The Court of Probates was established in 1804 to provide for the judicial supervision of the disposition of the estates left by deceased property owners in Orleans Parish. The records of the court are divided into several series, including wills, successions, estate inventories, and suits brought against estates.

Successions filed in the Court of Probates were not assigned docket numbers, but were arranged in an alphabetical/chronological scheme (in the case of successions and inventories) or chronologically (in the case of wills).

Suits brought by or against executors, administrators, tutors, curators or heirs of estates, however, were assigned docket numbers. Unfortunately, indexing to this series was not extant when the records were transferred to the City Archives; as a result, the numbered suit records in the Probate Court were largely inaccessible to researchers.

To remedy this situation, the index presented here has been created from microfilm of the numbered series of suits filed against estates.