Dyer County, Tennessee Genealogy

United States   Tennessee    Dyer County





West Tennessee county. Established 1823.

County Courthouse
Dyer County Courthouse P.O. Box 1360 115 Market Street Dyersburg, Tennessee 38025-1360 Phone: 731-286-7814

County Clerk has marriage, probate, court and funeral records Phone: 731-286-7818

Register of Deeds has Land records Phone: 731-286-7814

Hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Last Saturday of the month, 8:30 am - noon

History
The county is named after "Tennessee state legislator Robert Henry Dyer."

Parent County
1823--Dyer County was created 16 October 1823 from Chickasaw Indian Lands. County seat: Dyersburg

Record Loss
1864 -- Courthouse burned and many records were damaged.
 * Antebellum marriage records have been lost (surviving records begin in 1860).

For further information on researching in burned counties, see the following:


 * Burned Counties Research in FamilySearch Wiki
 * Michael John Neill, Burned Counties in Family History Circle

Populated Places
Cities and Towns:

Neighboring Counties

 * Crockett
 * Gibson
 * Lake
 * Lauderdale
 * Mississippi County, Arkansas
 * Obion
 * Pemiscot County, Missouri

Research Guides

 * Genealogical "Fact Sheets" About Tennessee Counties: Dyer County, courtesy: Tennessee State Library and Archives. (Identifies published county histories, published local records, census records, newspapers and local records on microfilm, and select manuscripts.)

Cemeteries

 * Find A Grave can be searched by the name of a person or family to find where a person is buried. Usually gives birth and death dates often with a picture of the tombstone. May give obituaries, names of family members and links to their information in Find A Grave.


 * Find A Grave also gives a list of cemeteries in Dyer County linking to the information about the people buried there,


 * Dyer County, TN Cemetery Records, part of the TNGenWeb Cemetery Database, lists many cemeteries in the county, often with indexes and transcripts of the burials.


 * Dyer County, Tennessee, USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project lists many cemeteries in the county and has transcripts of the tombstones arranged by cemetery.


 * Campbell County cemetery information with transcriptions on TNGenweb Project


 * The Family History Library Catalog lists some records of cemeteries in Dyer county. Some of the books or others may be on Google Books or available at public libraries.


 * ePodunk list of Dyer County cemeteries

Census
1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 federal population censuses of Dyer County are available online. For tips on accessing census records online, see Tennessee Census. If you're having trouble finding your ancestors in online indexes, try checking printed indexes. Created by local experts, these indexes are often more accurate than those available online.

1890 - Lost, but substitutes are available:


 * Reed, Sue S. Enumeration of Male Inhabitants of Twenty-one Years of Age and Upward, Citizens of Tennessee, January 1, 1891, as Provided for by an Act of General Assembly of Tennessee, Passed January 15, 1891, and Approved January 22, 1891. 8 vols. Houston, Texas: S.S. Reed, 1989. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 X2r v. 3 1891. [Dyer County is included in Vol. 3.]
 * Sistler, Byron H. and Barbara Sistler. 1890 Civil War Veterans Census, Tennessee. Evanston, Ill.: Byron Sister and Associates, 1978. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 X2s 1890.

Church

 * Tennessee Diaries, Memoirs and Church Records in the Manuscript Division, Tennessee State Library and Archives: Listed by County. Nashville, Tenn.: Manuscript Division, 1965. Digital versions of this guide are available at Ancestry ($); and Heritage Quest Online ($).

Family Histories
It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. Use this list to:


 * Locate publications about direct ancestors
 * Find the most updated accounts of an ancestor's family
 * Identify publications, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, about an ancestor's "FAN Club" [Friends, Associates, and Neighbors]

General


 * Ridens, Arahwana Hendren. Dyer County and Newbern, Tennessee: Being a History of 39 of the Earliest Families of This County. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1979. FHL US/CAN Book 976.815 H2r.

Bibliography


 * [Watkins] Watkins, William Bismarck. The Watkins Family of North Carolina. Jackson, TN: McCowat-Mercer, 1922. Available at FHL US/CAN Film 1321283; digital version at Heritage Quest Online ($).

Law and Legislation

 * Tennessee State Library and Archives, Acts of Tennessee 1796-1850: Index to Names. January 25, 2005. [In addition to creating new laws, legislative acts were often required to obtain a divorce, grant legitimacy to a child, or for appointments to or grant payments for public service.] The Tennessee State Library and Archives has created an index to names that appear in these acts covering the years 1796 to 1850. To read more about this valuable resource Click here. The searchable index is available at The Tennessee State Library and Archives; another version is available at World Vital Records.

Occupations

 * Miller, Alan N. West Tennessee's Forgotten Children: Apprentices from 1821 to 1889. Baltimore, Md.: Printed for Clearfield Company, Inc., by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2006. FHL US/CAN 976.8 U2man. Purchase at Genealogical.com. [Includes Dyer County.]

