Modoc County, California Genealogy

Guide to Modoc County, California ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
County Clerk has divorce, probate, court and voter regisitration records from 1874 County Recorder has birth, marriage and death records



Parent County
17 February 1874: Modoc County was created from Siskiyou County. County seat: Alturas

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating California county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation California County Boundary Maps" (1850-1925) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Records Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Neighboring Counties

 * Klamath County, Oregon
 * Lake County, Oregon
 * Lassen
 * Shasta
 * Siskiyou
 * Washoe County, Nevada

Maps

 * Maps of California (1850-1925)



Migration
Early migration routes to and from for emigrant settlers included:


 * California Trail 1846 to 1869 from western Missouri to northern California
 * Applegate Trail since 1846 (avoided the Forty Mile Desert) by leaving the Humboldt River in Nevada early at present-day Rye Reservoir, Nevada and passing through the Black Rock Desert to Fandango Pass past Goose Lake on to the Lost River and eventually the Willamette Valley in Oregon
 * The Lassen Cutoff 1848 was established by gold rushers from Oregon going to California. It branched off the Applegate Trail at Davis Creek, went through Devil's Garden to the Pit River passing east of Mt. Lassen, and turning west to Lassen Rancho, California, and from there to Sacramento. In some years as much as 1/3 of emigrants mistakenly took the Applegate Trail-Lassen Cutoff, a much longer and more difficult trail than the Truckee or Carson routes.

Probate Records
Online Probate Records
 * 1782 – 1999 California Wills and Probate Records 1782-1999 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1833 – 1991 at FamilySearch — images

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Alturas California Family History Center
 * Cedarville California Family History Center

Vital Records
See also How to order California Vital Records

Marriage

 * 1850 - 1952 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1854 - 1885 - Western States Marriage Index.
 * 1960 - 1985 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Voting Registers
California county clerks were to keep voting registers every other year from 1866 and well into the 20th century. These large books, called Great Registers, listed the men who registered to vote in that county. Besides name and age, the record may show place of birth, address, occupation, naturalization date and sometimes even a physical description.

These records are at the California State Library (1866-1944), and microfilmed copies are available through Family History Centers (1866-1910). Ancestry ($) has a searchable database of Modoc Great Registers from 1875-1898.

The Modoc records for 1874 are available on the RootsWeb site, by clicking here.

Genealogy Societies, Archives and Libraries
Modoc County Historical Society Museum 600 South Main Street Alturas, California 96101 Phone: (530) 233-2944 Website


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

Web Sites

 * Modoc County, CA History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * California Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * California Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * Linkpendium
 * USGenWeb Archives
 * USGenWeb Archives backup site