Bledsoe County, Tennessee Genealogy

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

Description
Bledsoe County was named for Anthony Bledsoe (1739-1788), a soldier in the Revolutionary War and an early settler of Sumner County. The county is located in the eastern area of the state.

County Courthouse
Bledsoe County Courthouse 3150 Main St Ste 100 Pikeville, TN 37367 Bledsoe County Courthouse Phone: 423-447-2451 County Clerk Phone: 423-447-2137 Register of Deeds Phone: 423-447-2020 County Clerk has marriage and probate records from 1908. Register of Deeds has land records.

Populated Places
For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Bible Records

 * Family Bibles contain birth, marriage, and death information:
 * Douthat, James L. Sequatchie Valley Bible Records. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 1985..

Business, Commerce, and Occupations

 * East Tennessee's Forgotten Children: Apprentices from 1778 to 1911. 2000. By Alan N. Miller. Baltimore, Md.: Clearfield Company. . Online at MyHeritage ($). Includes Bledsoe County.
 * Tennessee Bureau of Agriculture, Statistics and Mines. Coal Mines and Mining--Tennessee. Nashville, Tennessee: A.B. Travel, 1883. Free digital copy.

Census Records
1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 federal population censuses of Bledsoe 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 Bledsoe County, TN census assignments, including links to transcribed files. The USGenWeb Census Project®

Tennessee, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1891 - Ancestry ($)

Voters


 * 1891 Tennessee Enumeration of Male Voters 1891 at Ancestry($)

Lost

1810 Lost, but a substitute is available:


 * Sherrill, Charles A. The Reconstructed 1810 Census of Tennessee: 33,000 Long-lost Records from Tax Lists, Court Minutes, Church Records, Wills, Deeds and Other Sources. Mt. Juliet, Tenn.: C.A. Sherrill, 2001..

1820 Lost

Census and Census Substitutes Index

1810-1891 Tennessee, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1891 at Ancestry ($)

1820 Manufactures

The original manufactures schedules for the Eastern and Western Districts of Tennessee are kept at the NARA, Washington, D.C. FHL copies:.

The following book is a useful aid for finding the original records.


 * National Archives. Indexes to Manufactures Census of 1820. 1920; reprint, Knightstown, Ind.: Bookmark, 1977..

1830


 * Douthat, James L. 1830 Sequatchie Valley Census: Marion - Bledsoe Counties. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 1986..
 * Sistler, Byron H. 1830 Census, East Tennessee. Evanston, Ill.: n.p., 1969..

1840


 * Douthat, James L. 1840 Sequatchie Valley Census: Bledsoe - Marion Counties. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: J.L. Douthat, 1982..

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. . 1841 edition digitized by the U.S. Census Bureau and Google books et. al. See Tennessee, Eastern District, Bledsoe County on page 152.

1850


 * Hutcherson, Willis. Population Schedule of the United States Census of 1850 for Bledsoe County, Tennessee. Knoxville, Tenn.: Clinchdale Press, 1963..
 * Ries, Nancy. "Bledsoe County, TN-1850 U.S. Census," (9 parts) available online through USGenWeb Archives.

1860


 * Hobbs, Norma Dennis and Sara Agee Goins. United States Census Bledsoe County, Tennessee, 1860. Dunlap, Tenn.: N. Hobbs and S. Goins, 1986..

1870

The 1870 population schedules of Bledsoe County have been abstracted and/or indexed multiple times:


 * Goins, Sara Agee and Norma Jean Dennis Hobbs. 1870 Census, Bledsoe County, Tennessee. Dunlap, Tenn.: Goins and Hobbs Genealogy Service, 1986..
 * Kirkeminde, Patricia Barclay. 1870 Census of Bledsoe County, Tennessee. Crossville, Tenn.: P.B. Kirkeminde, 1980. ;.

1880


 * Sistler, Byron and Barbara Sistler. 1880 Census - Tennessee: Transcription for Bledsoe County. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 198-?..

1910


 * Goins, Sara Agee and Norma Dennis Hobbs. Bledsoe County, Tennessee, 1910 Census. 198-?..

1920


 * Goins, Sara Agee and Norma Dennis Hobbs. United States Census, Bledsoe County, Tennessee, 1920. Dunlap, Tenn.: Goins and Hobbs Geneal. Service, 1994..

Church Records
List of Churches and Church Parishes
 * FamilySearch Places

Church records include baptisms, marriages and burials, as well as information about family members and clues about family migration.For additional information about church records, religions, and religious archives in Tennessee, see Tennessee Church Records.


 * Bledsoe County Church Records


 * - FamilySearch Catalog -


 * Church histories tell when a church started in the area, who the early members were, give data about church leaders, etc.


