Gibson County, Tennessee Genealogy

United States   Tennessee    Gibson County



County Courthouse
Gibson County Courthouse P.O. Box 228 1 Court Square Trenton, Tennessee 38382 Phone: (731) 855-7642

Hours: Monday - Friday 8 am - 4:30 pm Saturday 8 am - noon

Parent County
The Tennessee General Assembly created Gibson County on October 21, 1823, out of lands ceded by the Chickasaws in the Jackson Purchase. It was named in honor of John H. Gibson, who served with distinction under Andrew Jackson in the Natchez Expedition and in the Creek Wars.

In 1819 Thomas Fite built the first cabin in Gibson County, which was then part of Carroll County. Luke Biggs, Davy Crockett, and others followed. Settlement progressed rapidly, and residents soon petitioned the general assembly for the formation of a new county, citing the difficulty of getting to the courts of Carroll County.

Commissioners appointed by the general assembly selected a county seat site near the center of the county where Thomas Gibson, a brother of John Gibson, operated a trading post. Initially called Gibson-Port, the name was soon changed to Trenton. County government was organized in January 1824, when the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions met at Biggs's residence. Following terms of the court met in the residence of William C. Love until April 1825, when the first term of court met in a temporary courthouse made of hewn logs.

For a more extensive history see Goodspeeds History of Gibson County.

Boundary Changes
In 1837 the county line between Gibson and Weakley counties was adjusted to include the southwestern corner of Weakley County, all land below the South Fork of the Obion in Gibson County. This simplified travel to a county seat by eliminating the need for river crossings but thereby robbed Weakley County of its most famous citizen, David Crockett, who had been killed in Texas the year before. In 1871 the newly created Crocket County acquired Gibson County territory south of the Middle Fork of the Forked Deer River for essentially the same reasons.

Record Loss
There was a fire at the Gibson County courthouse in 1941.

Populated Places
Cities and Towns:

Neighboring Counties

 * Carroll
 * Crockett
 * Dyer
 * Madison
 * Obion
 * Weakley

Cemeteries
Cemeteries of Gibson County Tennessee

For a list known Gibson County cemeteries, click here.

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 Tennessee State Library and Archives 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 Tennessee State Library and Archives; another version is available at World Vital Records.

Local Histories

 * Families and History of Gibson County, Tennessee to 1989 (Lee-Davis U.D.C. Historical Society, 1989) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Past and Present : The First General History of one of West Tennessee's Pivotal Counties (Culp &amp; Ross, 1996) [name index]
 * Gibson County Sesquicentennial, 1823-1973 : Celebrating its 150th Anniversary (1973)
 * Gibson County, Tennessee (illustrated) A Series of Pen and Picture Sketches (Greene, 1901) [partial index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee : A Pictorial History (1994)
 * History of Skullbone (Old North Gibson), Tennessee (Pounds, 1980)
 * History of Tennessee From the Earliest Times to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Gibson, Obion, Dyer, Weakley and Lake Counties (Goodspeed, 1978) [name index]
 * Humboldt, Tennessee : A Pictorial History (Harris, Fisher and Pyron)
 * Neboville, Riverside, Hooten, Midway community and family history [2 vols.] (Putnam, 2000?) [name index]
 * Tennessee, Gibson County : Capt. King's Diary, 1865 (WPA, 1938) [name index]
 * Tennessee's Last Kingdom, Skullbone, Tennessee, Celebrating 100 years, 1898-1998 (Pounds, 1998) Additional county and community histories can be found at the Tennessee State Library and Archives' Bibliography of Tennessee Local History Sources: Gibson County.

