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Welcome
to this Louisiana Genealogy Trails
Website for Orleans Parish
(County)
Volunteers
Dedicated to Putting Free Data
Online!
This is a new site and we hope to
add data here that can help
Louisiana researchers.
We need some help to do that
though - a volunteer to host this
county site is needed. If you can
make a basic webpage, and you have
a desire to transcribe data for
the free use of all researchers,
we can use your talents!
Review our Volunteer
Information
and email
Kim.
In the meantime,
join
our mailing list
to be kept apprised of updates to
this website. |
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New
Orleans was founded in 1718 by the
French Mississippi Company as la
Nouvelle-Orléans, under the
direction of Jean-Baptiste Le
Moyne de Bienville. The site was
selected because of its relatively
high elevation along the
flood-prone banks of the Lower
Mississippi River and its location
adjacent to a Native American
trading route and portage between
the river and Lake Pontchartrain.
In 1763, the French colony was
ceded to the Spanish Empire and
remained under Spanish control for
40 years. Most of the surviving
architecture of the French Quarter
dates from this Spanish period.
Louisiana reverted to French
control in 1801, but two years
later Napoleon sold it to the
United States in the Louisiana
Purchase. The city grew rapidly,
with influxes of Americans, French
and Creole French.
During the War of 1812 the British
sent a force to conquer the city.
The British were defeated by
American forces led by Andrew
Jackson in the Battle of New
Orleans on January 8, 1815.
However, a peace treaty was signed
between the United States and
Britain on December 24, 1814, and
news of the treaty did not reach
the United States in time to
prevent the battle from occurring.
By 1840, New Orleans had become by
far the wealthiest city in the
nation, and was also ranked as the
third most populous, being beaten
by Baltimore by only 119 people.
Since that time, the city has
become the thirteenth poorest
large city in the Nation. Up until
1960 New Orleans had consistently
been ranked in the top fifteen
largest Cities in the U.S. but
since that time, the city has
shrunk to the thirty-fifth largest
city in the U.S.
The population of the city doubled
in the 1830s, and by 1840 the
city's population was over 100,000—one
of the largest cities in the U.S.
Population growth was frequently
interrupted by yellow fever
epidemics, the last of which
occurred in 1905.
New
Orleans, 1909
As a principal port, New Orleans
had a leading role in the slave
trade, while at the same time
having the most prosperous
community of free persons of color
in the South. Early in the
American Civil War New Orleans was
captured by the Union. This action
spared the city the destruction
suffered by many other cities of
the American South. (Source:
Wikipedia.org)
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