About the Ascension Parish Clerk of Court
Ascension Parish runs its clerk's office out of two towns, and that is the first thing a visitor should sort out. Donaldsonville is the parish seat, yet the main office sits in the courthouse at 607 East Worthey Street in Gonzales, with a satellite office back in Donaldsonville at 300 Houmas Street. Bridget Hanna has been Clerk of Court since February 2, 2015, and the clerk's website notes that she is the first woman to hold the office in Ascension.
The Louisiana Constitution sets the job: each parish elects a clerk of the district court for a four-year term, and that official is also, by virtue of the office, a notary public and the recorder of conveyances, mortgages, and other acts. Ascension adds a twist on the court side. Here the clerk keeps the record for the 23rd Judicial District Court and also serves as clerk of the Ascension Parish Court. The Election Code supplies a third hat, naming the clerk the parish's chief election officer, and the clerk's elections page says the office also chairs the Parish Board of Election Supervisors.
The paper trail is old. According to the clerk, original records go back to 1770, when the area was called the "Second Acadian Coast" and had just 267 settlers. The earliest acts on file are the notarial acts of Louis Judice, covering 1770 to 1787, and six volumes of French acts from 1808 through 1890 were translated into English as a Works Progress Administration project. The parish itself dates to 1807. The Census counted 126,499 residents in its 2020 base and estimated 133,534 by July 2024, about 7,000 more people on roughly 290 square miles of land.
Contacts for every other parish are in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in Ascension Parish
Suit records are split by department. The Civil Department takes civil suits, adoptions, successions, and appeals, and it posts a divorce checklist for people filing on their own. The Criminal Department handles felony and misdemeanor filings for the 23rd Judicial District Court in Ascension, plus expungements and criminal background checks. Juvenile delinquency and child in need of care files are also kept, but the clerk's site marks them confidential. That matches the Children's Code, which makes juvenile court records other than traffic violations confidential.
Remote searching runs through eClerks LA, the portal of the Louisiana Clerks' Remote Access Authority. The clerk's home page says mortgage, conveyance, map, criminal, traffic, civil, and marriage records are searchable there, with monthly subscriptions and daily access rates. Anyone who would rather not subscribe can use the public access computers at each office to view filed records. Keep the portal's limits in mind: eClerks LA calls its Statewide Portal free for finding index entries across parishes, but images usually come through a paid parish subscription, and the portal does not describe a statewide criminal case search.
For filers, the clerk's E-Services page links eClerks LA for e-recording and Clerk Connect for civil and criminal e-filing. Under R.S. 13:754, every district clerk in Louisiana had until January 1, 2026, to support electronic filing, recording, and remote access through the LCRAA portal.
At the counter, Louisiana's Public Records Law lets any person obtain a copy of a public record unless an exception applies, and no one can be charged just to look at one. Expunged records are the common exception. Expungement takes an arrest or conviction out of public view, but the record is not destroyed and law enforcement can still reach it. Statewide background is in the guides to court records in Louisiana and criminal records.
Land, mortgage, and property records
The Recording Department takes deeds, mortgages, mortgage cancellations, UCC filings, and appearance bonds, while land records research shares a phone extension with birth certificates. Ascension's patent records date to 1807, according to the clerk, and some fragile early volumes are stored at the State Archives rather than in Gonzales. If you are tracing an old title, ask where a given book is kept before you make the trip.
Louisiana records a sale or mortgage of land in the parish where the land is located, so the parish line matters more than the owner's mailing address. Ascension touches six parishes: Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston, St. James, and St. John the Baptist. When a tract runs over the Livingston line, the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court holds the part that lies in Livingston. The same goes for acreage that continues into St. James, which is recorded by the St. James Parish Clerk of Court in Convent, and for land shared with Assumption, whose books are kept by the Assumption Parish Clerk of Court in Napoleonville.
One state rule shows up at the recording desk: a deed presented for recording has to name the person responsible for property taxes and the address for tax notices. Values and exemptions are not set by the clerk at all; those belong to the assessor, covered below. The Louisiana property records guide explains how conveyance and mortgage books work across the state.
