Jackson County, Michigan Genealogy

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



Description
The county is named after President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). The County has Jackson as its seat and the County was created August 1, 1832. The County is located in the south central area of the state.

County Courthouse
County Clerk has birth and death records from 1867, marriage records from 1830’s, divorce records from 1800’s and naturalization records. Probate Court has probate records. Register of Deeds has land records. Clerk of the District Court has court records.

Parent County
1829--Jackson County was created 29 October 1829 from Washtenaw County and unorganized territory. it was attached to Washtenaw County prior to organization 1 August 1832. County seat: Jackson

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Michigan county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Michigan County Boundary Maps" (1790-1897) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

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:

Neighboring Counties
Calhoun •  Eaton  •  Hillsdale  •  Ingham  •  Lenawee  •  Livingston  •  Washtenaw

Cemeteries
Deb Hayes-Wolfe has been adding photos of headstones and information for Jackson County, Michigan on Find A Grave.

Bio and Links

Because of fires, floods and loss, I started photographing all the markers in Jackson Co Michigan in Nov 2006. We've discovered the 1927 DAR WPA cemetery transcription project didn't have anyone actually walk any of the county cemeteries. They obtained the information from cemetery records, church records and neighbors. Fortunately for all of us this included records of those graves with no markers. Most of the early cemetery records have perished along with some of the cemeteries. Hopefully, we will be able to provide info for descendants of the early/current residents of Jackson County Michigan. By using census, marriage, death and local history information we try to make our entries as complete as possible. Email with info on your ancestors and we'll add them to any of our records. We'll be happy to help you in your search. I'm am the County Keeper for Jackson Co.

Currently, I'm working on adding maiden names to as many memorials as possible.

As of 22 Aug 2009 Jackson Co has 66,501 burials recorded. By Jan 2010 72,323 burials.

Census
 State Census
 * 1894 - at FamilySearch — index

Church

 * 1819-1991 - at FamilySearch — index

Ward and Branch Records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


 * Jackson

Directories
You can find city directories for Jackson City on Ancestry.com 1883-1901 and 1936-1952.

Emigration and Immigration

 * 1929 - 1966 at FamilySearch — index and images

Local Histories
History of Jackson County, Michigan can be found in full content on Google Book website.

DeLand's History of Jackson County, Michigan can be found in full content on Google Book website.

Maps

 * Family Maps of (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.
 * Maps of Michigan (1790-1897)

Civil War
Civil War service men from Jackson County served in various regiments. Men often joined a regiment or a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are the military units that were formed in or had many men from Jackson County.


 * - 12th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Company D
 * - 17th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Companies F, G, K, and Unassigned

Online Records
 * at FamilySearch — index
 * 1876-1945 - at FamilySearch — index

World War I

 * 1917-1919 - at FamilySearch — index

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1837-1993 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Newspapers
GenealogyBank.com has a collection of Jackson County newspapers online.

Obituaries

 * 1820-2006 - at FamilySearch — index and images

Probate
Online Probate Records


 * 1784 – 1980 Michigan Wills and Probate Records 1784-1980 at Ancestry — index and images $
 * 1797 – 1973 at FamilySearch — images

Vital Records

 * How to order Michigan Vital Records

Birth

 * 1867-1917 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1867-1902 - Michigan Birth Registrations, 1867-1902 — index and images

Marriage

 * 1585-1945 - Michigan, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
 * 1820-1937 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1820-1940 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1868-1925 - Michigan Marriage Registrations, 1868-1925 — index

Death

 * 1850-1880 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1867-1897 - Michigan Death Registrations, 1867-1897 — index and images

Societies and Libraries

 * Jackson County Genealogical Society PO Box 188 Jackson, MI 49204
 * Jackson County Genealogical Society Library 211 W. Ganson Street Suite 170 Jackson, MI 49201 Phone: 517-768-9266 Email: [mailto:jcgs.library@yahoo.com jcgs.library@yahoo.com] Facebook

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to Family History Centers


 * Jackson Michigan Family History Center 3019 W Morrell St, Jackson, MI 49203

Websites

 * Michigan Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Michigan Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county.
 * Genealogy Trails Jackson County Michigan
 * Jackson County MI Genealogy (Michigan Genealogy)
 * Jackson County MI Genealogy (Michigan Genealogy)