Caddo Parish, Louisiana Genealogical Records Information

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Caddo Parish History and Information

Caddo Parish Facts

Caddo Parish was created on January 18, 1838 , from Natchitoches Parish and the parish was named in honor of the Caddo Native American people . The Parish seat is Shreveport .

It is borderd by Miller County, AR (north), Lafayette County, AR (northeast), Bossier Parish (east), Red River Parish (southeast), De Soto Parish (south), Panola County, TX (southwest), Harrison County, TX (west), Marion County, TX (west), Cass County, TX (northwest) . Cites, Towns and Communities include Belcher, Blanchard, Gilliam, Greenwood, Hosston, Ida, Mooringsport, Oil City, Rodessa, Shreveport, Vivian . The Official County Website is located at http://www.caddo.org/ . See Extended History for More information.

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Caddo Parish Court Records

See Also Louisiana Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Caddo Parish Clerk of Court has Court Records from 1835 and Land Records from 1835 and Probate Records from 1835 has Marriage Records from 1835 and is located at 501 Texas Street, Room 103 , Shreveport, LA 71101, (318) 226-6780, (318) 227-9080 Fax .
The Clerk of Court for each parish in Louisiana performs the functions of more than one office. 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.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include:Louisiana Marriages, 1718-1925, Louisiana Marriages to 1850, Louisiana Marriage Records, 1851-1900, New Orleans, Louisiana Marriage Records Index, 1831-1925, Louisiana Land Records. You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which does cover Louisiana and does cover surrounding states. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.

Click Here to Search Louisiana Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Caddo Parish Court Records. Email us with websites containing Caddo Parish Court Records by clicking the link below:

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Caddo Parish Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

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 Caddo Parish courthouse.

Below is a list of online resources for Caddo Parish Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Caddo Parish Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Caddo Parish, Louisiana Tax Books at Amazon.com

Caddo Parish Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Louisiana Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Caddo Parish Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Caddo Parish Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

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Local Louisiana Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Louisiana State Archives , 3851 Essen Lane, PO Box 94125, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9125; (225) 922-2012
Louisiana Historical Society, 5801 St. Charles Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115; 504/866-3049, [EMAIL]
Louisiana Genealogical & Historical Society, P.O. Box 82060, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70884-2060-60
National Archives and Records Admin, 501 W Felix Str, Building 1, P.O. 6216, Fort Worth, Texas 76115-3405; archives@ftworth.nara.gov, Fax: 817-334-5511
Louisiana Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
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Caddo Parish Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Louisiana Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Caddo Parish. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Caddo Parish Tombstone Transcription Project.

Most Catholic church registers are still in the local parish church. Many of them have been translated and published.

The recording of cemetery inscriptions in Louisiana has long been a project of the DAR and numerous genealogical societies. Genealogical publications continually print these inscriptions in their issues.

Below is a list of online resources for Caddo Parish Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Caddo Parish Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Louisiana Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Caddo Parish Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Caddo Parish Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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County History

One of the sixty-four parishes of Louisiana, Caddo Parish was formed in 1838. A parish is the same as a county in any other state, as Louisiana is the only state to have parishes. Early on, however, Louisiana was divided into counties.

In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne as governor of the Territory of Orleans, as Louisiana was known in its first years. On April 10, 1805, Louisiana was divided into twelve counties. The largest, Natchitoches County, included all of Louisiana north of Rapides County and west of Washita (Ouachita) County. To better understand the vastness of this area, nine parishes were subsequently formed from this area: Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, and Webster.

The legislature soon established nineteen parishes to coexist with the counties. In 1812, when Louisiana became a state, North Louisiana included Natchitoches, Ouachita, Warren, Catahoula, Concordia, and Rapides Counties. People were heading north and west into Texas from Louisiana, and enough of a population existed in Natchitoches County to create Claiborne Parish, named for the governor, in 1828. This parish consisted of all the land east of the Red River in northern Natchitoches County.

In 1835 the Caddo Indians ceded their land to the United States, and the area was opened up for settlement. Within three years the area had enough people to create another parish. Thus, Caddo Parish was created on January 18, 1838. The name, suggested by legislation member W. H. Sparke, refers to the Caddo Indians.5 Caddo's first parish seat was at the Wallace family home situated along Wallace Lake, but it eventually moved to Shreveport. The boundaries of the new parish were not set until 1841. Originally Caddo Parish was framed by the Arkansas line at the north and the Red River at the east, but it extended farther south than it does today. The western boundary was the line dividing the established United States from the territory which had been part of the Louisiana Purchase. The line was accepted by settlers in the area, but in 1841 a survey of the border was made and determined to be seven miles east of the generally accepted line; therefore, Louisiana lost a stretch of land seven miles wide and about seventy miles long. (This area is now part of Harrison, Marion, Cass, and Bowie Counties in Texas).

In 1843 DeSoto and Sabine Parishes were created and took land from the southern part of Caddo Parish. In 1845 the state created a new constitution which was based solely on the parish system, and the counties evaporated.

In 1845 the state of the parish's western boundary was altered when Texas was annexed to the Union. No longer would the western boundary be an international boundary. But that has not been the only boundary change. The course of the Red River, the eastern boundary, has changed often, although the river as a boundary has not. Several sections of land east of the river, which appear to be in Bossier Parish, actually belong to Caddo Parish, and the opposite is true for Bossier Parish. Settlers bought the land in Northwest Louisiana from the government and established plantations, primarily growing cotton, which was the staple crop of the South. By 1860 Caddo Parish was leading in cotton production in the state with Carroll Parish (which had not yet divided into East and West Carroll Parishes) following closely behind.

With the onslaught of the Civil War, military activity accelerated from June until December of 1861 with some of the parishes surpassing their required number of soldiers. The parishes in the river areas of North Louisiana, such as Caddo, Carroll, Bossier, and Ouachita had pulled together several companies, and these parishes subsequently increased their war efforts with more military units, such as the Caddo Rifles in North Louisiana.

In 1873 the state was still suffering greatly from the harshness of the Reconstruction government. Caddo, Bossier, and DeSoto Parishes found the situation intolerable and attempted to break away from Louisiana to join Texas. For this to happen, Louisiana's legislature would have had to approve, and the carpetbaggers serving as members would not allow it.

Sawmills came to the area because of the timber, and steamboats and railroads transported the lumber to the Northeast factories. Cotton and timber served as the greatest economic resources until the turn-of-the-century; however, farmers in Caddo Parish were frustrated. Drilling water wells for their livestock or for drinking water for themselves proved useless, as their water continuously came out sour. Some began to wonder if natural gas could be causing the problem.

In 1901 oil was discovered near Beaumont, Texas at Spindletop and at Jennings and at White Castle, Louisiana. Four years later in May, five barrels of oil were produced in the Caddo-Pine Island Field. By 1911 the Gulf Refining Company had successfully drilled oil on Caddo Lake; this was the first off-shore drilling in the nation. The 1930's saw another oil boom as people began to flock to Rodessa.

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