Our Louisiana genealogists are available to research on location. They will find and analyze the best records available to further your family history research. They can search the archives and libraries in Louisiana, as well as help you with other special requests.
Our researchers are available to visit local archives and libraries to access unique record collections to help with your research. Below is a list of a few of the archives our Louisiana researchers have access to.
The Louisiana State Archives are the perfect location for researching the history of the state and its people. It contains government records and private articles donated by citizens. The Research Library holds over 30,000 cubic feet of records, as well as books that cover general histories, census indexes, immigration schedules, church records, and family history. Some of the most sought after information at the archive are passenger manifestations from the Port of New Orleans and pension requests from Confederate soldiers of the Civil War.
The State Library of Louisiana holds a comprehensive collection of Louisiana materials and records with records on genealogical information. Their collection includes census records for the southeastern United States, ship passenger lists for the Port of New Orleans, and microfilm that holds military information as well as parish registers. They have family histories and genealogies from Louisiana and other southeastern states.
The Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society was founded in 1953 “to collect, preserve, and make available genealogical and historical materials; to assist its members in tracing their ancestry; to ascertain the location of public and private records, that they may be made available to students of genealogy; and to aid in investigations of this nature.” They are the home of information of the First Families of Louisiana registry, which acknowledges those families who settled in the Louisiana area before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Founded in 1835, the Louisiana Historical Society is the oldest historical organization in the state. The society holds records from the colonial period in Louisiana, including Spanish and French records from before the Louisiana Purchase. These include the French Superior Council records and the Spanish Judicial Records of the Illustrious Cabildo (a local governing body). The society also created a museum to hold their colonial archives and thousands of other documents, paintings, and prints.
Founded in 1889, The Louisiana Historical Association (LHA) is a diverse group of individuals who strive to collect Louisiana history. The group includes academics and non-academics, including historians, genealogists, and even college students. The society publishes most of its findings and information on a top-state historical journal called Louisiana History. Issues contain primary source material, book reviews, biographical sketches, and more.
The Louisiana Historical Association has many genealogical records including history of Louisiana, with particular emphasis on territorial, statehood, and the American Civil War periods to the late 19th and 20th centuries.
The Historic New Orleans Collection is located in the Williams Research Center. Our Louisiana genealogists can examine over 30,000 items and more than two miles worth of documents and manuscripts here. The collection focuses on the history of colonial Louisiana, the Battle of New Orleans, the Civil War, and life on the Mississippi River and plantations.
The Louisiana State Museum’s Historical Center houses records that were written before and after the Louisiana Purchase. These include judicial records such as the French Superior Council (1714-1769) and the Spanish Judiciary (1769-1803), and records regarding information on slaves that lived in the state. The information on slaves kept in the area not only includes African American slaves, but also slaves of Native American heritage who petitioned the local Spanish government for their freedom.
The Hill Memorial Library holds the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC), which contains a variety of different materials that all focus on the history and culture of the Louisiana area as well as the Lower Mississippi Valley. The library’s collection contains over 10 million items, and while the main focus is in the Louisiana area, it also holds records from outside of the area.
The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library contains an abundance of archival items and historical newspapers such as the Records of Ante-Bellum Plantations Collection and archives of the student newspaper “The Tulane Hullabaloo,” and the “Times-Picayune”, a newspaper run in New Orleans since 1837.
Louisiana State University’s Middleton Library holds government records in their collection including federal government publications since 1907. They also have archives of 20th century Louisiana newspapers.
The Cammie G Henry Research Center of the Northwestern State University of Louisiana is named after Carmelite “Cammie” Garrett Henry who collected Louisiana documents, as well as rare fictional and nonfictional books. The archives hold more than 3,000 maps from the early colonial period of the state to the present, as well as original issues of Louisiana newspapers.
The Hill Memorial Library collections specialize in collecting and preserving LSU librariesThe LSU Libraries has collected and preserved both historical and current Louisiana newspapers since the 1930s include:
To access microfilm indexes for Louisiana Newspapers, visit the LSU Libraries Special Collections page.
Hill Memorial Library 1902