Free genealogy workshop on DNA testing to be held in Indianapolis

The Central Indiana DNA Interest Group (CIDIG) will hold a free workshop, "DNA Testing for the Genealogist," on Saturday, June 10 from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis. There will be sessions on:

• Adding DNA to Your Genealogy Toolkit - Ann Raymont
• Getting the Most from Your Ancestry DNA Matches – Andrea Ackermann
• Y DNA & mtDNA Testing with Family Tree DNA – Denise Anderson-Decina

Members of CIDIG will be available throughout to answer questions, including: the types of DNA tests available, the DNA testing companies, who to test, understanding test results, ethnicity reports and contacting DNA matches.

The workshop is free but pre-registration is required - please pre-register here.

Plainfield genealogy group to tour Indiana State Library

The Plainfield library's Family History Hounds genealogy group will meet on Thursday, July 7 at 12:50 pm at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis. Jamie Dunn will give a tour of the library's Genealogy Division, including the resources they have for other states besides Indiana. Afterwards, there will be time to do some of your own research. Participants should gather in the library's café area, just inside the north entrance.

If you are interested in the group, or have questions, please contact Plainfield library's Indiana Room - e-mail askindiana@plainfieldlibrary.net or phone (317) 839-6602 extension 2114.

RESEARCH TIP: Marriage Records

Under Indiana law, counties were required beginning in 1818 to keep a record of their marriages (with some keeping records even before then). Hendricks County was officially formed in 1824, so its marriage records exist from 1824 onward.

In the beginning, marriage records did not contain much information that we as researchers find helpful - just the name of the bride and groom, the date of the marriage, and the name of the person who performed that marriage. The earliest marriage books contained only handwritten entries (pictured: an example from 1839).

By the 1850's, the county began using books that had pre-printed forms (pictured: an example from 1852), which helped standardize the presentation of the information.

In the 1860's and 1870's, in addition to the marriage books, there was the (scattered) usage of marriage affidavit books, which sometimes listed the name of a parent or the age of the bride or groom (if they were under 18). Pictured: an example from 1871.

Handwritten notes were sometimes attached to the marriage affidavit form. Pictured: an 1871 note signed by Thomas C. Sheets stating that he gives permission for his daughter Josephine Sheets to marry.

In 1882, the use of marriage affidavit books was replaced by marriage supplement books. They contained numerous columns of additional information on the bride and groom, including how many previous marriages, their occupation, their birthplace, their residence, their age, the names of their parents and where the marriage took place.

In May 1905, a change in Indiana law took effect, which included the use of marriage application books in addition to the marriage license books. These applications had to be filled out for both the bride and groom, and asked several questions of them, including their parents' residences and birthplaces. Pictured: an example of a marriage application from 1914.

In May 1950, Indiana law consolidated the marriage application and marriage license books into one book. Pictured: an example from 1953.

In 1958 a new set of marriage books was used. The application portion of the marriage record now asked for some proof of the bride or groom's birthdate and proof of medical examination (blood test). Pictured: an example from 1958, where both the bride and groom's birthdates were verified by birth certificates.

The couple would receive the completed marriage license after the marriage had been performed. This document often included information that was not listed in the marriage license books - such as the names of the witnesses and where the marriage took place.

Usually you will only find these papers if they were handed down through the family. However, the Plainfield library has a collection of marriage licenses, which were found in the Hendricks County courthouse. The Indiana Room section of their website has an index in progress (pictured).

In the 1930's, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) indexed Hendricks County's marriage license books for 1824 through 1920. That WPA marriage index (pictured) consisted of the name of the bride, the name of the groom, the date of the marriage, and the corresonding book and page number. The WPA marriage index has been converted into a searchable database, available in the Data section of the Hendricks County GenWeb site. NOTE: There are some flaws in the WPA marriage index - it does not include any entries from Book 1 1/2 (which covered 1831-1837), and errors have been found in the names and book and page numbers.

