Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany Parish, Voter Registration Records, 1867-1905

Today’s featured FamilySearch collection is Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany Parish, Voter Registration Records, 1867-1905. Early voter registration records can help you locate your ancestor in records made before the 1870 U.S. Census. Voter registration records can also help you fill the twenty year gap between the 1880 U.S. Census and the 1900 U.S. Census (most of the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed by fire).

The collection contains early voter registration records for Orleans and St. Tammany parishes in Louisiana. Micrfilm of the St. Tammany parish originals is housed at the St. Tammany Courthouse in Covington, Louisiana. The microfilm of the Orleans Parish original records is housed at the New Orleans Public Library. Document images are viewable for the Orleans Parish voter registrations. St. Tammany Parish voter registration images must be viewed at a Family History Center.

What’s in This Collection

Information in these records may include:

• Name
• Age
• Nativity
• Residence
• Occupation
• Time of residence in the state, parish, and ward
• Birth date

To learn more about this collection, please see the collection’s Learn More page.

Researching from This Collection

If you find an ancestor in this collection, you can search for other Reconstruction era records for the location where your ancestor registered to vote. You can use the birth date to search for more records for your ancestor such as census, marriage and death records.

Example: Creed Caldwell, Orleans Parish

Let’s look at an example. Creed Caldwell registered to vote in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana in 1891. His birthplace is listed as Kentucky and the year of his birth is listed as 1826. His address was 66 Liberty Street. His occupation was hack driver, and length of residence in the state was 39 years.

Name: Creed Caldwell
Event Type: Voter Registration
Event Date: 22 Sep 1891
Event Place: Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Race: Colored
Birth Date: 1826
Birthplace: Ky

Digital Folder Number: 008248465
Image Number: 00264″Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany Parish, Voter Registration Records, 1867-1905″, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WD9H-T22M : 8 October 2019), Creed Caldwell, 1891.

We found a second voter registration record for Creed Caldwell, for the year 1895. Both the 1891 and 1895 voter registration records help to fill the twenty year gap between the 1880 and 1900 census.

We searched for Creed Caldwell, born about 1826 in Kentucky, and found a Freedman’s Bank record. From this record, we learn the names of Creed Caldwell’s family members. We also learn that he was born in Greensburg, Kentucky and brought up in Louisville, Kentucky. This record was made in 1872, so we have now pinpointed his location 19 years before he registered to vote in 1891. His occupation in 1872 was hackman, which agrees with his occupation of hack driver in the 1891 voter registration.

Remarkably, the Freedman’s Bank record contains information for wife Amanda’s family as well.

Creed Caldwell, 1880 U.S. Census

We used the information we learned from the Freedman’s Bank record to search for Creed Caldwell and wife Amanda in census records. We found them in the 1880 U.S. Census, living on Dryades Street in New Orleans:

Name: Creed Caldwell
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1880
Event Place: New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 53
Marital Status: Married
Race: Black
Race (Original): B
Occupation: Laborer
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Birth Year (Estimated): 1827
Birthplace: Kentucky, United States
Father’s Birthplace: Kentucky, United States
Mother’s Birthplace: Kentucky, United States
Sheet Letter: C
Sheet Number: 153
Person Number: 0
Volume: 2

“United States Census, 1880,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDX4-8YW : 15 August 2017), Robert Caldwell in household of Creed Caldwell, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States; citing enumeration district ED 80, sheet 153C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,463.

The names of Creed Caldwell’s children agree with the information in the Freedman’s Bank record.

Creed Caldwell, 1870 U.S. Census

We found Creed Caldwell in the 1870 U.S. Census.

Name: Creed Caldwell
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1870
Event Place: New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Event Place (Original): New Orleans, ward 02, Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 40
Race: Mulatto
Birth Year (Estimated): 1830
Birthplace: Kentucky
Page Number: 15

Household ID: 129
Line Number: 34
Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Affiliate Publication Number: M593
GS Film Number: 000552018
Digital Folder Number: 004269420
Image Number: 00367

“United States Census, 1870”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M87W-2T8 : 12 June 2019), Mary Fanny Caldwell in entry for Creed Caldwell, 1870.

Matthew and Patience Caldwell, Freedman’s Bank Record

We searched the database United States, Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874 for Creed Caldwell’s parents Matthew and Patience Caldwell. We found a record for Louisa Moore in Louisville, Kentucky whose parents’ names were Matthew and Patience. Could this be the sister Louisa Creed Caldwell listed in his Freedman’s Bank record? Like Creed Caldwell, Louisa Moore stated that she was born in Greensburg, Kentucky and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. If this is your family, this is an intriguing lead that you can follow up on!

Related Resources

The FamilySearch Wiki page African American Resources for Louisiana will guide you to more resources for African American genealogy in Louisiana.

The FamilySearch Wiki page Louisiana Record Finder will help you select records to search, based upon which information you are hoping to learn about your ancestor (date of birth, etc.).

To learn more about genealogy research in Louisiana, you can view BlackProGen LIVE Ep11: Louisiana and Mississippi Genealogy Research.

More FamilySearch Wiki Resources for African American Genealogy

Researching African American Genealogy provides step-by-step guidance for beginning your ancestor search, as well as links to online resources.

Quick Guide to African American Records contains information on beginning research tips, links to suggested guides for beginning your search for African American ancestors, overviews of major record sets, tips for finding the slaveholder, links to tutorials for African American genealogy in the FamilySearch Learning Center, and links to other online and offline resources.

Southern States Slavery and Bondage Collections will help you locate digitized searchable collections as well as digitized microfilms in the FamilySearch catalog related to slavery and bondage. The page is arranged by state. 

African American Genealogy provides links to Wiki pages for researching African Americans in each U.S. state.