Indiana Counties and Historical Facts
Indiana County records vary widely from county to county in both quality and quantity. Some have been carefully preserved while others have been much abused and neglected. Some Indiana records have simply disappeared.
For genealogists doing research in Indiana there is no effective replace for an on-site search of county courthouse records.
Indiana County Records
Other records may also be included. However, other resources do need to be consulted.
Indiana began microfilming records during the Great Depression. It was one of the first states to do so.
Naturalization records, court records, slave registers, Revolutionary War pension files, wills, vital records, and more were recorded for 16 counties by the WPA around that time.
The Indiana State Library placed several court records and vital records on microfilm during the 1950s and 1960s.
They worked with the Genealogical Society of Utah, Indiana Historical Society, Commission on Public Records, and Indiana Historical Bureau to compile those records.
Unfortunately, there have been fires in 28 of the 92 courthouses in the state of Indiana. Some of them have been damaged or destroyed multiple times.
For example, a fire in 1814 at the Knox county courthouse destroyed all of its records.
The county recorder’s office holds land records, while probate records and other court documents can be find in the circuit court clerk’s office.
Many of the earliest records in counties that were gained as part of purchases from Native Americans can be found in each courthouse in the form of county commissioner’s records.
Those records may include: Names of Road Supervisors, Payments Made to Individuals, Appointments for Tax Collectors, Business Licenses, Naturalization Applications, Early Justice of the Peace Dockets.
Although records may go back quite far, they may be incomplete. Many records may have been lost, damaged, destroyed, or the events may never have been recorded in the first place.
See also a list of links to county and county seat government run websites.
List of Indiana Extinct Counties
Indiana has counties that no longer exist because they were discontinued, renamed or merged with another county.
A lot of these counties were established and disbanded within the 19th century; county borders have changed very little since 1900.
These are important for genealogy research purposes. Pay attention where the courthouse records went to if the county was eliminated or joined with some other county.
See the History of Indiana Counties for more details.
List of Indiana Counties with Burned Courthouses
Not only are these historic structures torn from our lifetimes, so are the records they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, and others.
Once destroyed they’re lost forever. Although they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too.
However, not all records were damaged or lost in some counties.
- Boone County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Oct. 1856, Practically all records lost
- Brown County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire, All records lost, except some clerk’s files
- Clay County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Nov. 1851, All records lost except Recorder’s records
- Daviess County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1879, Marriage records and index to probate and deed records were not destroyed
- Dearborn County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Mar. 1826, Most records lost–some early marriage and will records exist
- DeKalb County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1913, Probate records before 1860 were the worst loss
- Dubois County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Aug. 1839, All records destroyed, except the WPA found 10 boxes of deeds from 1812
- Franklin County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Feb. 1852, No records lost
- Gibson County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1935, No records harmed
- Henry County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Feb. 1864, Clerk, recorded, auditor and treasurer’s records were saved
- Jackson County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1872? and 1881?, No records lost
- Jasper County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1864, Clerk’s records were lost–deeds and deed indexes escaped damage
- Johnson County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in May 1849 and Dec. 1874, Records that survived: marriages from 1830, “complete” court records from 1823; recorder’s entry book from 1822 and deeds and deed indexes from 1824
- Knox County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Jan. 1814, Records that survived: marriages from 1807; order book from 1811; minutes book 1816-1818; orphan’s court minutes 1796-1805; minutes of common pleas court 1790-1810; general indexes to administrations from 1795-1886; deeds from 1814 and wills from 1806
- Madison County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Dec. 1880, Lost: marriage, circuit court and common pleas court records
Saved: wills from 1879, deeds from 1825, and general index to deeds from 1829 - Martin County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Apr. 1876, Saved: all records of genealogical interest
- Miami County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Mar. 1843, All records destroyed–deeds from 1828 survived
- Morgan County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Mar. 1876, Some records destroyed. Saved: marriage and deed records from 1822, probate order books 1822-1836
- Noble County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1843 and 1859, Most of clerk’s records were lost. Saved: marriages from 1859, deeds and deed indexes from 1836
- Parke County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Oct. 1833, Saved: marriages from 1829; probate, deed and deed indexes from 1833
- Porter County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Dec. 1934, All records saved
- Spencer County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Sept. 1833, Saved: marriage and deed records
- Sullivan County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Feb. 1850, All records destroyed except wills from 1841
- Tipton County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in 1857, Saved: records of genealogical interest
- Union County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Feb. 1903, Water damage to records only
- Vermillion County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Jan. 1844, All records saved
- Wabash County Courthouse – destroyed by Fire in Apr. 1870, Saved: treasurer’s, auditor’s, recorder’s and clerk’s records.
- Warren County Courthouse – The Courthouse at Williamsport was destroyed by fire on Sunday, January 20, 1907. All the records but those of the commissioners were saved.
List of Indiana Counties
| County | Date Formed | Parent County | County Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | 1836 | Adams New Purchase | Decatur |
| Allen | 1823 | Delaware New Purchase | Fort Wayne |
| Bartholomew | 1821 | Jackson County and Delaware New Purchases | Columbus |
| Benton | 1840 | Jasper County | Fowler |
| Blackford | 1838 | Jay County | Hartford City |
| Boone | 1830 | Adams and Wabash New Purchases | Lebanon |
| Brown | 1836 | Bartholomew, Jackson and Monroe counties | Nashville |
| Carroll | 1828 | Adams and Wabash New Purchases | Delphi |
| Cass | 1828 | Non-county Area | Logansport |
| Clinton | 1801 | Knox County | Frankfort |
| Clark | 1825 | Owen, Putnam, Sullivan and Vigo counties | Jeffersonville |
| Clay | 1830 | Adams and Wabash New Purchases | Brazil |
| Crawford | 1818 | Orange, Harrison and Perry counties | English |
| Daviess | 1818 | Knox County | Washington |
| Dearborn | 1803 | Clark County, IN; Hamilton County, OH | Lawrenceburg |
| Decatur | 1821 | Delaware New Purchase | Greensburg |
| Delaware | 1835 | Non-county Area | Muncie |
| De Kalb | 1827 | Delaware New Purchase | Auburn |
| Dubois | 1817 | Perry and Pike counties | Jasper |
| Elkhart | 1830 | Non-county Area | Goshen |
| Fayette | 1818 | Franklin Wayne County and Non-county Area | Connersville |
| Floyd | 1819 | Clark and Harrison Counties | New Albany |
| Fountain | 1825 | Montgomery County and Wabash New Purchase | Covington |
| Franklin | 1811 | Clark, Dearborn and Knox counties | Brookville |
| Fulton | 1836 | Non-county Area | Rochester |
| Gibson | 1813 | Knox County | Princeton |
| Grant | 1831 | Madison County, Adams New Purchase and unorganized lands | Marion |
| Greene | 1821 | Sullivan County and Non-county Area | Bloomfield |
| Hamilton | 1823 | Delaware New Purchase | Noblesville |
| Hancock | 1828 | Madison County | Greenfield |
| Harrison | 1808 | Clark and Knox County | Corydon |
| Hendricks | 1824 | Delaware and Wabash New Purchase | Danville |
| Howard | 1821 | Delaware New Purchase | Kokomo |
| Henry | 1844 | unorganized lands | New Castle |
| Huntington | 1832 | Adams New Purchase and unorganized lands | Huntington |
| Jackson | 1816 | Clark, Jefferson and Washington | Brownstown |
| Jasper | 1835 | Wabash New Purchase | Rensselaer |
| Jay | 1835 | Adams New Purchase | Portland |
| Jefferson | 1810 | Clark, Dearborn and Knox County | Madison |
| Jennings | 1816 | Jackson and Jefferson Counties | Vernon |
| Johnson | 1823 | Delaware New Purchase | Franklin |
| Knox | 1790 | Original County | Vincennes |
| Kosciusko | 1835 | unorganized lands | Warsaw |
| Lake | 1832 | unorganized lands | Crown Point |
| Lawrence | 1837 | Newton and Porter Counties | Bedford |
| La Grange | 1832 | St. Joseph and unorganized lands | LaGrange |
| La Porte | 1818 | Orange | LaPorte |
| Madison | 1823 | Delaware New Purchase | Anderson |
| Morgan | 1821 | Delaware New Purchase | Martinsville |
| Miami | 1835 | St. Joseph County | Peru |
| Marion | 1820 | Daviess and Dubois Counties | Indianapolis |
| Monroe | 1833 | Cass County and unorganized lands | Bloomington |
| Marshall | 1818 | Orange County | Plymouth |
| Martin | 1822 | Wabash New Purchase | Shoals |
| Montgomery | 1822 | Delaware and Wabash New Purchase | Crawfordsville |
| Newton | 1859 | Jasper County | Kentland |
| Noble | 1835 | unorganized lands | Albion |
| Ohio | 1844 | Dearborn County | Rising Sun |
| Orange | 1816 | Gibson, Knox and Washington | Paoli |
| Owen | 1818 | Daviess and Sullivan County | Spencer |
| Parke | 1821 | Vigo County | Rockville |
| Perry | 1814 | Gibson and Warrick Counties | Tell City |
| Pike | 1816 | Gibson and Perry County | Petersburg |
| Porter | 1835 | unorganized lands | Valparaiso |
| Posey | 1814 | Warrick County | Mount Vernon |
| Pulaski | 1835 | unorganized lands | Winamac |
| Putnam | 1822 | Owen County and Wabash New Purchase | Greencastle |
| Randolph | 1818 | Wayne County | Winchester |
| Ripley | 1816 | Dearborn and Jefferson County | Versailles |
| Rush | 1821 | Delaware New Purchase | Rushville |
| Scott | 1830 | unorganized lands | Scottsburg |
| Shelby | 1820 | Clark, Jefferson, Jennings and Washington Counties | Shelbyville |
| St. Joseph | 1821 | Delaware New Purchase | South Bend |
| Spencer | 1818 | Perry and Warrick Counties | Rockport |
| Starke | 1835 | St. Joseph County and unorganized lands | Knox |
| Steuben | 1837 | unorganized lands | Angola |
| Sullivan | 1816 | Knox County | Sullivan |
| Switzerland | 1814 | Dearborn and Jefferson County | Vevay |
| Tippecanoe | 1826 | Wabash New Purchase and unorganized lands | Lafayette |
| Tipton | 1844 | Adams New Purchase and unorganized lands | Tipton |
| Union | 1821 | Parts of Fayette, Franklin and Wayne counties | Liberty |
| Vanderburgh | 1818 | Gibson, Posey and Warrick counties | Evansville |
| Vermillion | 1824 | Parke County and Wasbash New Purchase | Newport |
| Vigo | 1818 | Sullivan County | Terre Haute |
| Wabash | 1833 | Adams New Purchase and unorganized lands | Wabash |
| Washington | 1827 | Wabash New Purchase and unorganized lands | Williamsport |
| Wayne | 1813 | Knox County | Boonville |
| Wells | 1813 | Clark, Harrison and Knox Counties | Salem |
| Warrick | 1810 | Clark, Dearborn and Knox | Richmond |
| Warren | 1837 | Adams New Purchase | Bluffton |
| White | 1834 | Wabash New Purchase and unorganized lands | Monticello |
| Whitley | 1835 | unorganized lands | Columbia City |
