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G U I D E T O G E N E A L O G I C A L M A T E R I A L S in the New Orleans Public Library's Louisiana Division & City Archives |
N E W S P A P E R S / I N D E X E S / O B I T U A R I E S |
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C O N T E N T S
Guide to Genealogical Materials Home |
About half of the Louisiana Division's 35,000+ rolls of microfilm consists of newspapers and
periodicals. The collection contains the most complete files of New Orleans newspapers available,
covering the period 1802 to the present. Selected files of Alexandria, Baton Rouge,
Donaldsonville, Edgard, Franklin, Napoleonville, New Iberia, Opelousas, and St. Martinville papers
are also available.
A listing of the Louisiana Division’s newspaper holdings (by year, 1787-1974) is available online at
A complete list of newspapers held by the Louisiana Division on microfilm is available online at
Indexes
In order to facilitate the use of the New Orleans newspaper collections, the following indexes are
available.
Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index
Numbering more than 650,000 cards, this is an alphabetical file indexing obituaries in New Orleans
newspapers and biographical information in older Louisiana collective biographies. Biography
cards provide the call number, author, and title of the book, and page on which the reference is
located. Obituary cards usually contain the date of death, age, and exact reference to the original
death notice and/or newspaper article. More obituaries for African Americans appear in the daily
newspapers since World War II than in earlier years. Prominent figures in the African American
community are more likely to appear in the pre-War era. Members of benevolent or burial societies
might also be better represented.
Obituaries are most thoroughly indexed for the following periods:
Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index ONLINE
At the time of the publication of this guide, the Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index was being
databased and made available online, through a cooperative effort between New Orleans Public
Library and The Historic New Orleans Collection. The index is now complete and can be accessed in its entirety at
Louisiana News Index
Numbering more than 528,000 cards, this is a single alphabetical file of persons, places, and
subjects indexing Louisiana-related articles in New Orleans newspapers. Included among the
items indexed are marriage announcements appearing in the Daily Picayune between 1837 and
1857. The following dates and newspapers are covered thoroughly:
New Orleans Times-Picayune Index, 1922-1944
An eight-roll microfilm copy of the newspaper's in-house morgue file is very useful in filling in some of the gaps in
the Louisiana News Index. The date coverage indicated here is somewhat misleading, since the early 1920s and
1940s are very sparsely indexed.
Additional Obituary Indexes
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For information on ordering newspaper articles by mail, see