St. Joseph County, Michigan Genealogy

United States Michigan  St. Joseph County

Guide to St. Joseph County, Michigan ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
County Clerk has birth and death records from 1867, marriage records from 1832, divorce and court records from 1900 and naturalization records. Probate Court has probate records. Register of Deeds has land records.

Parent County
1829--St. Joseph County was created 29 October 1829 from unorganized territory. County seat: Centreville

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Michigan county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Michigan County Boundary Maps" (1790-1897) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
For a list of record loss in Michigan counties see: Michigan Counties with Burned Courthouses

Neighboring Counties
Branch •  Calhoun  •  Cass  •  Elkhart County, Indiana  •  Kalamazoo  •  Lagrange County, Indiana  •  Van Buren

Cemeteries

 * Oak Lawn Cemetery, Sturgis BillionGraves
 * South Colon Cemetery, Burr Oak BillionGraves

Mottville Township:


 * Mennonite Cemetery
 * Mottville Township Cemetery

Park Township:


 * Center Park Cemetery
 * Moorepark Road North Park or Mint Cemetery
 * Moorepark Cemetery
 * Parkville Cemetery
 * South Park Cemetery

Local Histories

 * The Portrait and biographical album of St. Joseph County, Michigan is a 606 page history of St. Joseph County that was published by Chapman brothers in 1889. The book was digitized February 11, 2008 and made available on Google Books.

Maps

 * Family Maps of (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.
 * Maps of Michigan (1790-1897)

Civil War
Civil War service men from St. Joseph County served in various regiments. Men often joined a regiment or a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are the military units that were formed in or had many men from St. Joseph County.


 * - 17th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Company C

Probate
Online Probate Records
 * 1784 – 1980 Michigan Wills and Probate Records 1784-1980 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1797 – 1973 at FamilySearch — images

Vital Records

 * How to order Michigan Vital Records
 * 1867-1902 - Michigan Birth Registrations, 1867-1902-- Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as name of child, birthdate and place, if still-born, illegitimate or twin, gender, race and record number.
 * 1868-1925 - Michigan Marriage Registrations, 1868-1925 -- Free name indexes at FamilySearch. Records include such information as names of bride and groom, date of license, ages, race, residences, birthplaces, occupations and names of the fathers of the bride and groom.
 * 1867-1897 - Michigan Death Registrations, 1867-1897 --  Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch.  Records include such information as name of deceased, date and place of death, gender, color, marital status, age in years, months and days, disease or apparent cause of death, birthplace, names and occupations of parents, and the date the record was made.
 * Michigan Death Record Search, 1867-2008 -- A free index to deaths that occurred in St. Joseph county, Michigan is available at the County Clerk's death records web site.

Societies and Libraries

 * List of Michigan Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical &amp; Genealogical Societies

Libraries:

Family History Centers:

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers


 * Sturgis Michigan Family History Center 1111 Galyn St, Sturgis, MI 49091 United States

Societies


 * St. Joseph County Genealogical Society
 * Tri-State Genealogical Society

Web Sites

 * St. Joseph County, MI History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * Michigan Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Michigan Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county.