Indiana Vital Records
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Indiana Birth, Marriage and Death Records[edit | edit source]
Introduction to Vital Records
Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents. United States Vital Records has additional research guidance on researching and using vital records. A copy or an extract of most original records can be purchased from the Indiana Vital Records State Department of Health or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred. See also Indiana Statewide Indexes and Collections at the Family History Library.
 Vital Records Reference Dates[edit | edit source]Indiana's vital records start the following years:
Birth and Death Records[edit | edit source]Indiana law required the recording of births and deaths beginning in 1882. Few civil birth and death records predate this time period. In fact, early compliance with the law varied and many births and deaths that occured in Indiana between 1882 and 1900 were not recorded. Most birth and death record ledgers are in the courthouse or another government facility in the county in which the event took place. The Family History Library has microfilms of some Indiana county birth and death records, as does the Indiana State Library. The Allen County Public Library also has some original Indiana vital records on microfilm. A second copy of birth and death records was filed with the Indiana State Department of Health in Indianapolis beginning in 1900 for deaths and October 1907 for births.
Application for Search & Certified Copy of Birth Record (State Level) Application for Search & Certified Copy of Death Record (State Level) You may order records by telephone if you have a major credit card. Fees for obtaining copies of the state’s records are listed on several Internet genealogical web sites and in:
Birth and death records are public records in Indiana, but the interpretation of the term "public records" varies greatly among government officials at the county level, so public access is inconsistent.
Delayed registrations of births are found in the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office. Registrations began in July 1941, and although the law is still in effect, most registrations occurred in the 1940s. They may contain information on births that occurred as early as the 1870s. Certificates for births that were originally not recorded were granted after a petition was filed with the court. These registrations may also contain births of people born outside of the county and even those outside of the U.S. Contact the clerk for copies. The Family History Library has microfilms of delayed birth registrations for more then 60 counties. For example:
Marriage Records[edit | edit source]Marriage records usually date from the formation of each county and are found in the County Clerk's Office in each county. Marriage records prior to the late 1800s usually include only the names of the couple, the date of the marriage and sometimes the date of the license, the officiant's name, the county of marriage, and occasionally the names of witnesses. Late in the 19th century, more detailed marriage application forms began to be used. Depending on the time period, they may include the names of the parents of the bride and groom, including their mothers' maiden names, occupations and residences for the bridal couple and their parents, whether the bride and/or groom had been married previously and how the previous marriage(s) ended (death or divorce). Often the marriage application also had a section where the parties were asked to attest that they were of legal age, were not insane, whether the groom could support a family, and similar questions. Since 1958, marriages also have been registered both at the county level, and at the state level at the Indiana State Department of Health in Indianapolis. The Family History Library and the Indiana State Library Genealogy Collection have microfilm copies of many Indiana marriage records. The Genealogy Collection of the Allen County Public Library has microfim copies of marriage records for 31 of the state's 92 counties. Check the ACPL Microfilm Catalog under "States" to determine the collection's holdings for specific counties and years.
Vital Record Indexes[edit | edit source]Birth & Death Indexes During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Indiana Works Progress Administration indexed many counties' birth and death records for the period of 1882 to 1920. These index volumes often are available at public libraries in the counties they cover, as well as at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis and the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. The original typescripts of the WPA indexes are at the Indiana State Library. The birth index provides the name of the child, its father’s name, mother’s maiden name, gender, color, date of birth, and the book and page number of the courthouse ledger where the original may be found. The death index gives the name of the deceased, gender, color, age at death, date of death, place of death, and book and page number of the courthouse ledger.
Published marriage record indexes are available for most Indiana counties from the earliest marriages to the early or mid-1900s and sometimes beyond. Many of these were compiled by the Works Progress Administration and cover marriages from county formation to 1920. They are arranged alphabetically by the name of the bride or groom and include name of spouse, color, date of marriage and for marriages after 1905, sometimes date of birth. These indexes reference the book and page number of the marriage ledger in the county courthouse where the original record may be found. For some counties, there is an additional supplemental marriage index that includes information from the longer marriage application form that began to be used toward the end of the 19th century. Besides the indiviidual's name, Information in the supplemental index may include father’s given name, mother’s maiden name, gender, color, age at next birthday, date of marriage, and courthouse book and page number. The spouse's name is not listed in these supplemental indexes. Additional published marriage index collections include:
The Genealogy Division of the Indiana State Library has microfilm indexes of Indiana marriage records from 1958 to the present. The Allen County Public Library has these microfilm indexes for 1962 to 1992.
Marriages through 1850 is a statewide searchable database on the Indiana State Library's website. The database was compiled from many sources, including original records and published marriage record indexes, among them, Willard Heiss's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy: Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana (see Indiana Church Records). The inclusion of Heiss's work in this database is significant since some early Quaker marriages may not appear in civil records. The Indiana State Library's pre-1850 marriage index database includes 330,000 entries, but may not be inclusive. FamilySearch has an ongoing project to index Indiana marriage records in partnership with the Indiana Genealogical Society. This searchable database, available at Record Search currently is 44 percent complete. The index portion covers 18 of Indiana's 92 Indiana counties (Adams, Allen, Benton, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Decatur, Dubois, Franklin, Harrison, Henry, Huntington, Marshall, Ohio, Owen, Rush, and Sullivan). The descriptive material for the collection indicates that it also includes searchable images of records for the counties of Adams, Allen, Benton, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Clark, Clay, Daviess, Decatur, DeKalb, Dearborn, Delaware, Dubois, Harrison, Huntington, Marshall, Ohio, Owen and Rush. The database's title is "Indiana Marriages, 1811 to 1959," however a few entries date as early as 1790. The Indiana State Library has a searchable index for Indiana Marriages, 1993-2002. Ancestry.com's Indiana offerings include searchable databases titled Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941, Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920 and Indiana Births, 1880-1920. These databases were compiled primarily from the published WPA indexes. Ancestry.com is a subscription database, but many public libraries maintain subscriptions that their patrons may use onsite.
Vital Record Abstracts & Transcripts[edit | edit source]The Indiana State Board of Health published abstracts of post-1958 marriage records annually from 1958 to 1965. These published volumes are available at the Indiana State Library and the Allen County Public Library. The Family History Library has them for 1960 and 1964. Transcripts of many Indiana vital records, including more than 175,000 indexed names, are published in Indiana Source Book: Genealogical Material from the Hoosier Genealogist, cited in the “For Further Reading” at the bottom of this article.
Adoption Records[edit | edit source]
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