The WPA also did an index of Hendricks County's marriage supplements books for 1882 through 1920. That WPA marriage supplements index (pictured) consisted of the name of the bride or groom, their father's name, their mother's maiden name, their age as of their next birthday, the date of the marriage, and the corresonding book and page number. The WPA marriage supplements index has been converted into a searchable database, available in the Data section of the Hendricks County GenWeb site.

The Hendricks County Clerk's office has Hendricks County's marriage records. They are on the 2nd floor of the Hendricks County courthouse in Danville.


Hendricks County's marriage license books for 1824-1950, marriage affidavits for 1866-1879, marriage supplements for 1885-1906, and marriage applications for May 1905-1947 have been microfilmed. That microfilm is available at the Family History Library and the Indiana State Library. The Plainfield library also has some (but not all) of this microfilm collection - their marriage license books microfilm covers 1824-1925 and their marriage applications microfilm covers May 1905 - January 1922.

The Archives on the Hendricks County Government website includes digital files of the Hendricks County marriage license books for 1824-2003.

The Hendricks County GenWeb site has an index to the Hendricks County marriage license books in their Data section. This searchable index (pictured) includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number. It is an ongoing project--so far it covers 1824-1848 and 1904-1964.

RESEARCH TIP: Probate Records

When Indiana formally became a state in 1816, it did so with a circuit court in each county. That court had jurisdiction for probate cases. Then in 1829, state law provided for the creation of a probate court in each county, separate from the circuit court. These probate courts remained in existence until 1853, when Indiana law replaced them with a Court of Common Pleas in each county. This court was responsible for hearing probate cases, but could also handle divorces, naturalizations, and criminal cases for small infractions.

Courts of Common Pleas existed in Indiana until 1873, and were then abolished. In most counties, the responsiblity for probate cases then reverted back to the circuit courts, where it is unchanged to this day. However, Marion County (Indianapolis), Vanderburgh County (Evansville) and St. Joseph County (South Bend) have established their own probate courts over the years to help with the caseloads.

The most common types of probate cases are estates and guardianships. Estates are about someone who has died (or been declared dead)--the payment of any debts they had and then the distribution of any remaining assets among their legal heirs. Guardianships are often about minors (children under the age of 21) who are legal heirs to an estate, but they can also be about adults, especially if the person has been found to be of an "unsound mind" or "insane," thus legally incapable of managing their own affairs. Like other kinds of court records, probate records are a great way for researchers to prove relationships between people, especially female ancestors who may otherwise be "missing" from records.

There are different kinds of probate records:

Probate Order Books contain a brief summary written by the court clerk of what happened each time the probate case came to court. Entries in the order books are in chronological order by the court term (with some probate cases continuing for several terms). Pictured: a 1903 entry from a probate order book.

Complete Probate Books contain a summary of the probate case from beginning to end, as written by the court clerk. This summary was made only after the case was finished and was done for an additional court fee.

Probate Packets—also known as “loose papers,” they contain the original documents that were submitted to the court during the probate case—IOUs, receipts, affidavits, newspaper notices, etc. Pictured: a probate packet from 1844.

The Hendricks County Clerk's office has a Microfilm Department, located on the ground floor of the Hendricks County courthouse in Danville (next door to the Self-Service Legal Center--take the west entrance to the courthouse and then turn left). It has microfiche of Hendricks County court records (including probate packets) from the 1900's.

The Microfilm Department has an index to the microfiche on a card file, which they will search for you. NOTE: After the court records were put on microfiche, the papers were destroyed. Unfortunately, the images on the microfiche are not always clear. Pictured: an administrator's application from a 1924 estate case.

Hendricks County's probate packets for 1824 through the early 1900's are kept in the basement of the Hendricks County courthouse. The Indiana Genealogical Society has a project where volunteers are unfolding and organizing these papers, then digitizing them so they can eventually be put online as a free database for the public. The project is in progress--currently there are digital files for about 100 cases.