PUBLISHED LOCAL RECORDS


 * Cemetery Records of Northern Gibson County, Tennessee (Walker, 1985) [surname index]
 * Deed Book ... Gibson County, Tennessee [Vol. 1, Book A, 1819-1829; Vol. 2, Book B, 1829-1831 &amp; Deed book C, 1831-1834 ] (Crumpton, 2000) [name index]
 * Dyer Co., Tennessee, Gibson Co., Tennessee, Lake Co., Tennessee, Obion Co., Tennessee, Weakley Co., Tennessee : Enumeration of Male Inhabitants [1891 enumeration of male voters] (Reed,1990) [name index]
 * Genealogical Abstracts From Early Land, Chancery and Other Records of Gibson County, Tennessee (Smith, 1998) [surname index]
 * Gibson-Crockett, a Joint Heritage (Hays, 1986) [name index]
 * Gibson County Death Records [from county court minutes 1843-1860] (Hays, 1987) [alphabetical listing]
 * Gibson County Marriage Records, 1824-1950 : Alphabetical Listings by Bride and Groom (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1997?) [alphabetical by bride and groom]
 * Gibson County Records, 1824-1846 (Hays, 1986) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee Bond and Will Books (Walker, 1986) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Chancery Court Minutes, Book A, 1834-47 (WPA, 1939) [name index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Circuit Court Minute Book A, 1824-32 (WPA, 1938) [name index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Court Minutes, Book A, 1824-28 (WPA, 1940)
 * Gibson County, Tennessee Landowners, 1877 (Walker, 1986) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee Marriage Records [Vol. A June 1860 - Nov 1870; Vol. B Nov 1870 - Feb 1878; Vol. C Feb 1878 - May 1888] (Walker, 1984-) [alphabetical by groom; also includes surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee Minutes of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions [Jan 4, 1824 - Sept 4, 1828] (Walker, 1987) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Newspaper Historical and Genealogical Extracts [5 vols.] (Walker, 1986) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Tax Lists [vol. 1 1824-1829; vol 2 1830-1832.] (Walker, 1988) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, Tennessee, Vital Statistics : Marriages, May 12, 1881-March 3, 1883 : Births, April 1, 1881-September 30, 1881 (Walker, 1987) [surname index]
 * Gibson County, TN Deeds [Apr 1819-Dec 1834] (Hutchings, 2002-) [name index]
 * Honor Roll, Gibson County, Tennessee, U. S. A., 1917-1918-1919 (1920)
 * Index and Analysis of the Register of Colored Marriages Performed at the Freedmen's Bureau in Trenton (Gibson County) Tennessee, 1865-1866 (Craighead, 1995)
 * Marriages of Gibson County, Tennessee, 1824-1860 (Whitley, 1982) [name index]
 * North Carolina Land Grants in the Western District (Tennessee), Most Particularly Gibson and Surrounding Counties : Volumes A-B, 1788-1796 (Walker, 1987) [name index]
 * Private Acts of Gibson County (Wiggins &amp; Graham, 1994)
 * Rose Hill Cemetery in Humboldt, Tennessee : A Listing of All Marked Graves, 1868-1974 (Daughters of the American Revolution, 1976?) [name index]
 * Seventh Census of the United States, 1850: Gibson County, Tennessee Free Population Schedules (Carpenter, 1970) [surname index]
 * Tennessee, Gibson County, Wills &amp; Bonds, Book no. 1, 1825-1833 (WPA, 1938) [name index]
 * Tennessee, Records of Gibson County, Marriage License and Bonds, 1824-1860 (WPA, 1939) [name index]
 * Tombstone Inscriptions From Black Cemeteries in Gibson County, Tennessee (Smith, 1999) [surname index]
 * Wills and Bonds Book "D", 1846-1852 (WPA, 1940)

Maps
Tennessee Department of Transportation Gibson County Map pdf.

World War I

 * With the Colors written in 1920 by Mrs. Gordon Brame Hargrove. It is described by Mrs. Hargrove as an "Honor Roll containing a pictorial history of Gibson County Tennessee, USA, Specially honoring Those that Served in the Great World War, 1917 - 1918 - 1919." In most instances it gives the name, date of birth, parents names, enlistment date, where served and muster out date of the soldiers that fought in World War I from Gibson County Tennessee.

Vital Records
Freedman's Bureau Marriage Certificates (1861-1869)  is an index to the marriage records kept by the Memphis Field Office of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. It includes grooms surname, grooms given name, groom's age,, brides surname, bride's given name and other information.

Societies and Libraries
{| class="FCK__ShowTableBorders" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="90%" border="0" Mildred G. Fields Memorial Library Milan Municipal Building 1075 A.E. Van Hook St. Milan, TN 38358 Phone: 731.686.8268 731.723.3747 Fax: 731.686.3207 Email: [mailto:dbruce27@bellsouth.net dbruce27@bellsouth.net] [mailto:Christi_mcclain@bellsouth.net Christi_mcclain@bellsouth.net]
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Web Sites

 * USGenWeb Project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Family History Library Catalog
 * Gibson County, TN Genealogy Forum