Check in at the Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street

Rebecca Smith, Williams Research Center Director

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions from our panel of experts.

Duration: Approximately 90 minutes
Admission: $25 per person (add on at checkout)

After a full afternoon of sessions, it’s time to uncover the architectural legacy of New Orleans! Your tour starts at HNOC, where you’ll gain foundational insights into the city’s building traditions through our historic structures. HNOC staff will then lead you into the vibrant French Quarter, where you will decipher architectural styles, explore hidden details, learn about ongoing preservation efforts, and peer into the past.

Attendees are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to stand and/or walk for 90 minutes.