What if I need a record from out of state?
Check online resources to determine current laws and fees. Order forms can be downloaded and emailed or printed and mailed.
What do you have at the Main Library that might help me locate a vital record?
We have parish and county name indexes for marriages, like the popular Hunting For Bears series. Refer to the Baton Rouge Catholic Diocese records (encompassing most of the Florida parishes), the Orleans Diocese records, or the South/Southwest Louisiana books by Father Donald Hebert for Catholic church records.
How much do I need to know to get a record?
A full name and approximate year of the event (birth, marriage, death) is best.
How will obituaries help me?
Obituaries give date of death and next of kin. Click here for a how-to guide for locating Obituaries.
Vital records are those documents which are concerned with birth, marriages, and deaths. Births for Louisiana have been officially registered since 1918. New Orleans started keeping records much earlier.
Click the links to see what's available:
Marriage Licenses (1840-Present)
Please call the clerk of court's archive office at (225) 389-7837
Click here for information about where the achives for the clerk of court is located.
Vital Records Registry: Department of Health and Hospitals
For births less than 100 years and deaths less than 50 years visit the Vital Records Registry through the Department of Health and Hospitals.