Researching Your Property’s History

Researching Your Property’s History Researching Your Property’s History Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street Free admission, registration required Registration Dates: HNOC Members: September 28 General public: October 5 Join the Historic New Orleans Collection for an exciting half-day seminar exploring four distinct resources available to anyone delving into New Orleans property research. HNOC staff will offer presentations on the notarial archives, historic city directories, and the Collins C. Diboll Vieux Carré Digital Survey, an extensive database that documents that every individual lot and structure within the French Quarter. Guest speaker Judy Riffel will close out the day by presenting an overview of Spanish land grants in Louisiana and their principal repositories. This seminar is designed for everyone with a particular focus on how property records can help with personal genealogical research. No prior research skills are necessary. Admission is free with registration required. Registration opens on September 28 for HNOC members and October 5 for the general public. Not a member? Join today. Attendees will have the option of purchasing an architectural walking tour led by HNOC staff ($25 per person), and/or purchasing a box lunch catered by Gracious Bakery ($20 per person) during registration. Check in at the Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street 10 a.m. Welcome remarks on behalf of HNOC Rebecca Smith, Williams Research Center Director 10:10 a.m. The Notarial Archives: An Unparalleled Source for New Orleans History Jari Honora, HNOC Family Historian The New Orleans Notarial Archives is an exceptional repository for tracing New Orleans families. The archives preserve more than three centuries of legal records created under Louisiana's civil law tradition. Notarial acts—including wills, marriage contracts, property sales, successions, emancipations, donations, and other legal documents—can reveal generations of family relationships and bring ancestral stories to life. This session will offer practical guidance for navigating the archives and making the most of this indispensable resource. 11 a.m. Navigating the Historic City Directories of New Orleans: A Case Study with Made to Last Sarah Duggan, HNOC Decorative Arts of the Gulf South Project Manager Historic city directories can be a rich source of information about local families, especially those who did not own the buildings where they lived and worked. These annual almanacs contain addresses, advertisements, tariff rates, and lists of government officials. Decorative Arts of the Gulf South (DAGS) Project Manager Sarah Duggan will share some highlights from her research with city directories for the upcoming exhibition Made to Last: Black Craftspeople in Early New Orleans. 11:45 a.m.–1 p.m. Lunch (boxed or on your own) Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunch, or will have the option of purchasing a $20 box lunch catered by Gracious Bakery during registration. 1 p.m. French Quarter Property Histories: Unveiling the Updated Vieux Carré Survey Rebecca Smith, Williams Research Center Director In 1960, the Louisiana Landmarks Society (LLS) underwrote the cost of a pilot study documenting the architectural and land-use history of a single block of the Vieux Carré: square 63, bounded by Royal, Conti, Bourbon, and St. Louis Streets. The study followed the pattern established by the Historic American Buildings Survey done in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. Pleased with the work done on square 63, the LLS, joined by the Vieux Carré Commission (VCC), sought grant funds to expand the study to cover the entire French Quarter, eventually becoming the Vieux Carré Survey (VCS). HNOC took ownership of the project in 1977. Over the past 66 years, the survey has not only been completed to cover all 120 French Quarter squares, but it has been updated several times over with new data and photography. The biggest update began in 2000, when HNOC began digitization of the entire VCS. Because the maintenance of the VCS, one of HNOC's most heavily used assets, remains a high institutional priority, we have just completed another update to the database to make it even more user friendly. We will take an in-depth look at the newly refreshed site at this workshop. 1:30 p.m. Spanish Land Grants in Louisiana Judy Riffel, professional genealogist and independent scholar Louisiana genealogist Judy Riffel will present an overview of Spanish land grants, explaining how Spain used them to encourage settlement and shape the development of colonial Louisiana. She will trace the process by which settlers applied for and secured land grants, highlighting the legal requirements, surveys, petitions, and other records generated along the way. The presentation will also introduce participants to the principal repositories where these documents can be found. 2:30–2:45 p.m. Audience Q&A Participants will have an opportunity t