Dyer County, Tennessee Genealogy

United States   Tennessee    Dyer County West Tennessee county. Established 1823.





Quick Dates
Dyer County's civil records start the following years:

County Courthouse
Dyer County Courthouse P.O. Box 1360 115 Market Street Dyersburg, Tennessee 38025-1360 Phone: 1-731-286-7814


 * County Clerk has marriage, probate, court and funeral records Phone: 1-731-286-7818


 * Register of Deeds has Land records Phone: 1-731-286-7814

Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Last Saturday of the month, 8:30 a.m.-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

County Pronunciation


Did we get the accent right? If not, contact Nathan W. Murphy, [mailto:murphynw@familysearch.org murphynw@familysearch.org].

Boundary Changes
"Rotating Formation Tennessee County Boundary Maps" (1777-1985) may be viewed for free at the My Tennessee Genealogy website. They rely on AniMap 3.0 software.

Record Loss
1864 -- Courthouse burned and many records were damaged.


 * Lost marriages: 1823 to 1859
 * Lost probate: 1823 to 1853

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


 * Arlene Eakle, When the Records are Gone in Tennessee Genealogy Blog
 * 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

Getting Started
Use the free Search for Surnames at Mountain Press's website to quickly search a variety of published Dyer County biography and tax records. To determine which books are being searched, or to search each publication's index individually, click here. You are now equipped with a checklist of books to pull off the shelves at a genealogy library, or a wish list for your personal book collection.

Research Guides

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

African American
United States African Americans Tennessee African Americans

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 familiar with the area's families, these indexes are often transcribed more accurately than nationwide online indexes.

See Tennessee Population Schedule Indexes: Fiche, Film, or Book for more information about statewide printed indexes.

See Dyer County, TN census assignments, including links to transcribed files. [The USGenWeb Census Project®]

1840 Revolutionary War Pensioners


 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census. 1841; reprint, Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing, 1967. FHL US/CAN Book 973 X2pc 1840; FHL US/CAN Film 2321. 1841 edition digitized by the U.S. Census Bureau and Google books et. al. [See Tennessee, Western District, Dyer County on page 158.]

1850


 * Carpenter, Mrs. V.K. Seventh census of the United States, 1850; Dyer County, Tennessee, free population schedules Huntsville, Arkansas : Century Enterprises, Genealogical SErvices, 1969 FHL US/CAN book 976.815 X2

1860


 * Felldin, Jeanne Robey and Tucker, Charlotte Magee 1860 United States census, Dyer County, Tennessee, surname index Tomball, Texas : Genealogical Publications, c1976 FHL US/CAN book 976.8 A1

1880


 * Sistler, Samuel 1880 census, Dyer County, Tennessee Nashville, Tennessee : Byron Sistler and Associates, 2002 FHL US/CAN book 976.815 X2

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

 * If the records you need are not found in the Family History Library collection, contact the church(es) in the area where your ancestor lived. Two sites that give information about churches in Dyer County are:


 * - List of Dyer County churches with addresses and phone numbers (Yellowbook)
 * - List of Dyer County churches (TN HomeTownLocator)


 * In 1936, a helpful guide to early Dyer County church records was published by the Works Project Administration. Use this guide to locate which church records exist and where they were housed in 1936. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has filmed some of these records. To locate which records are available at the TSLA, go to the appropriate "county fact sheet" on the TSLA Web site and scroll down to "selected manuscript material". All filmed church records at the TSLA for Dyer County are listed. Many of these filmed records are also available at the Family History Library.


 * 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 ($); and Heritage Quest Online ($).

DNA
DNA has been collected from men claiming descent from the following Dyer County residents. Attempts have not been made to verify the lineages of those tested.


 * [Doss] Descendant of John Henry Newton Doss, b. 1843 Shelby County, Alabama; resident of Madison County, Alabama and Dyer County, Tennessee. Y-DNA 37 Marker Test, FTDNA (Kit 82840). Genetic signature available online (labeled Ga-1), genealogical description available online, courtesy: The Doss DNA Project, World Families. Matches have been found.

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

As of August 2010, a query for persons born in Dyer, Tennessee at World Connect, results in more than 49,000 entries.


 * A History of the Dyer, Tennessee Community. Paducah, Ky.: Turner's Publishing Co. Publisher's description.
 * 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 ($).

Land
Dyer County Register of Deeds has Land Records from 1823 and is located at Courthouse Square, P.O. Box 1360, Dyersburg, Tennessee 38025-1360; Telephone: (731) 286-7814. Land and property records include transfer of real estate or personal property, mortgages, leases, surveys, and entries

The Family History Library has microfilm copies of deed books 1824-1882 with indexes 1822-1915, land survey books 1827-1860, and survey entries 1820-1911.