Marriage licenses and family records
Both offices issue marriage licenses, and the clerk asks applicants to arrive no later than 4:00 p.m. Only one of the two people needs to come in, but that person has to bring the documents for both. The clerk's marriage page, viewed in October 2026, lists a $35.00 fee that is not refundable and includes a certified copy mailed back after the ceremony. An application worksheet can be printed in advance.
The license is good for 30 days. Louisiana bars the ceremony until 24 hours after issuance, and the Ascension page notes that a judge or justice of the peace performing the wedding may waive that wait. State law asks each applicant for valid identification and a certified birth certificate, and a Louisiana short-form birth card is acceptable. A Louisiana license can be issued in any parish, no matter where the couple lives or marries.
After the wedding, the officiant has ten days to file the certificate copies with the clerk who issued the license. Ascension's marriage index begins in 1770, and the clerk says the Donaldsonville office holds marriage documents from 1829 forward.
Divorce, custody, and support judgments are part of the district court record this clerk keeps. The state's Vital Records office does not issue divorce decrees; certified copies come from the clerk of the parish that granted the divorce. The Ascension clerk also issues Louisiana birth certificates for births from 1903 on and death certificates for deaths from 2013 on, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Posted prices in October 2026 were $34.00 for a birth certificate and $26.00 for a death certificate, cash only in Donaldsonville. See the marriage records and divorce records guides for statewide rules.
Courts that serve Ascension Parish
The 23rd Judicial District Court serves Ascension together with Assumption and St. James. Its website lists Divisions A through F and two hearing officers, with the judges' chambers on the third floor of the Gonzales courthouse and court also held at 300 Houmas Street in Donaldsonville.
Ascension also has a parish court, a separate trial court. The Ascension Parish Court was created by the Legislature in 1976, and its jurisdiction covers Donaldsonville, Gonzales, and Sorrento plus every part of the parish outside those towns. The Louisiana Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts lists only three parish courts statewide: this one and the First and Second Parish Courts of Jefferson Parish. The court sits at both courthouses, with its judge's office on the third floor in Gonzales. No city court was found in Ascension, since the parish court covers the municipalities. Outside the four parishes with special juvenile courts, the Children's Code gives parish courts juvenile jurisdiction alongside the district court.
Appeals do not all travel the same road inside this district. Cases from Ascension go to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit in Baton Rouge, as do Assumption's, while St. James cases from the same district court go to the Fifth Circuit in Gretna.
Visiting the Ascension Parish courthouse
Pick your office before you drive. The Gonzales courthouse on East Worthey Street is the main office, with the clerk's staff on the first floor; the Donaldsonville office on Houmas Street is the satellite in the parish seat. The clerk's website lists both as open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Passport applications are taken until 3:00 p.m., and the Donaldsonville office requires an appointment for them.
The main phone line routes by extension, which saves a transfer. According to the clerk, 1 reaches jury, 2 civil, 3 the minute clerk and criminal, 4 recording and passports, 5 land records and birth certificates, and 6 marriage licenses. Elections answer at the Donaldsonville number, extension 7. Jury pool reporting dates are posted on the clerk's home page, and the clerk lists separate fax lines for criminal and recording filings.
Researchers with time to spare may prefer Donaldsonville anyway. The clerk's history page invites the public to visit that office to explore historic Ascension Parish.
Other Ascension Parish offices
Sheriff Robert "Bobby" Webre leads the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office, which lists a Gonzales location on South Irma Boulevard and a Donaldsonville location on Houmas Street. Outside Orleans the sheriff is also the collector of state and parish property taxes, and the sheriff's site links tax payments, an inmate search, and sheriff's sale listings. The sheriff's offices guide explains those duties statewide.
The assessor is M.J. "Mert" Smiley, CLA, whose office the Louisiana Assessors' Association places on East Worthey Street in Gonzales. The Ascension Parish Assessor's website offers a parish map, a property search, and a homestead exemption application. Louisiana's constitution exempts a qualifying owner-occupied home from state and parish taxes up to $7,500 of assessed value; the tax assessors guide covers the details.
Ascension Parish Government has a parish president, Clint Cointment, and a Parish Council.