 * - FamilySearch Catalog -


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


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


 * In 1936, a helpful guide to early Bledsoe 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 Bledsoe county are listed.

Methodist


 * Stephens, Miriam R. Methodism in Bledsoe County, 1833-1976. 1976..

Court Records
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. Online searchable index at TSLA.

Emigration and Immigration
During the War of 1812, American officials reported finding 2 British aliens living in Bledsoe County. Ancestry $

Genealogies
More than 15 genealogies have been published about Bledsoe County, Tennessee families. For more information visit Bledsoe County, Tennessee Compiled Genealogies.

Land and Property Records
The original Bledsoe Deed Books are held at the Bledsoe. In 1969, the TSLA microfilmed Deed Books A to R (1808 to 1885) and indexes. Copies of their microfilms are also available at the Family History Library:.

The organization Strictly By Name provides online indexes to early Bledsoe County land records. They offer a record retrieval service to photocopy and transcribe microfilm copies of the original documents for a small fee. Here are the indexes:


 * 1) Deeds Vol. A: 1808-1811
 * 2) Deeds Vol. B: 1812-1817
 * 3) Deeds Vol. C: 1817-1821
 * 4) Deeds Vol. D: 1821-1826

Local Histories

 * Bledsoe County Historical and Genealogical Society. Bledsoe County, Tennessee: A Pictorial History. Humboldt, Tenn.: Rose Pub., 1998..
 * Raulston, J. Leonard and James Weston Livingood. Sequatchie: A Story of the Southern Cumberlands. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1974..

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Maps of Tennessee (1777-1985)
 * FamilySearch Places: Cities and Towns in this county - How to Use FS Places

Military Records
Revolutionary War The following Bledsoe County Revolutionary War records are available online through TNGenWeb:


 * 1835 Pension Roll
 * 1852 Rejected or Suspended Pensions

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. . 1841 edition digitized by the U.S. Census Bureau and Google books et. al. See Tennessee, Eastern District, Bledsoe County on page 152.
 * Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions. Washington, D.C., 1852. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1969, and 1991. Reprints include "an Added Index to States." Digital version at Ancestry ($). Tennessee entries abstracted online at Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War (TNGenWeb).
 * Bledsoe Countians and the Revolutionary War Revolutionary War Veterans who lived in Bledsoe County (TNGenWeb).

War of 1812
 * Embry, Hermione D. "War of 1812 - Tennessee Pensioners on List - January 2, 1883," Ansearchin' News, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan. 1960):13-16. ; digital version at journal website. Includes Bledsoe County pensioners (p. 14).
 * Regiments of TN Militia, 1808-15, Searcher, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Mar. 1990).

Civil War


 * 1861-1865 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1861-1865 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1861-1865 - U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry
 * 1861-1865 - U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry
 * 1891-1965 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * Civl War Research Database
 * Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

Confederate Soldiers


 * 1st Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry (Carter's) - CSA - Company D.
 * 2nd Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry (Ashby's) - CSA - Company F.
 * 4th Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry (Branner's) - CSA - Company F.
 * 22nd Battalion, Tennessee Infantry (Murray's) - CSA - Companies C, F and G.
 * 35th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry (5th Infantry) (1st Mountain Rifle Regiment) - CSA - Company I.
 * 43rd Regiment, Tennessee Infantry (Gillespie's) (5th East Tennessee Volunteers) - CSA - Company C.

Additional sources for Civil War soldiers from Bledsoe County:


 * Blevins, Jerry. Sequatchie Valley Soldiers in the Civil War: Bledsoe, Grundy, Marion and Sequatchie Counties in Tennessee and Jackson County in Alabama. Huntsville, Ala.: J. Blevins, 1990..
 * TNGenWeb, Bledsoe in the Civil War. Includes links to The United States 1890 Schedules Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Bledsoe County, Tennessee and a partial list of Civil War Soldiers.
 * USGenWeb Archives, Bledsoe County Tennessee Archives. Civil War Pensions.
 * Tennessee State Library and Archives, Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications: Bledsoe County. Includes soldier's name, county, pension #, unit or widow.
 * United States Pension Bureau, List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883: Giving the Name of Each Pensioner, the Cause for ... (Washington Printing Office; 1883). Online at Internet Archive. Bledsoe County, page 317 and 318.

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 Bledsoe County click on the following city:


 * Pikeville

The following publications, based on early newspapers, may serve as a substitute:

For deaths of Methodists in Bledsoe County between the 1830s and the 1920s, try:
 * 1625-1966 Tennessee, United States Marriages at Findmypast $
 * 1794-1851 - Lucas, Silas Emmett. Marriages from Early Tennessee Newspapers 1794-1851. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978..
 * 1847-1851 - 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. 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.