Hendricks County's Probate Order Books for 1825-1918 and Complete Probate Books for 1826-1905 have been microfilmed. That microfilm is available at the Family History Library, the Indiana State Library and also at the Plainfield library.

NOTE: Hendricks County's probate order books were numbered beginning with volume 1 in 1825, but when the Court of Common Pleas was created in 1853, that numbering started over again. So it's important to know not only the volume number, but what time period it referred to. For example, volume 1 covers 1825 to 1835, and volume 2 covers 1835 to 1839, but then there is the volume 1 that covers 1853 to 1856, the volume 2 that covers 1856 to 1860, etc.

The Archives on the Hendricks County Government website includes digital files of the probate order books for 1825-1847 and a partial file of the order book for 1850-1852. They are in the Judicial Archive section. Pictured: a page from an order book for 1839.

Many of the probate order books have an index at the front (see example). These indexes are separated by the letter of the last name but are not alphabetical--entries were made in the index at the time that the case went to court, so you may need to browse through all the entries under that letter in order to find the case you need.

The Hendricks County GenWeb site has a searchable Index to Hendricks County Probate Order Books. The index is in progress; it currently covers the volumes for 1825-1844 and 1900-1918.

RESEARCH TIP: Land Records

Much of Indiana's land was surveyed using the rectangular survey system--a grid made up of a Township (which is numbered North or South from a fixed point, called the baseline) and a Range (which is numbered East or West from a fixed point, called the principal meridian). The baseline and principal meridian intersected at a point in Orange County (which is in the southern part of the state).

Each Township (not to be confused with a civil township, which was named--for example, Brown Township in Hendricks County) was made up of 36 numbered Sections. The Sections were numbered beginning in the northeast corner of the Township and then snaking left and right until ending in the southeast corner (see diagram, courtesy of Bureau of Land Management website).

A Section was 1 mile square and contained 640 acres. It was divided into quarter sections of 160 acres each. These quarter sections were referenced according to their direction on a compass--Northwest (NW), Northeast (NW), Southwest (SW) and Southeast (SE). The quarter section could also be further divided--for example, a half of it would be 80 acres; a quarter of it would be 40 acres.

When Indiana became a state in 1816, its land could be purchased from the federal government. These tracts of land were then subsquently bought and sold between individuals. The purchases from the federal government were made at General Land Offices (GLOs), with the nearest one to Hendricks County being in Crawfordsville. The Bureau of Land Management's website has a searchable database at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ which includes the Indiana land sales.

In a description of land, you usually work from right to left, as the description goes from the most specific to the most general.  For example, a piece of land might be described as being

"The NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 16 in T16N R1E"

First you would locate on a map where in Hendricks County Township 16 North and Range 1 East intersect. From this grid that is overlaid with the civil townships of the county, you can see that it is an area around Brownsburg, in the northeast part of the county.

Next, you would locate Section 16 within that grid. Find the southeast quarter of that section, and then focus on the northeast quarter of that.

The Hendricks County Recorder (located on the top floor of the Hendricks County Government Center in Danville, pictured) has the land records for 1825 to present. The records are in ledger-size (11 x 17) white books, which are hard to maneuver onto a photocopier. Luckily, at one point they went through and created a set of photocopies from these ledger-size books, at the same time reducing them to legal size (8 1/2 x 14). These legal-sized copies are in red binders whose numbers correspond exactly to their white ledger book counterparts. Also, these reduced pages can be easily detached from the red binders for copying.

Deed books do not have an index; rather, there is a separate set of books, called Grantee/Grantor indexes (see sample pages). A Grantee was the person buying the land; a Grantor was the person selling the land. Each land transaction is therefore listed twice in the Grantee/Grantor indexes--once under the buyer's name and once under the seller's name. These indexes are separated by the letter of the last name but are not alphabetical--entries were made at the time that a deed was recorded, so you may need to browse through all the entries under that letter in order to find the transaction.

Hendricks County's grantee/grantor indexes for 1826 through 1889, and Hendricks County deed books for 1825 through 1886, have been microfilmed.That microfilm is available at the Family History Library, the Indiana State Library and also at the Plainfield library. The County Seat Genealogical Society (now defunct) typed up the grantee/grantor indexes for 1826 through 1853--the Danville library and the Plainfield library have copies of this book, and you can also request a lookup from it in the Lookups section of the Hendricks County GenWeb.

Plat maps are a great visual tool for showing who owned a parcel of land at a particular time. For example, Family Maps of Hendricks County, Indiana by Gregory A. Boyd (part of Arphax Publishing's Family Maps series) shows the location of all the parcels that were purchased through the federal government, and then shows the location of those parcels on a modern road map. J.H. Beers & Co. of Chicago published Atlas of Hendricks County, Indiana in 1878, whichn included plat maps of each town and township (see example, showing part of their plat map for Center Township).

The Archives on the Hendricks County Government website includes digital copies of plat maps from the Hendricks County Assessor's office. These plat maps cover various dates from 1880 through 1940, and include a map of each section, as well as a listing of all the owners and the location and assessed value of their land. See examples of a plat map from 1880.

Unfortunately, deed books are only a transcription of the land transaction, done by a government official--it does not include the actual signatures of the buyer or seller. For that, you would need to get a hold of the original deed, which may have gotten passed down through the family. See example of an original deed from 1865--note how the signatures and the name of the buyer have been precisely cut out of the page (perhaps similar to how mortgages were mutilated or burned once the obligation had been met?).

One reason why genealogists like land records (besides the fact that they can help you locate where your ancestor lived and when exactly they moved into the area) is that they are a good source for finding out about female ancestors when they may otherwise not be named in records. For example, if a man was married when he sold his land, his wife also had to sign on the deed, because it meant she was legally giving up her right to what she would otherwise inherit if her husband died (known as "dower").

RESEARCH TIP: Birth Records

Indiana law required counties to keep records of births beginning in 1882. In the 1930's, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) indexed Hendricks County's birth records for 1882 through 1920.  That WPA birth index (pictured here) has been converted into a searchable database, available at the Hendricks County site for the USGenWeb Project (see the Data section).

Indiana law specified that birth records were kept by the counties' respective health departments. The Hendricks County Health Department is located on the ground floor of the Hendricks County Government Center in Danville (pictured here).

The Hendricks County Health Department will issue you a copy of the birth information, which was typed onto a card (pictured is a birth record from 1912).

Beginning in October 1907, the counties also sent a copy of their birth information to the Indiana State Department of Health in Indianapolis. Pictured is their record for the same 1912 Hendricks County birth as above. The ISDH version of the birth record contains a few more items of information, including the time of the birth, the parents' occupations, the number of births and how many of those children were still living.

Even though the law was passed in 1882, the recording of births was still not commonplace in Indiana by the 1900's, particularly with most births occurring at home instead of at a hospital. By the 1940's, there were a growing number of people who did not have a record of their birth, yet needed to supply some proof of their age--for example, to apply for Social Security, or to get a marriage license.



So in 1941, Indiana's General Assembly passed a law allowing Indiana residents without birth records to bring a petition before their county's circuit court. After being presented with evidence, the court would issue a legal decree stating the time and place of their birth (which could have happened several decades earlier, and in a place outside of the county or even the state of Indiana). This decree (often referred to as a "delayed birth record") included some of the same pieces of information that are found on an ISDH birth record. Pictured is an example of a decree for an 1896 birth, which was filed in Hendricks County Circuit Court in 1941.

Hendricks County has petitions for delayed birth records that were filed from 1941 through 1979 (though very scattered in the later years) and these records have been microfilmed.That microfilm is available at the Family History Library, the Indiana State Library and also at the >Plainfield library. The records have also been indexed at the Hendricks County site for the USGenWeb Project (see the Data section).