Louisiana Location Field Guidelines

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Louisiana Project Page > Project Teams

Location Field Guidelines

When entering places that are named after saints, please use the abbreviation of "St." instead of spelling out the word "Saint" in the data fields. This is standard nomenclature used by all church and civil entitles for places named in honor of a saint, both male and female. Using one standardized form consistently will help ensure that profiles associated with a particular place name will be found when searching for that place.

The Louisiana Project uses the following place nomenclature over time to describe locations covering the current-day state of Louisiana.

Most of the state, excepting the Florida parishes and the border area with Texas:

• 1682-1762: "Louisiana, New France" or "Louisiane, Nouvelle France"
• 1763-1800: "Louisiana, New Spain" or "Luisiana, Nueva España"
• 1800-1802: "French Louisiana" or "La Louisiane française"
• 1803-1804: "Louisiana, United States"
• 1804-1812: "Orleans Territory, Louisiana, United States"
• 1812-today: "Louisiana, United States"

Florida parishes area:

• 1513-1763: "La Florida" or "Spanish Florida"
• 1763-1783: "British West Florida"
• 1783-1821: "Spanish West Florida"
• 1822-today: "Louisiana, United States"

Disputed border area with Texas: aka "Neutral Ground" (included portions of present-day DeSoto, Sabine, Natchitoches, Vernon, Rapides, Beauregard, Allen, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, and Cameron Parishes)

• 1684-1689: "French Texas"
• 1690-1806: "Spanish Texas"
• 1806-1821: "Sabine Free State"
• 1822-today: "Louisiana, United States"

See this table in the Data Doctor spreadsheet for additional details: United States Historical Place Names tab.

For additional information on the names of specific parishes or cities over time, see guidelines on each of the regional team pages.