Portage County, Wisconsin Genealogy

County Courthouse
Portage County Courthouse 1516 Church Street Stevens Point, WI 54481 Phone: 715.346.1351

Register of Deeds has birth records from 1863, marriage records from 1860, death records from 1856 and land records; Clerk Circuit Court has divorce and court records from 1844; County Judge has probate records from 1890

 &lt;a href="United States"&gt;United States &lt;/a&gt; &gt; &lt;a href="Wisconsin"&gt;Wisconsin&lt;/a&gt; &gt; Portage County &lt;img src="/learn/wiki/en/images/0/0f/WI_Portage.png" _fck_mw_filename="WI Portage.png" _fck_mw_location="right" _fck_mw_width="475" _fck_mw_type="thumb" alt="" class="fck_mw_frame fck_mw_right" style="width: 475;" /&gt;

Parent County
1836--Portage County was created 7 December 1836 from &lt;a href="Brown County, Wisconsin"&gt;Brown&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="Crawford County, Wisconsin"&gt;Crawford&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="Iowa County, Wisconsin"&gt;Iowa&lt;/a&gt; and&lt;a href="Milwaukee County, Wisconsin"&gt;Milwaukee&lt;/a&gt; Counties. County seat: Stevens Point

Neighboring Counties

 * &lt;a href="Adams County, Wisconsin"&gt;Adams&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href="Marathon County, Wisconsin"&gt;Marathon&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href="Shawano County, Wisconsin"&gt;Shawano&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href="Waupaca County, Wisconsin"&gt;Waupaca&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href="Waushara County, Wisconsin"&gt;Waushara&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href="Wood County, Wisconsin"&gt;Wood&lt;/a&gt;

Cemeteries
&lt;a href="https://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&amp;columns=*%2C0%2C0&amp;titleno=93898&amp;disp=Portage%2C+Waupaca%2C+and+Waushara+count++"&gt;Guyant Collection of Tombstone Inscriptions&lt;/a&gt; is on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. This collection includes tombstone inscriptions copied between 1970 and 1981 by Wayne and Alta Guyant in cemeteries in seventeen Wisconsin counties, and clipped newspaper obituaries and other related items. The records represent every known cemetery in Florence, Langlade, Portage, Waupaca, and Waushara counties and many in Adams, Barron, Forest, Green Lake, Juneau, Lincoln, Marquette, Oneida, Outagamie, Shawano, Winnebago, and Wood counties.

&lt;a href="http://library.uwsp.edu/depts/archives/Cemetery/"&gt;Portage County Cemetery Index&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/forest-cem.html"&gt;Forest Cemetery Records&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/union-cem.html"&gt;Union Cemetery Records&lt;/a&gt;

Census
1855 Wisconsin State Census— Free searchable index to the 1855 Wisconsin State Census can be viewed on the &lt;a href="https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1443825"&gt;FamilySearch Record Search&lt;/a&gt; This census includes name of head of family, individuals in the household by sex and race, number of deaf and dumb, blind, insane and foreign born.

1885 Wisconsin State Census— Free searchable index to the 1885 Wisconsin State Census can be viewed on the &lt;a href="https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1443713"&gt;FamilySearch Record Search&lt;/a&gt; This census includes name of head of family, individuals in the household by sex and race, number of deaf and dumb, blind, insane and foreign born.

Church History and Records
Information about local churches (history and records) can be found on the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/history/churches.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society's website&lt;/a&gt;.

Court Records
The surviving early probate files have been indexed and are on the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/court.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society's website&lt;/a&gt;. Also indexed are the Circuit Court Criminal Case Files Index 1849-1919 and the Circuit Court Civil Case Files Defendant Index 1845-1919

Maps
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/maps/maps.html"&gt;Portage County Maps&lt;/a&gt;

Naturalization and Citizenship
Naturalization Records for Portage County have been indexed and the index is available on the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/naturalization.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society's website.&lt;/a&gt;

Newspapers
A complete listing of all Portage County newspapers can be found on the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/newspapers.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society's website&lt;/a&gt;.

Obituaries
The Portage County Obituary Index is now a part of the &lt;a href="http://mypoint.uwsp.edu/Library/gen_index"&gt;Central Wisconsin Genealogy Index &lt;/a&gt;. Full text obituaries from The Wisconsin Pinery (1853-1890) and The Plover Times (1866-1881) can be found on the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/obituaries.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society's website&lt;/a&gt;. These are not indexed in the Obituary Index.

Probate Records
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/court.html"&gt;Probate Index&lt;/a&gt;

Archives, Libraries and Museums
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/archives.html"&gt;Nelis R. Kampanga University Archives&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;a href="http://library.uwsp.edu/pcl/index.htm"&gt;Portage County Public Library&lt;/a&gt;

List of genealogical resources available at the &lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/library.html"&gt;Portage County Public Library &lt;/a&gt;

County Courthouse
The Portage County Courthouse is located at 1516 Church Street, Stevens Point, WI 54481. The &lt;a href="http://www.co.portage.wi.us/rod/"&gt;Register of Deeds&lt;/a&gt; office, which houses birth, death, and marriage records, as well as land records is open for genealogical research during the following days and times:

Monday - Thursday, 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Closed for research on Fridays and from 11:30 - 1:00.

Societies
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/index.html"&gt;Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;a href="http://www.pchswi.org/index.htm"&gt;Portage County Historical Society&lt;/a&gt;

Birth
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/vital-stats.html"&gt;Birth Records Indexed&lt;/a&gt;

Marriage
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/vital-stats.html"&gt;Marriage Records Indexed&lt;/a&gt;

Death
&lt;a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wispags/resources/vital-stats.html"&gt;Death Records Indexed&lt;/a&gt;

Web Sites

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