Although the international banking firm of Lazard Frères and Company has stated it was founded in 1848 by his cousins, brothers Alexandre, Lazare, and Simon Lazard, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after joined by brothers Maurice and moved to San Francisco in 1851,Lazard website William D. Cohan, in The Last Tycoons, Doubleday (2007), states that "The story of the firm's humble origins in a dry goods store in New Orleans in 1848 has been buffed to such a high gloss it is no longer possible to determine if the tale is true" (pages 17–18). other sources give the following story:
