Estate Inventories, 1803-1877
Scope and Contents
Probate/succession records and some will inventories from estates left by deceased property owners.
Dates
- Creation: 1803-1877
Creator
- From the Collection: Orleans Parish Court of Probates (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Available on microfilm to registered researchers by appointment. Original documents are closed for research.
Requesting Materials
Biographical / Historical
A key part of any succession proceeding is the preparation of a detailed estate inventory. Without such an inventory it is often impossible to determine exactly what property belongs to an inheritance. Estate inventories in nineteenth century New Orleans were conducted and recorded by notaries public or by other individuals appointed by the judge handling the succession proceedings. During the period of the Court of Probates (1805-1846) estate inventories (or copies thereof) were kept in a separate series within the Court's records. After 1846, inventories were generally filed with the rest of the documents within succession records.
Extent
31 Cubic Feet (31 cubic feet, available on microfilm)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Clerk of Civil District Court deposited thirty-one cubic feet of manuscript estate inventories in the City Archives during the 1970s (the originals had recently been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah; the Clerk also deposited a set of the films in the Archives). That series includes all of the surviving documents from the 1805-1846 period along with approximately 1050 additional inventories dating from later years. The post-1846 inventories may be duplicates of the documents filed in the succession records, documents that were separated (either accidentally or intentionally) from the succession records, or documents totally unrelated to the successions on file in the Archives.
General
Call number: mf VCH160
Indexing
Estate Inventories are also listed on the Court of Probates Index of Successions; however, this index only covers through 1846, while the estate inventories continue through 1877. Researchers should consult both indexes for pre-1846 estate inventories.
Indexing was created bby Archives staff Stephanie Sharp Dupuy, Thelma Coignard James, Edith Shaw McClure, and Vera Morel in the early 1960s and later digitized by volunteer Linda Angelocci.
Repository Details
Part of the City Archives Repository
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org