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Birth and death certificates
- Vital records were only required by governments starting in the late 19th century, so you’ll need to look for family bible records, obituaries, cemetery records, or other types of documentation once you get back a few generations.
- Ancestry.com (your local library may have a subscription to access additional records on Ancestry.com)
- Indiana Death Certificates, 1899 – 2011
- Indiana Birth Certificates, 1907 – 1940
- County clerks may also have copies of birth and death certificates.
Wills and probate records
- Ancestry.com has Wills and Probate Records for Indiana
- Ancestry also has them for other states. You can find them by clicking “Search”, then “Card Catalog”. In the keyword box, type the state where the death certificate will be located, plus “wills probate” (for example: “Ohio wills probate”).
- Once in the database, you can search wills by name and county, but it will only show the wills. There are many more probate records available to browse.
- You need to click on the “Browse this collection” button, search for the county, and then start looking for the probate order books for the year that your ancestor died. Hopefully, there will be an index!
- Here’s a short video for you to watch as professional genealogist Michele Kerr (formerly the genealogist for the Society) works her way around the collection:
African-American settlers in Indiana
- Indiana Historical Society: Indiana Black Settlements – This resource gives a county-by-county resource listing for help in researching the earliest black settlers in the state of Indiana.
- ACPL Genealogy Center, Fort Wayne, IN. Indiana’s African American Settlements. This is a searchable database that is part of a larger study of Indiana’s African American settlements.
- Indiana African American Genealogy Group(iaagg.org) Resources page.
- Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Fall 2013, Volume 25, Number 4, “The Truth About Joshua Lyles: A Free African American Settler of Lyles Station, Indiana”, pgs 32 – 37
- Retro Indy: African American Settlements. Summary of three original articles published in the Indianapolis Star.
- The Indiana Junior Historian, Febuary, 1993 issue published by The Indiana Historical Bureau. “Black Settlers in Indiana.” This is a great resource that includes excerpts from some letters written in the 1830’s.
- NPR.org. Code Switch. “In Indiana, The Last Remnants of America’s Free African-American Settlements.” This includes a four-minute audio of the broadcast and some photos.
Other free resources
- FamilySearch.org
- Indiana marriages can be found in the Digital Collections
- County public libraries in the area where your ancestors resided
- Check to see if have any digitized collections available online
- Also, check to see if your own Local Library has digital access to:
- INGenWeb – Check for links to Indiana research
- Indiana State Library to check in Collections by County
- Allen County Public Library – Genealogy Center
- Internet Archive gives access to digitized books
- Google Books gives access to digitized books
- Hoosier State Chronicles gives access to digitized newspapers
- Indiana Magazine of History
- Search for articles that might contain stories on your Ancestors using Search box in upper right-hand corner.
- Scholarworks.iu.edu
- Indiana Historical Society
- Search for records that include your ancestor or details on the area where they lived.
- indianahistory.org
- Indiana Archives
- Research military, naturalization, court records, and institution records.
- in.gov/iara
Online books
County resources
- Gore triangle in southeastern corner of Indiana.
- This website has indexes available to search by name. There is a fee if you want to retrieve a copy of a document. GREAT RESOURCE for index information!
- Indiana’s Gore – Genealogy Resources
- Montgomery County IN Probate Record.
- History of South Central Indiana
- This is a section online from Looking at History: Indiana’s Hoosier National Forest Region, 1600 to 1950. It starts with a great history of Native Americans living in Indiana in the 1600s and is an excellent resource to learn more about our pioneer ancestors.
- History of South Central Indiana
- Monroe County Field Notes – Monroe County, Indiana
- Monroe County Field Notes is a virtual dig to uncover stories about 19th-century landmarks and people, from 1816-1876. It’s fun and free to get involved, and your research will help the Monroe County Library diversify the community’s history!
- Monroe County Field Notes
