Knox County, Indiana Genealogy

United States

Indiana

Knox County

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

Indiana Online Genealogy Records

County Facts County seat: Vincennes Organized: June 20, 1790 Parent County(s): Unorganized Territory Neighboring Counties Gibson  • Pike  • Daviess  • Greene  • Sullivan  • Crawford (IN)  • Lawrence (IN)  • Wabash (IN) See County Maps Courthouse Location Map Adoption Adopt-a-wiki page This page adopted by: Indiana Genealogical Society who welcome you to contribute. Adopt a page today

Henry Knox

County Information

Description

Knox County was named for Major General Henry Knox, U.S. Secretary of War. It is located in the southwestern area of the state.

County Courthouse

Knox County Courthouse
101 N 7th Street
Vincennes, IN 47591
Phone: 812-885-2521
County Website

Knox County Health Department
Knox County Health Department
305 South 5th Street
Vincennes, IN, 47591
Health Officer: Alan Stewart, MD
Phone Number: 812-882-8080
Fax: 812-882-5625
Email: mmoon@knoxcountyhealth.com
Health Department

County Health Department has birth and death records from 1807.
County Clerk has marriage, divorce, probate and court records from 1836.
County Recorder has land records. Township Trustees have burial records.
Health Department has birth records and death records.
Copies may be obtained from the county health department or the Indiana State Division of Vital Records.

Knox County, Indiana Record Dates

Information for this chart was taken from various sources, often containing conflicting dates. This information should be taken as a guide and should be verified by contacting the county and/or the state government agency.

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1882	1807	1882	1790	1783	1806	1807
*Statewide registration for births in 1907 and deaths in Oct 1899. General compliance by 1917.

Record Loss

January 1814 -- Courthouse burned and many records were damaged. For suggestions about research in places that suffered historic record losses, see: Burned Counties. By Michael John Neill at 24-7 Family History Circle. When the Records are Gone. By Arlene Eakle at Arlene Eakle's Tennessee Blog. Burned Counties Research in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

Boundary Changes

Parent Counties: Formed from unorganized territory in 1790. County Seat: Vincennes Interactive Map of Indiana County Formation History (1790-1897) - animated maps illustrating Indiana county boundary changes Indiana Historical Boundary Changes - list of all boundary changes by county provided by Newberry Library

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:

Cities
Bicknell	Vincennes
Towns
Bruceville Decker Edwardsport	Monroe City Oaktown	Sandborn Wheatland
Unincorporated communities
Iona
Census-designated places
Emison Freelandville	Ragsdale	Westphalia
Townships
Busseron Decker Harrison Johnson	Palmyra Steen Vigo Vincennes	Washington Widner

Resources

Biographies

• Indiana Biography Index at Indiana State Library

Cemeteries

Cemeteries of Knox County, Indiana online and in print
Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Find A Grave INGenWeb INGenWeb Archives Tombstone Project Indiana Interment Billion Graves
Tombstone Transcriptions in Print (Often more complete)	Family History Library WorldCat
List of Cemeteries in the County	Findagrave.com
See Indiana Cemeteries for more information.

 

Census Records

For tips on accessing Knox County census records online, see: Indiana Census.

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1800	2,517	—
1810	7,945	215.7%
1820	5,437	−31.6%
1830	6,525	20.0%
1840	10,657	63.3%
1850	11,084	4.0%
1860	16,056	44.9%
1870	21,562	34.3%
1880	26,324	22.1%
1890	28,044	6.5%
1900	32,746	16.8%
1910	39,183	19.7%
1920	46,195	17.9%
1930	43,813	−5.2%
1940	43,973	0.4%
1950	43,415	−1.3%
1960	41,561	−4.3%
1970	41,546	−0.0%
1980	41,838	0.7%
1990	39,884	−4.7%
2000	39,256	−1.6%
2010	38,440	−2.1%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

• Index to Defective, Dependent & Delinquent Census for Knox County, Indiana (1880) at Indiana Genealogical Society ($)

Church Records

Most church records are held by individual churches. For contact information, check a phone directory, such as SearchBug or Dex Knows. Some denominations are gathering their records into a central repository. For more information about these major repositories, see Indiana Church Records.

Catholic
St. Francis Xavier (Vincennes, Indiana). Parish Registers, 1780–1960. Microfilmed 1985. FHL Collectionfilm 1433361-65. The original records are at St. Francis Xavier Church, Vincennes, Indiana. They list baptisms, confirmations, communions, marriages, deaths, and graves of soldiers who served in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War (1835), the Mexican War, and the Civil War. These records may have information about persons from various parts of what is now Indiana and persons traveling through Vincennes.

Bethel Church
13673 E. St. Rd 58
Edwardsport, IN 47528
Bethel Church

• Online database contains baptismal, confirmation, marriage, and funeral records. Baptismal, marriage, and funeral records start in 1857, confirmation records start in 1851.

