Reports of births, marriages and deaths were carried in the “Records of the Day” column of the Times-Picayune.

The data published in the “Records of the Day” column was supplied to the newspaper by the Recorder of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, a city agency under the New Orleans Board of Health. When the city’s separate vital records registry was taken over by the State Vital Records Office in 1974, publication of the “Records of the Day” column was discontinued.

Within the last several years, though, publication of some birth data has been resumed by the Times-Picayune, usually in the Thursday or Sunday “Our Town” or “Picayune” section. These birth listings are irregular, and date of birth is not given. Even in the pre-1974 publication, dates of birth were not listed. One should not assume that a birth listed in the newspaper of October 11, 1947, for example, took place on October 10. The “Records of the Day” column generally did not appear in the Sunday or Monday editions of the newspaper.