Periodicals
Tap into the minds of local experts. Editors of genealogical periodicals publish unique sources that researchers who are new to their area would not likely discover. This type of material may be found in local, regional, or statewide genealogical society journals. The following periodicals cover this county:

Ansearchin' News

Several genealogical articles with abstracts of records of Dyer County, Tennessee have been published in Ansearchin' News, the quarterly magazine of the Tennessee Genealogical Society. To view a list of these articles, visit their county index. To read digitized versions of the first 36 years of articles (Vols. 1-36), browse their archive or conduct a surname search. The Family History Library has a complete collection of the Ansearchin' News quarterly FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 B2a.

Family Findings

Several genealogical articles with abstracts of Dyer County, Tennessee records have been published in Family Findings, the quarterly of the Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society (42+ vols.). The Family History Library has most issues of this quarterly FHL US/CAN 976.8 B2f.

Tables of contents for some volumes are available online, courtesy: TNGenWeb Project:


 * Volumes 1-10 (1969-1978)
 * Volumes 11-20 (1979-1988)
 * Volumes 21-24 (1989-1992)
 * Volumes 32-35 (2000-2003)

Many articles from this publication have been reproduced on the TNGenWeb Project website, try this specialized Google search.

West Tennessee Historical Society Papers

Family History Library has Volumes 1 - 16 and 30 FHL US/CAN Book 976.81 B5w. The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers are indexed in PERiodical Source Index (PERSI). To view Table of Contents and complete articles from 1947 - 2005 see Shelby County Register of Deeds

Prisons
Learn if your Dyer County ancestors went to prison!


 * Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1831-1850, free index available online, courtesy: Tennessee State Library and Archives.
 * Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1851-1870, free index available online, courtesy: Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Probate
The following Dyer County probate records have been abstracted and/or indexed:


 * [1853-1861] Sistler, Byron and Barbara Sistler. Index to Tennessee Wills &amp; Administrations 1779-1861. Nashville, Tenn. Byron Sistler &amp; Associates, Inc., 1990. FHL US/CAN 976.8 P22s. [Includes an index to this county's wills.]

Taxation
The original Dyer County Tax Books 1862, 1873-1884 were microfilmed by the Tennessee State Library and Archives in 1970. A copy of their film is also available at the Family History Library: FHL US/CAN Film 833249.

The following Dyer County tax records have been abstracted:


 * [1836] Tatum, Ausborn C. "Dyer County, Tennessee 1836 Tax List," Ansearchin' News, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 1982):177-180. For FHL and online access, as well as indexes, see Periodicals.
 * [1836] Tax List, 1836, Tennessee Genealogy and History. Signal Mountain TN: Aug 1997. Vol. 1 Iss. 2-3.
 * [1836] Douthat, James L. 1836 Dyer County, Tennessee Civil Districts and Tax Listing. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 2003. FHL US/CAN Book 976.815 R4d.
 * [1859] Appling, Lynn Pierce. "Dyer County Tax Sales 1859," Ansearchin' News, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 1998):36-38. For possible FHL and online access, as well as indexes, see Periodicals.

Vital Records
Marriage

The following Dyer County marriage records have been abstracted and/or indexed:


 * [1860-1879] Sistler, Byron and Barbara Sistler. Early West Tennessee Marriages. 2 vols. Nashville, Tenn.: B. Sistler &amp; Associates, 1989. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 V2sb v. 1 ff. [This county's marriages have been indexed in this publication for the specified years.]

Death


 * Hays, Tony. West Tennessee Death Records [ca. 1823-1852]. 2 vols. n.p.: Kitchen Table Press, 1987. FHL FAM HIST Book 976.8 V2ht v. 1-2. [Dyer County is included in Vol. 2]

For deaths of Methodists in Dyer County between the 1830s and the 1920s, try:


 * Smith, Jonathan K.T. Genealogical Abstracts from Reported Deaths, the Nashville Christian Advocate. [1847-1914] 10 vols. [Jackson, Tenn.]: J.K.T. Smith, 1997-2003. FHL US/CAN Books 976.855/N1 V48s 1847-1851 ff; digital versions at David Donahue Memorial: Tennessee Records Repository. [Website expands upon the publications and includes deaths from the 1830s, 1840s, 1910s and 1920s.]

Societies and Libraries
Dyer County Historical Society 120B McGaughey Street E. Dyersburg, TN 38024 Telephone: 731-286-7829

Web Sites

 * Dyer County, TN Family History and Genealogy Message Board (Ancestry)
 * Dyer County, TN Genealogy Forum (GenForum)
 * Dyer County, TNGenWeb (USGenWeb)
 * Family History Library Catalog (FamilySearch)
 * RootsWeb Mailing List: TNDYER-L (Dyer County, Tennessee List)
 * RootsWeb Mailing List: WEST-TNCHAT-L (West Tennessee Chat List)
 * RootsWeb Mailing List: WESTTN-L (West Tennessee List)