Jackson County, Indiana Courthouse Records and Information Marriage, Divorce, Naturalization, Probate, and Civil Court Records

Jackson County Courthouse Information

Jackson County Courthouse
Attention: Clerk
P. O. B. 122
(111 South Main Street)
Brownstown, Indiana 47220-0122
1-812-358-6116

Hours: Mon-Fri, 8 a. m. to 4:30 p. m.
Copies:$.50 to $1.00 plus postage
MUST know record Book and Page number

The Division of State Court Administration has a good description of Indiana's Judicial System on their Web site.

A recommended resource for researching Indiana court records is Chapter 8 (Indiana County Records) from the book, Who's Your Hoosier Ancestor, by Mona Robinson. In this chapter, she explains among other things how the Indiana Court system is organized; the various types of probate records and where they may be found; the various types of marriage records; divorce records; guardianship records; adoption records; and naturalization records.

Marriage Records

In Indiana, marriage records have been maintained by the individual counties, although beginning in 1882, the counties were required to send marriage information on to the state for statistical purposes. You can only obtain copies of marriage record information from the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the license was issued.

The types of records the court may have include licenses (issued before the marriage took place, in the county where the bride lived); ministers' returns (made by the minister who performed the marriage and then, usually but not always, returned by the minister to the clerk of the court); and affidavits of consent (needed when either the bride or groom was under legal age). For marriages before 1882, county marriage records in Indiana may not include much information other than the bride's and the groom's names, the date of the marriage return, the officiating minister, and if the bride or groom was under legal age, the name of a parent or guardian. Beginning in 1882, the bride and groom also had to supply their age, birthplace, birthdate, race, the names of their parents, and information about any previous marriages of either person.

The Indiana State Library Genealogy Division has an online Database to an Index of Indiana Marriages Through 1850 on their Web site.

Several different indices to Jackson County marriage records exist. See the Jackson County Books, Manuscripts, and Newspapers page for more information on these books, the libraries where they may be found, and also where they may be purchased, if desired. Check the Jackson County Lookups page if you would like to request a lookup.

Divorce Records

In Indiana, copies of divorce certificates must be obtained from the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the divorce was granted. (Note: Divorces between 1817 and 1851 were granted by the Indiana State Legislature. You may want to try to obtain the book, Divorces Granted by the Indiana General Assembly Prior to 1852, Harlan, IN: Malinda E. E. Newhard, 1981, if you need to research a divorce that occurred in this timeframe.)

Naturalization Records

The Indiana State Archives Web site contains a good description of naturalization records available in Indiana.

The Family History Libraries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have some Jackson County naturalization records on microfilm. However, other than the information below, I have no other specific details on this yet.

The USGenWeb Archives for Jackson County, Indiana includes a text file with naturalization information that Bernie Cullen extracted in 1996 from Jackson County naturalization records on LDS Film 1314636 for surnames she was researching.

Probate Court Records

Check with the clerk of the court in the county where the person died. The types of records you may be able to find include: court records; petitions; wills; bonds; inventories; publications; accounts; and other miscellaneous documents. In some counties, indexes to probate records have been published. I have not been able to find out about any such index for Jackson County. However, you may want to check your library for Index to Indiana Wills: Phase 1, Through 1850; Phase 2, Through 1880, by Charles M. Franklin. Indianapolis: Heritage House, 1986-1987. This book contains the names of over 6,000 Indiana testators. The Family History Libraries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have some Jackson County probate records on microfilm. However, other than the information below, I have no other specific details on this yet. Lastly, some online genealogical Web sites, such as Family Tree Maker, offer fee-paid will index lookups.

The USGenWeb Archives for Jackson County, Indiana includes a text file with information extracted from Jackson County Will Book 1 for 13 wills. Also included in the Jackson County Archives are several files Bernie Cullen extracted in 1997 from Jackson County probate records on LDS Films 1314637-1314639 and 1314751-1314754 for surnames she was researching.

Civil Court Records Check with the clerk of the court in the county where the person lived.

Please contact me if you are aware of other sources of information about where the types of records mentioned above can be located so I can post that information here.