New Iberia Genealogy Records
New Iberia genealogy records are maintained by the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court, located in New Iberia as the parish seat. Researchers can access land, marriage, probate, and court records at the clerk's office, with older vital records available through the Louisiana State Archives online database and the Iberia Parish Library's local genealogy collection.
New Iberia Quick Facts
New Iberia Genealogy Records at the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court
The Iberia Parish Clerk of Court is the primary records office for New Iberia genealogy research. As the parish seat, New Iberia is where all Iberia Parish land records, mortgage filings, marriage licenses, succession and probate documents, and 16th Judicial District Court records are kept. The clerk's office is the first stop for most New Iberia family history searches.
| Office | Iberia Parish Clerk of Court |
|---|---|
| Address | 300 Iberia Street, Suite 100, New Iberia, LA 70560 |
| Phone | (337) 365-0722 |
| Website | www.iberiaclerk.com |
| City Court | 300 Iberia Street, New Iberia, LA 70560 |
| City Court Phone | (337) 369-2302 |
Marriage licenses in Iberia Parish name both parties, their ages, birthplaces, witnesses, parents, and the officiant. Records go back into the 19th century. New Iberia sits in the heart of Cajun country in the Teche region of south Louisiana, and many families here have deep roots tied to Acadian migration, sugar plantation culture, and Spanish and French colonial settlement. Succession and probate filings name all heirs and include estate inventories that can reveal property and family relationships going back generations.
Land records in Iberia Parish trace property ownership along Bayou Teche and the surrounding areas. These records can confirm when families settled in the New Iberia area and help track migration patterns. The 16th JDC handles civil matters including divorce, guardianship, and succession for Iberia Parish. The New Iberia City Court at 300 Iberia Street, phone (337) 369-2302, handles minor civil matters within the city.
Search New Iberia Genealogy Records Online
Iberia Parish participates in eClerks LA, the statewide free public index for land, mortgage, and marriage records. Search by name and date range to find index entries. The ClerkConnect platform may also provide document image access for Iberia Parish records. Both can be used from home before visiting the courthouse.
The Iberia Parish Library main branch at 445 E. Main Street, New Iberia, phone (337) 364-7155, website www.iberia.lib.la.us, has a genealogy collection focused on the Teche country of south Louisiana. The library holds Cajun genealogy resources including church records on microfilm, sugar plantation records, Catholic parish registers, and local newspapers. These specialized collections are important for New Iberia research because church records often document Cajun families much further back than civil records can reach.
Note: Cajun genealogy in the Iberia Parish area often involves tracing ancestors through Catholic parish registers, which name godparents, witnesses, and sometimes extended family members that civil records omit.
Louisiana State Archives Records for New Iberia
The Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge holds Iberia Parish vital records that meet the access thresholds under RS 40:41: death records open 50 years after the event and birth records open after 100 years. The online index at the State Archives vital records index is searchable for free. The full State Archives research resources page describes additional holdings including church records and census indexes relevant to the Teche region.
The Archives is at 3851 Essen Lane, Baton Rouge, open Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Photocopies cost $5; certified copies are $10. Mail requests go to P.O. Box 94125, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9125 with a 4-6 week turnaround. For New Iberia researchers tracing Cajun and Creole families, the Archives holds church records and colonial documents that can push a family line back well before Louisiana statehood.
Vital Records for New Iberia Residents
Louisiana is a closed record state. Birth and death certificates for New Iberia residents are not available at the parish clerk level. All requests go to the Vital Records Registry in New Orleans at 1450 Poydras Street, Suite 400, phone (504) 593-5100, open Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM. Birth certificates cost $15; death certificates are $7. Mail requests take 8-10 weeks.
Online ordering through VitalChek is the fastest option for New Iberia residents who need certificates quickly. For records old enough to be in the State Archives, contact the Archives in Baton Rouge directly, as older records are held there rather than by the Vital Records Registry in New Orleans.
Genealogy Resources in New Iberia
The Iberia Parish Library main branch is the primary local starting point for New Iberia genealogy research. The library holds specialized Cajun country records including plantation documents, Catholic church registers, and local newspapers that cover the Teche region. These records are particularly valuable for tracing the complex family histories of south Louisiana's Cajun, Creole, and Anglo families. The Louisiana State Library provides statewide resources, and the National Archives at Fort Worth at archives.gov/fort-worth holds federal census, military, and naturalization records for Louisiana including Iberia Parish.
The Iberia Parish Clerk of Court website is shown below, the main portal for New Iberia genealogy record searches.
The clerk's site connects to eClerks LA for free index searches of land, mortgage, and marriage records filed in Iberia Parish and provides contact information for ordering copies of documents.
What New Iberia Genealogy Records Contain
Birth records for New Iberia residents list the child's full name, birth date and place, parents' names, ages, and birthplaces, plus the informant and filing date. Death records add cause of death, marital status, spouse's name, and burial location. Marriage licenses from Iberia Parish name both parties, their ages and birthplaces, witnesses, parents, and the officiant. Land records describe the property along Bayou Teche and surrounding areas, identifying the grantor, grantee, price, and date. Probate filings name all heirs and include inventories of personal property, from tools and furniture to livestock and household goods.
Under RS 44:1, most Louisiana government records are public. Land, court, and succession documents at the Iberia Parish Clerk are open to any researcher. The 16th JDC civil records document guardianship, divorce, and civil disputes that name family members beyond what vital records capture. New Iberia's Cajun genealogy tradition means that combining civil records, church records, plantation records, and census data can produce remarkably detailed family histories for researchers willing to work across multiple archives and collections.
Iberia Parish Genealogy Records
New Iberia is in Iberia Parish, so genealogy records are filed through the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court. For full details on the clerk office, online access systems, fees, and all record types available, visit the parish page.
Nearby Cities
These nearby cities in south-central Louisiana each have their own genealogy record pages.