Index to Superior Court Suit Records, 1804-1813

The index was created originally in two parts. Part 1, covering 1804-1809 (a few cases are from beyond 1809), was done by Professor Mark Fernandez of the Loyola University History Department, who unfolded the originally bundled documents, filed them in folders, and wrote file names, suit numbers, and the dates of the case on each folder. Library staff created a simple list from the information on each folder, sorted alphabetically by the name of the plaintiff. Part 2, 1809 - 1813, was the work of a Louisiana Division volunteer and is arranged in docket number order. This index does not include the date of the suit. Duplicate suit numbers, which appear in both indexes, remain unresolved, but do not affect our ability to retrieve the documents. We are aware that, due to difficulty of deciphering the handwriting in the original suits, many misspellings exist. Researchers are advised to search carefully and be prepared for questionable spellings.

For some cases, no docket number could be found on the documents. For filing and retrieval purposes, we assigned the case the number that appeared before it in the original filing system used when the records were transferred to us. These assigned docket numbers are given in brackets.