Orange County, Indiana Genealogy

United States Indiana Orange County

Guide to Orange County Indiana genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Orange County, Indiana
Map
Location of Indiana in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	December 26, 1815
County Seat	Paoli
Courthouse
Address	Orange County Courthouse Court St. Paoli, IN 47454 Phone: 812.723.2649 Website
Template:Adoption Indiana Genealogical Society

Historical Facts

Parent County

1815--Orange County was created 26 December 1815 from Washington, Knox and Gibson Counties.
County seat: Paoli

• Crawford
• Dubois
• Lawrence
• Martin
• Washington

Resources

Bible Records

• Orange CountyBible records

Cemeteries

• Cemeteries for Orange County - Linkpendium
  

• Look under Cemeteries for Orange County - USGenWeb

Census Records

For tips on accessing Orange County, Indiana Genealogy census records online, see: Indiana Census.

• Index to Defective, Dependent & Delinquent Census for Orange County, Indiana (1880) (members only database, Indiana Genealogical Society)

Church Records

Most church records are held by individual churches. For contact information, check a phone directory, such as SearchBug or Dex Knows. Some denominations are gathering their records into a central repository. For more information about these major repositories, see Indiana Church Records.

Directories

• Directory of Businesses in Orange County, Indiana (1868) (members only database, Indiana Genealogical Society)

History

Local Histories

• History of Washington County Indiana: A Re-Production of the Original "History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties" 1884. (Salem, Ind: Washington County Historical Society, 1999.) 977.226 H2Lc FHL FHL Collectionother libraries     INTERNET ARCHIVE
  

• History of Orange County - Linkpendium
  

• Historical Articles of Orange County - INGenWeb

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

After land was transferred from the government to private ownership, subsequent transactions were recorded at the courthouse, where records are currently housed.

See Indiana Land and Property for additional information about early Indiana land grants and patents. 

Maps

• Family Maps of Orange County, Indiana Genealogy (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.
• Maps and Gazetteers - Linkpendium

Military Records

War of 1812

• Residents of Orange County Who Served in the Mexican War (1846-1848) ($, Indiana Genealogical Society)
• Look under Military Information - USGenWeb

Civil War

Civil War service men from Orange County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Orange County.

• 13th Regiment, Indiana Cavalry, Companies E, and F
• 24th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies B, and G
• 38th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies A, and I
• 47th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company F
• 49th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company G
• 59th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company F
• 66th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies D, and E
• 86th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company C
• 93rd Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies A, D, G, and H
• 112th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies E, and H
• 137th Regiment, Indiana Infantry (100 days, 1864), Company K
• 140th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company A
• 144th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company F
• 145th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company B
• 28th US Colored Troops, Companies D, E, F, G, and Addition Recruits for Colored Troops

Civil War Books

• "Military History Of Orange County" Chapter 7 in History of Washington County Indiana: A Re-Production of the Original "History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties" 1884. (Salem, Ind: Washington County Historical Society, 1999.), (page 508-529, Regiment, Companies),977.226 H2Lc FHL FHL Collectionother libraries     INTERNET ARCHIVE

World War I

World War II

Repositories

County Courthouse

Orange County Courthouse
Court St;
Paoli, IN 47454
Phone: 812.723.2649

County Health Department has birth records
from 1882, death and burial records.
County Clerk has marriage, divorce,
probate and court records from from 1816.
County Recorder has land records from 1816.

Family History Centers

• Bedford Indiana Family History Center

For additional nearby Family History Centers, search online in the [Family History Center directory]

School Records

• Directory of Teachers for Orange County (1936) ($, Indiana Genealogical Society)

Taxation

Indiana tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information see the wiki page Indiana Taxation.

For more information see the wiki page Indiana Taxation.

Vital Records

Vital records consist of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. Indiana law in 1882 required registration of births and deaths in counties. The Indiana Department of Health has birth records filed after October 1907 and death records filed after January 1900 for deaths. Copies may be obtained from the county health department or the Indiana State Division of Vital Records.

• Look under Vital Records for Orange County - USGenWeb

• Indiana State Digital Archives for Death, E-Publication, Institution, Military, Misc Historical, Naturalization Records can be searched by person name (accessed 26 May 2011)
  

Marriage Records

• Indiana Marriages, 1802-1892 - Ancestry.con $
  

• Indiana Marriages, 1780-1992-FamilySearch
  

• Indiana Marriage, 1811-1959-FamilySearch
  

Death Records

• 1882-1920 - Indiana, Death Index, 1882-1920-FamilySearch
• 1897-1916 - Orange County Death Index 1897-1916 in International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch - free. Batch B547441 .

Web Sites

• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Family History Library Catalog
• Orange County, Indiana Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)

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