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.

The General Index of All Successions, Opened in the Parish of Orleans, from the year 1805, to the year 1846, compiled by P. M. Bertin and published in 1849, provides access to the wills, successions, and estate inventories filed in the Court of Probates. The records in these series 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.