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From: Claire Bettag <>
Subject: [APG] New Orleans obituary database online
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:13:38 -0400


The notice below appeared in The Historic New Orleans Collection
Quarterly, vol. XXVI, no. 3 (Summer, 2009) 9. I am posting it here
with permission from the Historic New Orleans Collection.

Claire Bettag
------------------
The Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index Now Online

The Historic New Orleans Collection and the New Orleans Public Library
are proud to announce that the entire Louisiana Biography and Obituary
Index, a compilation of approximately 600,000 citations dating back to
1804, is now available as an online database. The electronic index is
the culmination of an eight-year endeavor undertaken by The
Collection and NOPL at the behest of the late Suzanne Levy Ormand,
former chair of the library board, and Mary Lou Christovich, chairman
of the board of directors of the Kemper and Leila Williams Foundation.
The Obit Index originated in the 1930s as a project of the Works
Progress Administration’s Historical Records Survey. After the WPA
ceased operation, the City Archives Department assumed responsibility
for maintenance of the index. In 1946 the department was transferred
by ordinance to the New Orleans Public Library. The index inherited by
NOPL was far from comprehensive. It focused almost exclusively on
prominent citizens and rarely included feature stories or other
biographical references. When NOPL accepted stewardship of the Obit
Index, it embarked on a mission to broaden and improve the resource.
The Collection joined in the effort by supplying the staff, computers,
and technological expertise needed to facilitate the digitization of
this invaluable resource. Now researchers can easily search the
thousands of entries, each comprising the name of a deceased
individual along with publication information—title, date, page
number, and column number—for death notices published in New Orleans
newspapers, which are available on microfilm at both The Collection
and NOPL. The electronic database also includes biographical sketches
and narrative obituaries in many cases. To be sure, the index remains
a work in progress. Occasional gaps exist where data from a specific
run of a newspaper was never entered. Yet the index remains remarkably
comprehensive. It is safe to say that no other resource provides more
convenient access to information about the residents of New Orleans
over the last two centuries—from the famous to the infamous to the
anonymous.

To access the Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index, and to view a
list of the newspapers and other publications referenced, visit
http:// www.nutrias.org/~nopl/obits/obits.htm .


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