• Indiana Marriage Records

  • FamilySearch.org – digital collections by state(Indiana).–> Click HERE

  • Ancestry.com (can gain access at your local library)
  • Contact the County where they were married to request a copy.

• Birth & Death Certificates

  • Remember that government vital records were only required around 1900 so will need to look for bible records, obituaries, cemetery records or other types of documentation once you get back a few generations.

  • Ancestry.com (Subscription or Library Edition at your local library for free)

    • Indiana Death Certificates, 1899 – 2011 –> Click HERE
    • Indiana Birth Certificates, 1907 – 1940 –> Click HERE
    • Contact County Health Dept where born or died.

• Indiana WILLS & Probate Records (FREE at local libraries)

  • Ancestry.com has Wills and Probate Records for Indiana –> Click HERE

    • They have them for other states as well and you can find them by clicking SEARCH / then CARD CATALOG / In the key word box, type the STATE where the death certificate will be located + “Wills” +”Probate” (example: “Indiana Wills Probate”)
    • Once in the database, you can Search the Wills by name and County, but it will ONLY show the Wills. There are many more probate records available to browse.
      • You MUST click on the BROWSE THIS COLLECTION button, search for the County, and then start looking for the Probate Order Books in the year that your ancestor died. Hopefully there will be an index!
    • I’ve even prepared a VIDEO for you to watch me as I work my 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.

• FREE Access Resources

  • FamilySearch.org

    • Indiana marriages can be found in the Digital Collections

  • County public libraries in area where ancestors resided

    • Check to see if have any digitized collections available online
    • Also, check to see if your own Local Library has digital access
      • Ancestry.com
      • HeritageQuestOnline
      • Fold3(military site)
      • Newspapers.com
      • NewspaperArchive.com
  • INGenWeb – Check for links to Indiana research –> Click HERE

  • Indiana State Library to check in Collections by County

    • in.gov/library/ –>Click HERE

  • Allen County Public Library – Genealogy Center

    • genealogycenter.org — Click HERE

  • Internet Archive gives access to digitized books

    • archive.org –> Click HERE

  • Google Books gives access to digitized books

    • Use parenthesis to help narrow down the searches!
    • books.google.com –> Click HERE

  • Hoosier State Chronicles gives access to digitized newspapers

    • newspapers.library.in.gov –> Click HERE

  • 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 –> Click HERE

  • Indiana Historical Society

    • Search for records that include your ancestor or details on the area where they lived.
    • indianahistory.org –> Click HERE

  • Indiana Archives

    • Research military, naturalization, court records, and institution records.
    • in.gov/iara –> Click HERE

Books (available online)

• Hoosiers and the American Story

  • by James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss; published by the Indiana Historical Society Press in 2014 –> Click HERE

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 — Click HERE

• Montgomery County IN Probate Record.

  • Ancestry currently does not have any probate records for Montgomery County available online, but I was able to view the Probate records on FamilySearch.org. In this video, I share how I was able to locate it.
  • Montgomery County IN Probate Box Records available on FamilySearch by Michele Kerr (Youtube video) –> Click HERE

• 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 1600’s and is an excellent resource to learn more about our pioneer ancestors.
  • History of South Central Indiana –> Click HERE

• 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 –> Click HERE