Louisiana Obituaries

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.

Recent Louisiana obituaries (2000 to today)

Most obituaries published since about 2000 are online. Daily papers post paid death notices and family-written obituaries in an Obituaries section, usually hosted by Legacy.com, and keep them online with a guest book. The largest daily papers in Louisiana are:

• Times-Picayune / New Orleans Advocate
• The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
• Shreveport Times
• The Advertiser (Lafayette)
• American Press (Lake Charles)
• News-Star (Monroe)

Legacy.com’s Louisiana page searches the obituaries of most of these papers and many smaller ones at once. Funeral homes also post obituaries on their own websites, often before the newspaper does and sometimes instead of it: search the person’s name with the town and “obituary” or “funeral home.” For obituaries no longer online, ask your public or state library: many offer NewsBank or ProQuest databases with the full text of recent newspapers, free with a 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 older 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

• Vital records research, Louisiana State Archives — Statewide death certificates more than 50 years old, with indexes and research help in Baton Rouge.
• Louisiana Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Louisiana newspaper archives, indexes and microfilm, with local links.

Also search the nationwide archives: Chronicling America, FamilySearch, Find a Grave, Newspapers.com. See all nationwide obituary resources.

Louisiana death records

Louisiana death certificates are restricted for 50 years to family and others with an interest, ordered from the Vital Records Registry. After 50 years they move to the Louisiana State Archives, which has statewide death certificates and indexes open for research.

• Louisiana Vital Records Registry — the office that issues Louisiana death certificates, with ordering instructions and fees.
• Where to Write for Vital Records: Louisiana — the CDC’s summary of where to order, current fees and which years the office holds.
• Louisiana Vital Records, FamilySearch Research Wiki — free death indexes and certificate collections, with the years each covers.

Tips for finding an obituary in Louisiana

• Use the 50-year rule. Death certificates over 50 years old are at the State Archives, where anyone can request them.
• Search French-language papers. L'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans and other French papers carried notices for Creole families.
• Check parish records. Louisiana is divided into parishes, and Catholic church records often record burials.
• 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, and often listed married women under the husband’s name (“Mrs. John Smith”). See death notices vs. obituaries.

Common questions