notarial Archives, through 1899:
Amoco Building Suite 360, 1340 Poydras St. 680-9507 9-4 M-F 1900 and beyond:
Civil District Courts Building, Rm. B-4, 421 Loyola Ave. (568-8577) 9-4 M-F

4. Touro Infirmary Archives, 3450 Chestnut St. (897-8090); Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday 9 AM-4 PM


E. CD-ROM INDEXES THAT ARE PARTICULARLY USEFUL: (These are available for use at the East Bank Regional Jefferson Parish Library Special Collections)

Family Tree Maker CD #354,Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1538-1940

Family Tree Maker CD #355, Passenger and Immigration Lists, Germans to America, 1850-1874

Family Tree Maker CD #356, Passenger and Immigration Lists, Germans to America, 1875-1888

Periodical source index (PERSI) CD-ROM


Compiled by Ellen Barnett Cleary
March 2001