Why Louisiana has parishes
Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes, which the state's official website describes as analogous to counties in other states. The name goes back to colonial church geography. Historian Richard Campanella, writing for 64 Parishes, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities encyclopedia, explains that the Territory of Orleans was first split into 12 counties in 1805 whose lines reflected Catholic ecclesiastic parishes, that the territorial legislature organized 19 official parishes in 1807, and that the Constitution of 1845 ended all official talk of counties. Federal data still treats parishes as county equivalents, so a U.S. Census Bureau lookup lists a Louisiana parish in its "counties" results.
Today the Louisiana Constitution recognizes the parishes and boundaries that existed in 1974, and a parish seat can move only with a two-thirds vote of the parish's electors.
How parish government works
There is no single model. The constitution lets any parish or municipality adopt a home rule charter by majority vote, and two or more local governments inside one parish can adopt a charter together. The traditional form is the police jury, an elected board that a Louisiana House of Representatives overview from the 2012 to 2016 term called the most common form at the time.
The governing body's name usually tells you the form:
- Police jury: the Rapides Parish Police Jury says it is the governing authority for Rapides Parish.
- Consolidated government: Lafayette Consolidated Government and Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government.
- City-parish: Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish share one government with a Metro Council.
- Orleans: the City of New Orleans calls its City Council the governing authority of Orleans Parish.
Whatever the form, a charter cannot reshape the elected clerk of court, sheriff, assessor, district attorney, or coroner in ways the constitution or state law does not allow. The parish government guide and the pages on sheriff's offices and assessors explain who does what.
Parishes, judicial districts, and appeal circuits
Each judicial district contains at least one parish. Some are a single parish, such as the 9th Judicial District Court for Rapides. Others group several: the 15th covers Acadia, Lafayette, and Vermilion. Orleans has its own Civil and Criminal District Courts rather than a numbered district.
Appeals follow the parish, not the district. R.S. 13:312 assigns each parish to one of five circuits, seated in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles, New Orleans, and Gretna. Two districts are split. In the 16th Judicial District, St. Mary appeals to the First Circuit while Iberia and St. Martin go to the Third Circuit. In the 23rd, St. James goes to the Fifth Circuit while Ascension and Assumption go to the First. The Louisiana courts overview maps every district and circuit.
Finding the parish for an address
The map search above matches parish names and parish seats, so typing Alexandria brings up Rapides and Natchitoches brings up Natchitoches Parish. For any other town or a rural route, enter the full street address in the U.S. Census Bureau's Census Geocoder and choose Find Geographies. The "Counties" result names the parish. Then open that parish's page here, such as the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court, for its courthouse and records offices, or use the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory to compare all 64.