Online records
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Digitized Sacramental Records in the Archives
Among the most important Louisiana resources available to scholars are the extensive, well-maintained, and searchable sacramental registers, which record baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials of individuals. Because sacramental registers detail the life history of the local community over time, they have always been recognized by church officials as having unique and enduring value. More importantly, they illustrate the Catholic heritage of families that are passed from one generation to another.
Since 1954, records have been microfilmed for disaster recovery purposes. With the advances in technology, scanned images have become more widely used as this type of media becomes more standardized in TIF, JPG and PDF formats. Through the conservation program, the registers are unbound, de-acidified, encapsulated in mylar and rebound. In 2012, in order to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Louisiana’s statehood, the archdiocese began placing the registers from 1718 to 1812 online. There are 43 registers from the French and Spanish colonial period as well as the American territorial period.
Scholars have used sacramental records to study immigration patterns, community development, ethnic origins, social history, linguistic practices, family history, and cultural diversity. The records speak for themselves with all the variations in spellings, translations of names in Spanish, French and English, lack of surnames, omissions, mistakes, etc. There are variations in spelling due to the record keeper, who often wrote the name as he heard it. Due to changes in the governments which controlled Louisiana, names appear in French, Spanish, and English. Names in church records sometimes contain a baptismal name of a saint, which may not have been used by the individual. But with prudent research and gathering other evidence from records existing in courthouses and family papers, the record can be verified.
The number next to the name in the index refers to either the page number or the entry number.
Please note, some of these files are quite large and may take some time to download.
Indices for all churches from 1718 - 1815 -
St. Louis Cathedral: Funeral records, 1772–1790
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St. Louis Cathedral: Marriage records, 1720–1806
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St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1753–1815
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1753–1759
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1772–1776
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1777–1783 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1777–1783 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1777–1786 (part 1)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1777–1786 (part 2)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1783–1786 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1786–1792 (part 1) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1786–1792 (part 2) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1786–1796
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1792–1798 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1792–1798 (part 1) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1792–1798 (part 2) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1796–1802
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1798–1801 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1798–1801 (part 1) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1798–1801 (part 2) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1801–1804 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1801–1802 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1802–1804 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1802–1806 (part 1)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1802–1806 (part 2)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1802–1806 (part 3)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1802–1806 (part 4)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1804 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1804–1805 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1804–1805 (part 1) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1804–1805 (part 2) (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1805–1807 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1805–1806 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, Baptism 1806-1807 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1806–1809
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1807–1809 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, Baptism 1807–1808 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1808–1809 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1809 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1809–1811 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1809–1810 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1809–1811 (part 1)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1809–1811 (part 2)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1810–1811 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1811–1812 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1811 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1811–1812 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1811–1815 (part 1)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1811–1815 (part 2)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1811–1815 (part 3)
St. Louis Cathedral: Index to Baptisms, 1812–1814 (persons of color)
St. Louis Cathedral: Baptisms, 1812–1813 (persons of color) -
Royal Military Hospital: Funerals, 1786–1796
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St. Charles Borromeo, Destrehan: Combination book, 1739–1755
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St. John the Baptist, Edgard: Baptisms, 1772–1818
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St. John the Baptist, Edgard: Marriages, 1772–1818
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St. John the Baptist, Edgard: Funerals, 1772–1815
St. John the Baptist: Funerals, 1772–1815
St. Bernard, Galveztown: Combination book, 1783–1803
St. Bernard: Baptisms, Marriages, and Funerals 1783–1803