There is so much history in the French Quarter.  There used to be cemetary tours offered before the hurricane.  They give lots of history of the families and their influences.  Since our cemetaries are above ground many of the tombs have fences and statuary around them like mini-estates.

At Brennan's you can see the old courtyard from almost every table.  The entrance is closed in but was once the narrow opening back to the carriage house through the courtyard.

Most of the wealthy families would come into town from their plantations on Sunday to attend mass at the cathedral.  While in town they would eat at the fine restaurants and enjoy "civilization" before going back to the farms.  Many children attended school in the city and lived there boarding school style.  Then on Sunday many wealthy families had a "Sunday House" in the city where they would stay over the weekend. 

Many of the old records are kept in archival libraries and some are in French while others are in Spanish and some in English but all in that hand-written calliography type handwriting.  Can you imagine how long it took to pen a mortgage.

The wills are especially interesting.  A notary would usually do an inventory of all of the property being declared and state it's value.  Such a rich history.