Louisiana’s newspapers began in 1794 in French. New Orleans has one of the country’s best obituary indexes, covering 1804 to 1972, and most of the obituaries it lists can be read online with a New Orleans Public Library card.
Louisiana obituaries in historic newspapers
Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, printed in New Orleans from 1794, was the colony’s first newspaper. For more than a century New Orleans papers were often bilingual, and L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans (The New Orleans Bee) printed in French from 1827 to 1925. New Orleans also had German-language papers in the 1800s.
The Daily Picayune, founded in 1837, later merged into the Times-Picayune, became the city’s main record of deaths, including the long lists printed during the yellow fever epidemics of the 1850s and later. Outside New Orleans, papers in Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Acadiana parishes cover rural deaths, and some carried French-language columns well into the 1900s.
The Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index, a joint project of the New Orleans Public Library and The Historic New Orleans Collection, is fully indexed for the Times-Picayune from 1837 to 1972 and partly indexed for other New Orleans papers back to 1804.
Where to find Louisiana obituaries
Digitized Louisiana newspapers
- Louisiana Digital Library — Digitized collections from Louisiana libraries and archives, including newspapers.
Obituary and death indexes
- Obituary Index, New Orleans City Archives & Special Collections — Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index, 1804–1972, with guidance on reading the notices online.
Archives and libraries
- Louisiana Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Louisiana newspaper archives, indexes and microfilm, with county-by-county links.
Nationwide newspaper archives
- Chronicling America, Library of Congress — Free digitized newspapers from every state. Narrow a search to Louisiana and the years you need.
- Google News Archive — Free scans of hundreds of older newspapers, browsable by title and date.
- Internet Archive newspapers — Free digitized newspapers and microfilm uploaded by libraries.
- FamilySearch — Free obituary indexes, death records and the Social Security Death Index (free account).
- Find a Grave — Volunteer-built cemetery memorials, many with transcribed obituaries.
- Newspapers.com — Large subscription archive of U.S. papers. Many public libraries offer free access.
- GenealogyBank — Subscription archive of historic newspapers and modern obituaries.
- Legacy.com — Obituaries published since about 2000 in most U.S. daily newspapers.
Tips for finding an obituary in Louisiana
- Pin down the date and place first. A death index or death certificate gives the exact date and county, and then you only need to search the local papers for the following week or two.
- Search more than one town. Obituaries often ran in the paper where the person was born or had lived before, not just where they died. Small-town weeklies sometimes published a notice weeks later.
- Look beyond the word “obituary.” Older papers reported deaths under headings like “Died,” “Deaths,” local news and personals columns, funeral notices and cards of thanks. See death notices vs. obituaries.
- Try every spelling. Search initials, nicknames and misspellings, and for married women in older papers, search the husband’s name (“Mrs. John Smith”). Digitized text often misreads old type.
- Ask a librarian. Many public libraries and state archives will look up an obituary for free or a small fee, and newspaper microfilm can often be borrowed through interlibrary loan.