Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819–1906

Today’s featured FamilySearch collection is Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906.

About This Collection

You can look for your ancestors who were born in Orleans Parish, Louisiana between 1819 and 1906 in the record collection Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906. The type of information than you can glean from these records are:

• Date and place of birth – If this was different than Orleans Parish, Louisiana you may be able to find the family during this time
• Parent’s birth – This may enable you to search the parent’s birthplace
• Child’s name – Sometimes this is the only place the child’s formal name is used
• Parent’s residence
• Father’s name, age, occupation – The father may not be the same person that is with this family later. This is your ancestor’s father
• Mother’s maiden name, age, and occupation – The mother’s maiden name enables a search of her parents
• Child’s race and gender – Because the race is stated, you cannot confuse this person with someone of a different race

For a closer look at this collection, please see the collection’s Learn More page.

Researching From This Collection

Search the collection using the name of your ancestor at birth along with the date of birth and the name of his or her parent. Let’s look for Corinne Marshall, 1887:

Where do I go from here?

• Edward Marshall – Look for ancestor’s parents. Try Algiers first.
• Odile George – With mother’s maiden name I can look for her parents.
• Try to determine why Corrine’s birth was not reported until 9 January 1891. She was born 20 January 1887.
• I can also search the US Census to determine if Corrine had any other siblings.
• The death records can also be another way to turn up family:  Funeral home records, cemetery records, obituary

Next, let’s turn to another record which could document you ancestor for the first time: Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany Parish, Voter Registration Records, 1867-1905.

The Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany Parish, Voter Registration Records, 1867-1905 will tell you:

Your ancestor’s age, birth date, where he was born, residence, occupation, and time of residence in the state, parish, and ward. You need to search using his name, age, and where he resided. Let’s look up Jos. Marshall, 25, of Orleans Parish, Louisiana.

The 1870 US Census could reveal other family members. Jos Marshall was living at home when he registered so we could from here find out the names of his parents since he had lived here for his entire life. Then the 1900 Census and the remaining US Census’ could tell us who he married if he stayed in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.

Also, looking up his parent’s death records can reveal their parents. This voter’s registration is really important because it can assist you with seeing your ancestor for the first time since enslavement.

Related Resources

The FamilySearch Wiki page African American Resources for Louisiana provides an overview of African American genealogy research in Louisiana.

To learn more about researching in Louisiana, you can view BlackProGen LIVE Ep11: Louisiana and Mississippi Genealogy Research and BlackProGen LIVE! Ep 105: Tracing the Trade: Slavery in Louisiana and Mississippi.

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.