The compilers of this work endeavored to assemble a comprehensive series of genealogical records of the pioneering families of Louisiana. The first part of book consists of a series of newspaper articles on various families by Charles Patton Dimitry, which originally appeared in the "New Orleans Times-Democrat" in 1892, and which were then corrected or expanded by the compilers. Since Dimitry's focus was confined to a limited number of early French and, to a lesser extent, Spanish families (which together constitute the first part of the volume), Arthur and Kernion augmented them with prominent Louisiana foundation families of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, as well as with additional French and Spanish families omitted by Dimitry and missing from Miss Grace King's "Creole Families of New Orleans."