Talk:Tennessee, United States Genealogy

I stumpled across a noticed posted on the Tennessee Department of State Web site at: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/ which states under news &amp; updates (posted 4/28/2010) that an Index to Tennessee Legislative Petitions (a name and subject index 1799-1829) had been added to the TSLA: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/misc/petition.htm which I think would be very helpful to genealogists, except I can't figure out while of the existing categories of records listed under the Tennessee Portal it should go under. BarbZR

That fits best under "Public Records." DiltsGD 02:30, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

I noticed so many great things in these: petitions, some of which mentioned that the document has a list of many petitioners. That might be very helpful in the case of a burned-records county, etc. Also divorces. Name searchable. Thanks for pointing us to that resource, BarbZR! AdkinsWH 20:51, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

That is an excellent source to list for burned record counties. Can we sign you up to do this Wilma? :) Murphynw 23:42, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Restructure proposal
The primary function of the top state page for each state is to show a Wiki reader that there are many pages related to a state. In other words, the main state page serves as a linked table of contents to the rest of the state's pages. Ususally it is better to place information on one of those topic, county, or other related pages rather than on the top state page.

The current Tennesse page has several large images at the top. This shoves the links and table of content material "below the fold" where it cannot be seen without scrolling--not a good situation. Therefore, I propose a restructure of the page as shown below.

PLEASE, comment on this proposed restructure. What do you like or dislike? What do you suggest to improve it? Or do you prefer the old page? DiltsGD 23:29, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

There is too much wasted "white" space around all the images at the top of the "old page". I dearly love the clickable counties on the map of Tennessee, but the majority of the researchers may not be familiar with where the county they want is located on the map. The proposed restructure is much neater, and will get the important links (including the columned list of counties) closer to the top without the need to scroll down. ConnieB 1:39am 21 Nov 2010

United States   Tennessee Welcome to the Tennessee page, the Volunteer State Most unique genealogical features:
 * TN courthouse fires and disasters
 * Order many filmed county records from TN State Library and Archives
 * No civil birth records in TN before 1874. In some counties none til 1908
 * Short-lived State of Franklin created counties not recognized by NC or TN

Counties
Extinct or Renamed Counties: State of Franklin | Caswell | Christiana | Cumberland (old) | James | Lewis (old) | Putnam (old) | Spencer | Tennessee | Wayne (old) Click on the map below to go to a county page.

Major Repositories
Tennessee State Library and Archives· East Tennessee Historical Society· Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center· West Tennessee Heritage Study Center· National Archives Southeast Region (Atlanta)· Allen County Public Library

Early Migration Routes
Cumberland River· Mississippi River· Tennessee River· Avery's Trace or Nashville Road· Black Fox Trail· Bolivar and Memphis Trail· Catawba Trail· Chattanooga-Willstown Road· Cisca and St. Augustine Trail or Nickajack Trail· Cisco and Middle Tennessee Trail· Cumberland and Great Lakes Trail· Cumberland and Ohio Falls Trail· Cumberland Trace· Georgia Road (Federal Road)· Great Indian Warpath· Great South Trail· Great Trading Path· Great Valley Road· Jackson's Military Road· Jonesboro Road· Kentucky Road· Lower Warpath or West Tennessee Trail· Mississippi and Tennessee River Trail· Nashville-Saline River Trail· Natchez Trace or Chickasaw Trail · Old Cherokee Path· Tennessee, Ohio, and Great Lakes Trail· Unicoi Trail· West Tennessee Chickasaw Trail· Wilderness Road

Did You Know?

 * Tennessee is informally segregated into three "Grand Divisions" that are topographically, politically, economically, and culturally different. East Tennessee even attempted to secede from the rest of the State during the Civil War. See maps and details at the TNGenWeb site.
 * Did you know that at least 20 counties in Tennessee did not begin registering marriages until 1838? For more information, see Tennessee Vital Records.
 * In 1820, Tennessee's top three manufactured goods were whiskey, blacksmith's products, and flour. Learn more at Tennessee Occupations.
 * Listen to our complete collection of audio files of Tennessee county name pronunciations flavored with local accents.
 * Even though many 1820 East Tennessee census population schedules have been lost, manufactures schedules survive for most counties. A free online index is available at Lineages.



Research Tools
Free online video classes are available for:


 * Cherokee Genealogy
 * Civil War Genealogical Research
 * Inferential Genealogy - Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS teaches how to solve difficult Southern genealogy problems through interactive lessons.


 * The Tennessee GenWeb Project provides county information about formation date, parent county, county seat, bibliography, cemeteries, census, churches, towns, history, look ups, obituaries, queries, repositories, surname registry, and many Internet links.
 * Deaths 1914-1955 are now abstracted and indexed at Record Search. The original records are available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. For more information about using death records see Tennessee Vital Records.



Moderator
The moderator for Tennessee content is Richard Petty (username: pettyr1).

Things you can do
In order to make this wiki a better research tool, we need your help! Many tasks need to be done. You can help by adding the following resources to county pages: