Bennington County, Vermont Genealogy

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

United States Vermont  Bennington County

County Courthouse
Town Clerks have birth, marriage, death and burial records; County Clerk has divorce records from 1899 and court records from 1861; Probate Judge has probate records Towns Organized before 1800: Arlington 1761, Bennington 1749, Dorset 1761, Glastenbury 1761, Landgrove 1780, Manchester 1761, Peru 1761, Pownal 1760, Rupert 1761, Sandgate 1761, Shaftsbury 1761, Sunderland 1761, Winhall 1761

Parent County
Created 11 February 1779 from the Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

 * Windham County was set off 22 February 1781.

For animated maps illustrating Vermont County boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Vermont County Boundary Maps" (1764-1895) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Places / Localities
Towns:

Extinct Town:  Glastenbury (incorportation ended 1937)

Neighboring Counties
Rutland | Windsor | Windham | Massachusetts Counties: Berkshire | Franklin | New York Counties: Rensselaer | Washington

Cemeteries

 * List of Bennington County Cemeteries
 * List of Pownal Cemeteries: Includes some transcriptions

Federal
1790 US Census, Bennington County, Pownal Town Transcription

State
1785

Church Records
Courtesy of the Pownal Historical Society, Inc.:

The Churches of Pownal

History
History of Bennington County, Lewis Cass Aldrich, Syracuse, NY, D. Mason &amp; Co., Publishers, 1889.

Land and Property
Courtesy of The Pownal Historical Society, Inc.:


 * List of Freeman of Pownal, VT 1773

Maps
Courtesy of the Pownal Historical Society, Inc.


 * Pownal Maps

Military Records
Courtesy of Pownal Historical Society, Inc.:


 * Green Mountain Boys from Pownal | About the Green Mountain Boys
 * American Revolution: Soldiers buried in Vermont
 * Civil War: Vermont Volunteers

Civil War
Regiments and Companies:


 * - 2nd Regiment, Vermont Infantry
 * - 4th Regiment, Vermont Infantry, Company A
 * - 5th Regiment, Vermont Infantry, Company E

Newspapers

 * Newspaperarchive.com ($) has historical newspapers available on-line. Their database has North Adams, MA newspapers (1895-1977) covering local news that included Windham County residents.

Probate Records
Online Probate Records
 * 1749 – 1999 Vermont Wills and Probate Records 1749-1999 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1800 – 1921 at FamilySearch — images

There are two Bennington County Probate Districts


 * Bennington District - Bennington, Glastenbury, Pownal, Readsboro, Searsburg, Shaftsbury, Stamford and Woodford.
 * Manchester District - Arlington, Dorset, Landgrove, Manchester, Peru, Rupert, Sandgate, Sunderland and Winhall.

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Vermont, Bennington County Manchester District, Probates (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Vital Records
Courtesy of the Pownal Historial Society, Inc.


 * Marriages in Pownal, VT to 1850
 * Deaths in Pownal, VT: 1921-1980

See also How to order Vermont Vital Records, order electronically online or download an application for Vermont &lt;a title="Vermont Birth Certificate Application" href="http://www.healthvermont.gov/research/records/birth_form.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Birth Certificate&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a title="Vermont Marriage Certificate Application" href="http://www.healthvermont.gov/research/records/marriage_form.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Marriage Certificate&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a title="Vermont Divorce Certificate Application" href="http://www.healthvermont.gov/research/records/divorce_form.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Divorce Certificate&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a title="Vermont Death Certificate Application" href="http://www.healthvermont.gov/research/records/deathcert_form.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Death Certificate&lt;/a&gt; Applications to mail.

Societies, Libraries and Museums
See also a List of Vermont Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical and Genealogical Societies

Historical Societies

 * Bennington Historical Society &amp; Museum, 75 West Main Street, Bennington, VT 05201 Phone: (802) 447-1571
 * Dorset Historical Society, PO Box 52, Main St & Rte 30 Dorset, VT 05251 (802) 867-0331

Family History Centers

 * Bennington Vermont Family History Center

Websites

 * Bennington County, VT History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * Vermont Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Vermont Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * The Bennington County VTGenWeb Project, an member of The VTGenWeb Project
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project (backup site)