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 TSLA 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 TSLA; another version is available at World Vital Records.

Military
Revolutionary War

The following Dyer County Revolutionary War records are available online through TNGenWeb:


 * 1835 Pension Roll
 * Select Pension applications

Additional resources include:


 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census. 1841; reprint, Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing, 1967. FHL US/CAN Book 973 X2pc 1840; FHL US/CAN Film 2321. 1841 edition digitized by the U.S. Census Bureau and Google books et. al. [See Tennessee, Western District, Dyer County on page 158.]

War of 1812

There were no War of 1812 pensioners or widows of pensioners living in Dyer County on 2 January 1883.

Newspapers
Many Tennessee newspapers are filmed and available at the TSLA. Most of these newspapers may be accessed by interlibrary loan to libraries within Tennessee, although there are some newspapers which are not available in or outside of Tennessee. For further information regarding interlibrary loan policies and newspapers not available for interlibrary loan click here. For a list of newspapers available at the archives for Dyer County click on the following cities or towns:


 * Dyersburg
 * Newbern

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
 * 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
 * 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: TSLA.
 * Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1851-1870, free index available online, courtesy: TSLA.

Probate
Probate records are court records created after an individual’s death that relate to a court’s decisions regarding the distribution of the estate to the heirs or creditors and the care of any dependents. You may find the names of married daughters or other relatives and their residences; or information about the adoption or guardianship of minor children and dependents. Probate records do not always give an exact date of death, but the death usually occurred within a few months of probate. These documents are important to family history researchers, because they usually exist for time periods before civil birth and death records were kept.

The County Court has responsibility for the probate records of Dyer County.

The following Dyer County probate records have been indexed:


 * [1853-1893] Lambert, Agnes and Mary N. Gilmore, transcribers for Works Progress Administration. Dyer County, Tennessee Wills. Nashville, Tennessee: Byron Sistler &amp; Assoc., 1998. (FHL book 976.815 P2L v. 1.)
 * [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.]
 * USGenWeb's Dyer County page has links to several transcribed wills.

Taxation
The original Dyer County Tax Books 1862, 1873-1884 were microfilmed by the TSLA in 1970. FHL copy: 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. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 B2a v. 29-30 (1982-1983); free digital version at society's website. For further access, 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; online: free surname index and purchase details.
 * [1836] Alsup, Samuel. "1836 Tax Rolls, Dyer Co., TN," available online, courtesy: TNGenWeb.
 * [1859] Appling, Lynn Pierce. "Dyer County Tax Sales 1859," Ansearchin' News, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 1998):36-38. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 B2a v. 45-46 (1998-1999). For access, see Periodicals.

Marriage
Marriages were not officially recorded in Dyer County until 1838, when a law was passed mandating the practice. The following publication, based on early newspapers, helps to alleviate this genealogical obstacle:


 * Lucas, Silas Emmett. Marriages from Early Tennessee Newspapers 1794-1851. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 V2L.

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. [Indexes names of brides and grooms, and marriage dates for weddings in this county for the specified years.]
 * [1860-1880] Historical Records Project Marriage records, 1860-1880, Dyer County, Tennessee Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1939. FHL US/CAN 24642 item 3
 * [1860-1969] Dyer County (Tennessee) County Court Clerk Marriages, 1860-1969 Dyersburg, Tennessee : State Library and Archives, 1970. FHL US/CAN Film 833217-229 and 1011421-424
 * RecordSearch at FamilySearch now includes indexed Tennessee marriages. This is a free pilot site and still under construction.  At this time, it is best to search from the home page titled Discover Your Ancestors; indicate a surname, marriage "event" and a county name (i.e. Dyer, Tennessee).  Browse through the results for that surname. You may need to supply any variant spellings of the surname in separate searches.
 * Many county marriage records are indexed with images at Ancestry's Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 ($). Be aware that this index is not complete for all counties.

Divorce
In 1940 and 1941, W.P.A. workers pinpointed the location of Dyer County divorce papers in diverse manuscript collections, see:


 * W.P.A. Guide to Public Vital Statistics in Tennessee. Nashville, Tenn.: The Tennessee Historical Records Survey, 1941. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 A3gp.

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.]

Web Sites

 * Dyer County, TN Family History and Genealogy Message Board (Ancestry)
 * Dyer County, TN Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * Dyer County, TN Genealogy Forum (GenForum)
 * Dyer County, TNGenWeb (USGenWeb)
 * Dyer County, TN History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (MyTennesseeGenealogy)
 * Family History Library Catalog (FamilySearch)
 * 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) (RootsWeb)