Let’s begin with the “casket girls”. The basic story is the city’s founders asked France to send over wives for the colonists, and King Louis XIV agreed. Young girls showed up only carrying what would fit into a little “casket,” which was just a small box that would hold a small amount of clothing. The "casket" girls were actually chosen from middle class families, but rumors began to spread.  Some said they were orphans, and others confused them with the "corrections girls" who had arrived just prior. A few even say they’re the ones who brought vampires to New Orleans.

Now what about the fire? The Great Fire of 1788  destroyed about 75% of the French Quarter. It is said that the fire licked at the heels of the outer walls of the convent. Some believe the sisters and nuns kept the fire from destroying the convent because of their prayers that kept the flames from leaping over the walls and consuming the building. Was this a miracle?  We will never know.

And last, let’s talk about the ghosts of the Ursuline Convent. Workers that were supposed to be doing construction and restoration were supposedly shocked by what they found. Inside the walls, they found countless bones all along the outer areas and even underneath the the foundation of the wall. Immediately the remains were brought to a lab for testing and the hope that the bones might have belonged to animals. This was not the case. When the lab results came back, it was discovered that the bones had actually belonged to children and infants. Knowing that the Ursuline nuns once ran an orphanage on these grounds, is it possible that perhaps these were the victims of infant mortality rates or disease? Yellow fever epidemics occurred almost every single summer in New Orleans, and in the midst of these epidemics, thousands of people lost their lives. The elderly and the young were most susceptible to the grip of the American plague, and it only makes sense that perhaps the nuns (seeing no other recourse) buried the dead along the barrier of the property.

Reports of hearing children’s laughter coming from the front garden of the Old Ursuline Convent (even in the dead of night) have been told on numerous occasions. The museum is closed for the night and there are no children on the grounds at that time of night. Locals (including myself) of the surrounding buildings have heard and seen from our balconies while peeking into the garden of the convent what looks and sounds like small child-like apparitions playing right on the front lawn.