Dickinson County, Iowa Genealogy

United States Iowa  Dickinson County

County Courthouse
Dickinson County Courthouse 1802 Hill Ave Spirit Lake, IA 51360

(712) 336-1495

Dickinson County

Parent County
1851--Dickinson County was created 15 January 1851 from unorganized territory. It was attached to Woodbury County prior to organization 3 August 1857. County seat:  Spirit Lake

Record Loss
November 1871 -- Courthouse burned and many records were damaged.

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

Neighboring Counties
Clay | Emmet | O'Brien | Osceola | Palo Alto | Jackson County, Minnesota

Cemeteries
Cemeteries, IAGenWeb Dickinson County, Iowa

Census
Iowa recorded not only the federal census but state census through out the years too. The state census contains very valuable genealogical information. Where the census information can be found, what years it was taken, mortality schedules, census substitutions and much more is discussed in the very informative Iowa Census article.

Newspapers
NewspaperArchive.com ($) has a large collection of digitized Iowa newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries.

Ancestry.com has most of the Spirit Lake Beacon from 1870 to 1977 in searchable form. From ancestry's home page, select Card Catalog under the Search tab. Search for Spirit Lake and select the Spirit Lake Beacon on the right. If the name you are searching for is common, use the keyword field and type the name in quotation marks like this: "John Sears." You will have to do an additional search for names with initials such as "John C. Sears" but that's still easier than reading all the ads for Sears stores, or whatever your name might be confused with.

Vital Records
Iowa began keeping vital records in 1880. Look in the Library catalog to find what is available for Dickinson county.

Societies and Libraries
The Spirit Lake public library has helpfully published local cemetery records on http://www.spiritlakepubliclibrary.org/ On the library's home page, select the Cemetery Records tab. If you don't know which of the 16 cemetery records to search, then use the Merged Records option. It is slower, but it has everyone.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Web Sites

 * Dickinson County, Iowa Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * Dickinson County, Iowa Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)