On April 6, 1807, the Territorial legislature passed "An Act Concerning the Celebration of Marriages." Among the detailed previsions in this act was Section 27, which read "No marriage shall be celebrated by any person who shall not previously have obtained a license for that purpose from any parish judge within the territory." Further, this section stipulated that any "priest or minister of the gospel, regularly ordained or admitted into any religious society" could obtain a license, provided he had produced "his credentials of proofs of his ordination" to the judge of the parish court, had taken an oath of allegiance "to support the constitution of the United States," and presented a bond of $2000 "for the faithful performance of his trust." In New Orleans, the judge of the City Court was authorized to issue marriage licenses to the credentialed priests or ministers.

An act "to alter and ammend" this act was passed on 3/17/1809, nullifying the required bond and stating that it was no longer necessary for a priest or minister to obtain a license in order to celebrate marriages.

The record consists of a single volume, recording the bonds to priests/ministers and licenses issued by the judge of City Court. (The ministers or priests who were authorized by the court to celebrate marriages were: Philander Chase, Reverend Peter Koune, Reverend John Olivier, Reverend Peter Francis L'Espinose, Reverend Pere Antonio de Sedella, and Alexis C. Bonamy). The volume records 106 marriage licenses issued by the City Court during the period 4/20/1807 to 12/31/1808, arranged chronologically. The names of each bride and groom are listed along with the date of filing for each license.

The inventory of the marriage licenses below (created from the microfilm by volunteer Ellen Cleary) records the salient information in each record. The licenses themselves are not extant.

These are the only pre-1846 civil marriage records for New Orleans in the City Archives.

Microfilm filed as item #4 under call number mf VSG300 1872.

Note: This volume was filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU film number 500471, Item 4). The GSU Family History Library Catalog misidentifies the court as "District Court" and the date range as 1807-1815.