City Archives Division of Cemeteries

The Bayou St. John Cemetery is a “lost” cemetery, the exact location of which remains uncertain. It would likely be placed closer to the intersection of Bayou St. John with the Carondelet (Old Basin) Canal rather than the area closer to present-day Esplanade Ave. The first recorded burials in the cemetery occurred at the beginning of 1835; interments were discontinued after 1844, and by 1880, all trace of the cemetery had vanished.

• Mayor’s Office Records, 1835-1844.
• Sexton’s Records. Paid Burials, 1835-1841.
• Sexton’s Records. Unpaid Burials, 1835-1841.
• “Potter’s Field” Records, 1842-1843.
• First Municipality Comptroller’s Records, 1836-1839.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 was established in 1833 by the Council of the City of Lafayette in the square bounded by Prytania St., Washington Ave., Sixth St., and Plaquemine (now Coliseum) St. By 1847 the cemetery on Prytania appears to have been reaching capacity, and in October, the Council resolved that there be no new burials in the original cemetery. It is unclear just when the city did purchase the land for the new burial ground, in the square bounded by present-day Sixth, Loyola, Washington, and Saratoga streets, but on May 20, 1851, the Council ordered the new cemetery (Lafayette No. 2) divided into three sections as the old cemetery had been divided.

• Lot Registers, ca. 1838-1953.
• Interment Records, 1836-1968.
• Receipts for Sales of Lots and Vaults, 1851-1852.
• Monthly Reports of the Sexton, 1853-1859.
• Death Certificates, 1854; 1856-1859; 1869.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 has been indexed online.

The Jefferson City Cemetery (later called the Valence St. Cemetery), located at St. Patrick (now S. Saratoga), St. David (now Danneel), Valence and Bordeaux Streets, became a City cemetery in 1870 when Jefferson City was annexed to the City of New Orleans.

• Record of Interments in the Jefferson City (Valence St.) and Catholic Cemeteries, 1855-1870.
• Register of Lots, Valence Street Cemetery, 1877-1969.
• Interments in Valence Street Cemetery, 1900-1952.

In June, 1848, the City of Carrollton purchased the square bounded by Adams St., Hillary St., Sixth (now Birch) St., and Seventh (now Hickory) St. to establish the Carrollton Cemetery. An additional square bounded by Hillary, Lowerline, Birch and Hickory Streets was added in 1871. The administration of the Carrollton Cemetery was transferred to the Department of Police and Public Buildings in 1874, when the City of Carrollton was annexed to the City of New Orleans.

• Register of Lots, 1850-1925
• Interments, 1883-1925.

Plot maps and (some) tombstone inscriptions for Carrollton Cemetery have been compiled at the Orleans Parish page of the U.S. Genweb Project.

St. Mary’s Cemetery, bounded by Spruce, Adams, Lowerline, and Cohn Streets, was transferred to the City from the Archdiocese of New Orleans in April, 1922.

• Lot Registers and Interments, ca. 1893-1966

In 1859, the City established the Locust Grove cemetery, located in the square bounded by Sixth, Seventh, Magnolia (now Freret) and Locust (now S. Robertson) Streets, for the indigent. Locust Grove No. 2, in the square bounded by Sixth, Harmony, Locust, and Magnolia Streets, opened in 1877. Both cemeteries closed in 1879 and in 1905 they were demolished to make way for the Thomy Lafon school and a playground.

• Orders for Burial,1866-1868.
• Receipts for Burial Orders, 1876-1879.

In 1879, Locust Grove Nos. 1 and 2 closed, and to replace them the City opened the Holt Cemetery on lower City Park Ave., at the intersection of St. Louis St. and New Metairie Road. Holt was enlarged in 1909.

Historian Gaynell Brady has assembled an informative website with a collaborative ethnography of Holt Cemetery that includes links and maps. A video of the accompanying presentation can be found on the City Archives YouTube. An additional in-depth map and visiting information can be found at the Division of Cemeteries.

• Interments, 1881.
• Interments in Holt Cemetery, 1901-1953.

In February, 1847 the Board of Church Wardens of the St. Louis Church agreed to relinquish to the First Municipality the section of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 fronting on St. Louis Street and encroaching upon the line running from Basin Street toward Bayou St. John, to allow the Municipality to make improvements in that area. In return, the Municipality agreed to construct new vaults on the Basin and Conti Street sides of the cemetery for the remains in the displaced vaults. The resolution also provided that if any families preferred to remove their relatives’ remains to private vaults, the municipality would pay for the construction of these vaults, on ground designated by the Wardens.

The record, in French and English, contains statements signed before Mayor A.D. Crossman by the owners of vaults (or someone authorized to act for the owner) renouncing all rights and claims to the vaults “encroaching on St. Louis Street.” The earliest is dated September 20, 1847 and the latest, August 9, 1852. The records were originally cataloged as “Mayor’s Office.

Renunciations made by owners of vaults fronting on St. Louis Street in the Old Catholic Cemetery No. 1, 1847-1852″