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Archiver > LAORLEAN > 1999-03 > 0922734420


From: <>
Subject: Marriages in New Orleans
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 14:07:00 EST


Hi George,

Actually, I have tried this. In some cases, I have gone to the Louisiana
Division of the NOPL and looked up the couple in their marriage index. This
is an index of applications for the license only, and not the license itself.
Then, armed with the date of the application, I have written to the State
Archives first. I have been surprised to find that many people applied for
the civil license, but never followed it up to get the license itself after
they were married. If I do have luck with the state, I can sometimes find the
church or the priest's name that performed the ceremony, or maybe an address.

Armed with this info, I then write to the Archdiocese Archives, (1100 Chartres
St.), and I have had much better luck there. Especially in the Irish
community, I think they took the church cerrtificate as the legal record.
Although you have to have something to go on when you write the Archdiocese,
like the bride or groom's address, or their parish, etc., sometimes, if you
give them only one of two scraps of info, it is enough for them to go on.
They have been able to help me, knowing the year I am looking for, and the
fact that the couple were Irish. Evidently, there were pockets of ethnic
neighborhoods, and they cam sometimes narrow down the probable location, based
on the ethnicity of a last name.

Ha! I didn't mean to go into a full speech on this! It's just that I have
been through the drill a few times!

Colleen Fitzpatrick

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