Louisiana County Court, Probate, Tax and Other Miscellaneous Records

See Also Research In State Court Records

Even today, few people escape mention in court records at some time during their lives as witnesses, litigants, jurors, appointees to office, or as petition signatories. However, Americans of a few generations ago also expected to attend local court proceedings when they were in session. It was a civic duty-and they could be fined if they did not attend......

Under the French regime provincial power was held by the governor and the superior council, while the cabildo served the Spanish. A group of men was appointed to serve on the council/cabildo. They acted similar to a court of law but did not have the power of legislature. Most of the records created by, or sent to, the council/cabildo are still in New Orleans and are a part of four collections:

• Superior Council Records. Housed at the Mint Building in New Orleans, this collection, from the French period, is an  important resource for families in all corners of the colony. The files contain not only the judicial records of the city of New Orleans, but also those of all the outposts whose cases were appealed to New Orleans. Translated and very brief abstracts of these records were serialized in volumes 1-23 of the Louisiana Histoical Quarterly
• Spanish Judicial Archives. This is a group of legal suits prosecuted at the various settlements and sent to New Orleans for final disposition in the Spanish era. These records are located in the Louisiana State Museum in the Old U.S. Mint Building at New Orleans. Between 1923 and 1949 translated abstracts of these records were published in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly
• Black Boxes. This is another Spanish collection housed at the Louisiana State Museum. Americans acquired these documents in 1803 and packed them away in black wooden boxes, hence the name. The museum has translated abstracts to these records, and a guide to this collection was printed over several years in the quarterly New Orleans Genesis
• Minutes of the Cabildo. These are the records created by the Spanish governing body. Translations of these documents are available at most major libraries (public and university) in Louisiana.

The Clerk of Court for each parish in Louisiana performs the functions of more than one office. He is the Clerk of Court, Recorder of Deeds and Mortgages, Jury Commissioner, and Election Official and Custodian of the Voting Machines.

As the Recorder, the office of the Clerk of Court receives, files, records and indexes all mortgages, conveyances and all other instruments recorded in the Public Records for the Parish.

The Clerk’s Office receives and files all pleadings, such as petitions, answers, motions and other filings in Civil and Probate matters, as well as indictments, bills of information and other filings in Criminal matters. The Clerk’s Office also handles special Juvenile matters and Criminal Neglect cases.

Another function of the Clerk’s Office is the issuance of Marriage Licenses and recording their returns after the marriages are performed.

The Clerk of Court also acts as Election Official and Custodian of Voting Machines. He is to deliver the voting machines to their precincts and notify all Commissioners and Deputy Parish Custodians of their duties and responsibilities on election day. He is required by law to open each voting machine used in an election, record the number of votes and report the totals to the Board of Election Supervisors.

The Clerk of Court also serves as member of the Jury Commission of his parish. The duty of this commission is to draw Petit Juries and Grand Juries as required by the Court.

All expenses of the Clerk’s Office are paid out of the fees, as fixed by statute, for recording, copies and services rendered in connection with Civil, Probate and Criminal proceedings. Taxpayers’ dollars are not used for the operation of the office.

• Order County Court, Civil or Criminal Records
• Louisiana Court Books at Amazon.com
• Records of the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division: Petitions, 1838-1861(The National Archives): NARA P2233. Naturalization records in this publication include petitions and oaths for new citizens in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1838 to 1861. Included here are petitions for naturalization and oaths by petitioners and two witnesses. Occasionally, declarations of intention filed in other courts are included. Each document contains the name and residence of the petitioner, country of birth, city and date of arrival, and names of the witnesses
• Court, Land, Wills & Financial - Court records are an often overlooked, yet very valuable tool for finding information to assist you in your research. Land records, such as deeds, allow you to tie an ancestor to a specific place at a point in time. Other court records like those dealing with finances and estates often list related family members or give interesting details like the total value of property owned by your ancestors to add interest to your family history.
• Search Court Records From All States
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• Search County Criminal Records with a Criminal Background Check
• Search for Registered Sex Offenders in your local Area

See Also Research In State Probate Records

Probate records include a variety of documents created to support court proceedings in the settlement of an individuals' estates. The number and type of probate records created may vary over time in different jurisdictions and due to the amount of real and personal property involved. The various documents generated in the probate process are rarely filed together......