Prisons

 * 1831-1850 Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1831-1850 at Tennessee State Library and Archives


 * 1851-1870 Inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1851-1870 at Tennessee State Library and Archives

Periodicals

 * Ansearchin' News: Quarterly magazine of the Tennessee Genealogical Society. For a keyword search, go to the county index. Read previous issues on their website;

Probate Records
Online Records
 * 1779-2008 Tennessee Wills and Probate Records 1779-2008 at Ancestry ($)

Most of the original Bledsoe County Will Books were destroyed. Those that survived are held at the Bledsoe. In 1969, the TSLA microfilmed extant wills and inventories covering the years 1884 to 1931. A copy of their microfilm is also available at the Family History Library:.

Social Security Records

 * 1935-2014 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index. Also at Ancestry, findmypast, Fold3, GenealogyBank, MyHeritage, and Steve Morse. Click here for more information.


 * 1936-2007 U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry ($) — index, click here for more information.

Tax Records
TSLA microfilmed Bledsoe County Tax Books 1888-1889 (TSLA Roll 104).

Book Abstracts and Indexes
 * 1815 Curtis, Mary Barnett. Early East Tennessee Tax Lists. Fort Worth, Texas: Arrow Printing Company, 1964. . [Includes two 1815 petitions.]
 * 1815 Sistler, Byron and Barbara Sistler. Index to Early Tennessee Tax Lists. Evanston, Ill.: B. and B. Sistler, 1977. [Includes 1815 tax list.]
 * 1815 Robnett, Elizabeth Parham. "Bledsoe County, TN 1815 Tax List Alphabetically Arranged," 1989. Available online at USGenWeb Archives.
 * 1836 Douthat, James L. Bledsoe County, Tennessee 1836 Tennessee Civil Districts and Tax Lists. Spring Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 1993. ; online: surname index and publication details.
 * 1862 Tarriff of Fees, 1862, Tennessee Genealogy and History. Signal Mountain TN: Apr 1999. Vol. 3 Iss. 1.

Birth
Online Records
 * 1828-1939 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1869-1909 Tennessee Delayed Birth Records 1869-1909 at Ancestry $
 * 1908-1912 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Marriage
Bledsoe County's early marriage records were lost in courthouse fires.

Online Indexes and Records
 * 1780-2002 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1790-1962 - at FamilySearch  - How to Use this Collection. index and images. Covers all counties in Tennessee.
 * 1796-1950 (Indexes only) at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1838-1888 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1980-2014 Marriage Records Index 1980-2014 at Shelby County Register of Deeds - index

Death
Online Records
 * 1874-1955 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1908-1933 Tennessee Deaths, 1908 - 1933 at MyHeritage ($) — index
 * 1908-1958 Tennessee Death Records 1908 - 1958 at Ancestry $
 * 1908-1912 Tennessee Death Records 1908-1912 at Tennessee State Library & Archives - index
 * 1914-1933 Tennessee Death Records 1914-1933 at Tennessee State Library & Archives - index
 * 1914-1966 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
 * 1949-2014 Death Records Index 1949-2014 at Shelby County Register of Deeds - index

Divorce
Online Records Online Titles
 * 1796-1850 Acts of Tennessee 1796-1850 at Tennessee State Library & Archives - index
 * 1980-2014 Divorce Records Index 1980-2014 at Shelby County Register of Deeds - index
 * W.P.A. Guide to Public Vital Statistics in Tennessee. Nashville, Tenn.: The Tennessee Historical Records Survey, 1941. FamilySearch Digital Library.

Family History Centers

 * Cookeville Tennessee Family History Center
 * Crossville Tennessee Family History Center
 * McMinnville Tennessee Family History Center
 * Art Circle Public Library - an affiliate library.
 * Chattanooga Public Library - an affiliate library.
 * Cleveland Bradley County Public Library History Branch - an affiliate library.

Libraries
Bledsoe County Public Library 478 Cumberland Ave/ P.O. Box 465 Pikeville, TN 37367 Phone: 423-447-2817 Website Facebook Genealogical resources include family histories, the Cherokee and Melungeon books and files, the Soldiers’ Pension Lists of 1792-1795, 1812, 1820 and 1890 as well as research materials for the Sequatchie Valley and adjoining counties.

Societies
Bledsoe County Historical and Genealogical Society P.O. Box 465 Pikeville, TN 37367 Phone: 423-447-2817 Website

Websites

 * Bledsoe County, TN Family History and Genealogy Message Board (Ancestry)
 * Bledsoe County, TN Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * Bledsoe County, TNGenWeb (USGenWeb) - county website, transcriptions and other information on the local level.
 * – The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records.

Research Guides
Research Guides
 * "Fact Sheets" About Tennessee Counties: Bledsoe County at TSLA. (Identifies published county histories, published local records, census records, newspapers and local records on microfilm, and select manuscripts.)