Louisiana Church Records

Before statehood in 1812 the Roman Catholic Church was dominant in Louisiana. Few Protestant churches flourished. From 1812 to 1900, the largest religious groups in Louisiana were the Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches.

The earliest church records were Roman Catholic marriage records that began in 1720 and baptism records that began in 1729. Most records are kept at the local churches. The Family History Library has a small collection of Louisiana church records, including Roman Catholic and Baptist sources. Also see the 45 volumes of civil and church records from southern and southwestern Louisiana published by Donald J. Hebert (see the “Vital Records” page).

Guides to help you locate Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish records are:

Hebert, Donald J. A Guide to Church Records in Louisiana, 1720-1975. Eunice, Louisiana.: D. J. Hebert, 1975. (Family History Library book 976.3 K23h fiche 6051420 or 6010583.)

Guide to Vital Statistics Records of Church Archives in Louisiana. New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana State Board of Health, 1942. (Family History Library book 976.3 V2w; film 1305374 items 2-3; fiche 6051101.)

You can also write to the following addresses to learn where their records are located:

Roman Catholic
THE DROUIN COLLECTION:

Drouin Collection 1621-1967 at Ancestry.ca. When searching these databases, be creative in the spellings as well as the various focuses in searching for an ancestor. The French language has many possible spellings for a name, as well as there are errors in the indexing.

This French-Canadian collection has over 15 million genealogical and vital records entries; they were microfilmed by the Institut Généalogique Drouin. In Quebec, under the French Regime, there were two sets of records kept: a copy for the civil government archives and a copy for the ecclesiastical church archives. The Drouin collection is a civil copy of these entries. Please note that the cutoff date of this collection is in the early 1940s; only a small percentage of entries were covered from 1948 to 1967.

This collection is divided into six databases: 1. Quebec Vital and Church Records, 1621-1967 2. Ontario French Catholic Church Records, 1747-1967, 3. Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records, 1695-1954, 4. Acadia French Catholic Church Records, 1670-1946, 5. Quebec Notarial Records, 1647-1942, and 6. Miscellaneous French Records, 1651-1941. For details about these six databases, see "The Drouin Collection: Six Databases" at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/The_Drouin_Collection:_Six_databases.

Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records, 1695-1954: This database only contains the French Catholic parish records from the United States; in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania. The types of records include baptisms, marriages, and burials as well as confirmations, dispensations, censuses, statements of readmission to the church, and so on. They are written mainly in French, as well as English, Latin, and Italian.

Archdiocese of New Orleans Archives 7887 Walmsley Avenue New Orleans, LA 70125-3496 Phone: (504) 861-9521 Fax: (504) 866-2906 Internet: http://www.archdiocese-no.org/archives/page5.htm

The Archdiocese includes the parishes of: Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, and Washington.

Diocese of Alexandria-Shreveport 4400 Coliseum Boulevard Alexandria, LA 71303 Telephone: 318-445-2401 Fax: 318-448-6121 Internet: http://www.dioshpt.org/archives/history.htm

Diocese of Baton Rouge Archives 1800 South Acadian Thruway Baton Rouge, LA 70808 Telephone: 504-387-0561 Fax: 504-336-8789 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2028 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-2028 Internet: http://www.diobr.org/archives/archives-main.htm

This diocese has collected all parish registers in its area and indexed them.

Baptist
Historical Commission Southern Baptist Convention 901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203-3630 Telephone: 615-244-0344 Fax: 615-782-4821 Internet: http://www.sbhla.org/links.htm

Methodist
Centenary College of Louisiana Magale Library, Cline Room Shreveport, LA 71134-1188 Telephone: 318-869-5170 Fax: 318-869-5004 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 41188 Shreveport, LA 71134-1188 Internet: http://www.centenary.edu/

Lutheran
University of New Orleans Earl K. Long Library—Archives and Manuscripts Division Lake Front New Orleans, LA 70148 Telephone: 504-286-6556 Fax: 504-286-7277 Internet: http://library.uno.edu/