The succession record of Louisiana is much like the probate files of other states; if a will exists—which is rare in early Louisiana—it is filed with the succession. This is indeed a rich source for genealogists. The family meeting is one of the most important documents found in a succession. These are meetings held by family members and friends to discuss the estate and the fate of the minor heirs (should there be any).

They name each person attending, give their relationship to the deceased and the minors, give the ages of the children; if there are married daughters they give the names of their husbands, and the name the widow and any former spouses with their maiden names. Other documents found in a succession are notes owed the deceased by others, an inventory of all property and movables, a complete listing of all heirs (with maiden names of the females and spouses of the married daughters), ages of all minor heirs, date of death of the deceased, appraisal of all property, and a listing of the disbursement of said property.

If the heirs of the deceased are not known the succession is called a “vacant succession.” The testimonies of acquaintances either identify the missing heirs or state that there are none. If there are heirs then the succession is left open until they are located. In this case the ancestral data compiled can be overwhelming.

• Louisiana Probate Books at Amazon.com

See Also Research In State Immigration & Naturalization Records

Knowing the immigrant's birthplace or last place of residence before emigrating is essential to finding more information in the native land. Yet, unless the ancestors arrived relatively recently in the United States, family origins may have been forgotten. Because most foreign records are kept at the town level, discovering the name of a native town, county, or parish is an important goal. Without that information, it is impossible to know where to conduct research in the country of origin.......

New Orleans served as a major immigration port until the Civil War. Many nineteenth-century European immigrants traveled to New Orleans and then continued up the Mississippi River to settle in the Midwest.

Passenger lists for New Orleans have been microfilmed by the NARA for the years 1820–1902 (series M259; 1820–50 included on Gulf Coast Ports Index, series M334 [NARA site says 1820- 74, not 1850]; 1853–99 indexed on series T527), 1900–45 (series T905 [series says 1910–45]; 1900–52 indexed on series T618). Researchers should be aware that the indexes are not complete, and that many passengers whose names appear on the manifests are not found in the microfilmed indexes. It also appears that some manifests were lost before the lists were microfilmed. The Works Projects Administration (WPA) transcribed passenger manifests for the years 1813–70. All seven volumes are available at the Louisiana State Museum Historical Center in New Orleans. Volumes 1-4 and 6 are available at the NARA in Washington, D.C. Volumes 1-3 are microfilmed on NARA series M2009. Quarterly Abstracts and State Department Abstracts for some years are also available on National Archives microfilm.

The New Orleans Public Library has microfilm of nineteenth-century ship passenger lists. Glen Conrad published most of those for the French period as First Families of Louisiana, 2 vols. (Baton Rouge: Claitor Publishing Co., 1970). A publication covering some of the lists from the middle period of the colonial era was done by Winston DeVille, Louisiana Recruits, 1752–1758 (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1973).

• New Orleans, 1820-1850 Passenger and Immigration Lists: This data set contains alphabetical listings of approximately 273,000 individuals who arrived at New Orleans from foreign ports between 1820 and 1850

See Also Researching in Tax Records

Things taxed have included carriages and watches, windows and whiskey, land and slaves. Taxes on documents and tea helped start a war. Arkansas Territory’s sudden tax on bounty lands in the 1820s was enacted and due before the news had time to reach out-of-state owners, permitting the quick seizure and sale of “delinquent” lands. As this variety suggests, name lists of such taxes must be used with a cautious understanding of who should be on the list and who should not...

Tax records are a valuable but little-used source. Almost everything was taxed: household and personal goods, livestock, slaves, and property. Tax lists can be used as a substitute census, to create complete neighborhoods for a neighborhood study, establish relationships, locate land, and so on. Unfortunately, most of these lists no longer exist in Louisiana, but those that are extant are usually found in the tax assessor's office in the Webster Parish courthouse.

• Louisiana Tax Books at Amazon.com