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

• Vincennes

Ethnic, Political, and Religious Groups

African American
Register of Negro Slaves and Masters for 1805-1807: Knox County, Indiana Territory [Abstracted by June and Ruth Barekman]. - Chicago, Ill. : Bar(r)ackman-Ba(r)rickman-Barkman-Berekman Family Association, 1970. - 5 leaves. F3532.K6 B33 Register made from film at Fort Wayne Indiana Public Library; agreements between slaves and masters were found at Knox County, Ind. Court House at Vincennes.

Land and Property Records

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents. See Indiana Land and Property for additional information about early Indiana land grants and patents.

After land was transferred from the government to private ownership, subsequent transactions were recorded at the Knox County courthouse, where records are currently housed.

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Knox County. County histories may include biographies; church, school and government histories; and military information. For more information about local histories, see Indiana Local Histories.

• History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana. 1886. Chicago, Illinois : Goodspeed Pub. Co. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Hathitrust, Internet Archive, Google Books; At various libraries (WorldCat).
• History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana. 2 volumes. 1911. By George E. Greene. Chicago, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Online at: Vol. 1 - FamilySearch Digital Library, Vol. 2 - FamilySearch Digital Library, Hathitrust, Vol. 1 - Internet Archive, Vol. 2 - Internet Archive; At various libraries (WorldCat).

Maps and Gazetteers

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Historic Indiana Maps at IUPUI University Library
• Old Antique Atlases & Maps of Indiana

Military Records

• Military Record Series Index at Indiana Digital Archives
• Knox USGenWeb
• List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883 Knox County, Indiana (Source:Internet Archive)
• African American Veterans in Knox County, Indiana (1890) at Indiana Genealogical Society ($)
• Military of Knox County (Source: Genealogy Trails History Group)

Civil War
Civil War service men from Knox County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Knox County.

• 1st Regiment, Indiana Heavy Artillery, Companies G, and M
• 10th Regiment, Indiana Cavalry, Companies B, and F
• 14th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies B, and G
• 26th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company B
• 29th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company D
• 33rd Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company B
• 51st Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies E, and H
• 65th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company C
• 70th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company K
• 80th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies C, G, and I
• 120th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies F, and G
• 137th Regiment, Indiana Infantry (100 days, 1864), Company G
• 143rd Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Companies B, and C
• 151st Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company H
• 13th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry, Company O
• 28th US Colored Troops, Company E, and Addition Recruits for Colored Troops
  

Civil War Books:

• "Military History" Chapter 9 in *History of Knox and Daviess County, Indiana: from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc., together with an extended history of the Colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the State government. (1975. Evansville, Ind: Unigraphic, Inc.) Avalible online at: FamilySearch Digital Library; INTERNET ARCHIVE
  

World War I

• 1917-1918 U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 World War I Draft Registration Cards, Knox County at Ancestry $
• 1919 Indiana, World War I, Enrollment Cards, 1919 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

World War II, 1941-1945

• Knox County, Indiana World War II Casualties, Army and Army Air Corps (Source: AccessGenealogy)
  

Naturalization and Citizenship

• Naturalization Record Series (for this county) at Indiana Digital Archives. Search by names.

Newspapers

Indiana newspapers may contain genealogical value including obituaries, births, marriages, deaths, anniversaries, family gatherings, family travel, achievements, business notices, engagement information, and probate court proceedings.

For more Indiana newspaper information see the wiki page Indiana Newspapers.

• Hoosier State Chronicles

Obituaries

Many local newspapers can be found free at the Digital Archives of the Knox County Public Library. The Knox County Obituary Indexes can be found on the Knox County Public Libraries site.

Probate Records

In most counties in Indiana, probate records have been kept by the county clerk of the circuit court. They include wills, fee books, claim registers, legacy records, inheritance records, probate ticklers, and dockets. The records are available at the Knox County courthouse. For more information, see Indiana Probate Records.

• 1798-1999 Indiana Wills and Probate Records 1798-1999 at Ancestry $

School Records

• Students and Teachers of Vincennes High School (1924) at Indiana Genealogical Society ($)
• Directory of Teachers for Knox County (1936) at Indiana Genealogical Society ($)

Social Security Records

• 1935-2014 United States Social Security Death Index 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

Indiana tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information see the wiki page Indiana Taxation.

Vital Records

Vital records consist of birth, death, marriage and divorce records. Indiana law in 1882 required registration of births and deaths in counties. The Indiana Department of Health has birth records filed after October 1907 and death records filed after January 1900 for deaths. Copies may be obtained from the county health department or the Indiana State Division of Vital Records.

Marriage

• 1780-1992 Indiana Marriages, 1780-1992 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
  
• 1800s-2007 Indiana, United States Marriages at FindMyPast $
• 1802-1892 Indiana Marriages, 1802-1892 at Ancestry $
• 1811-2007 Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection

Death

• 1750-1993 - Indiana Deaths and Burials, 1750-1993 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
  
• 1882-1920 Indiana, Death Index, 1882-1920 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection
  
• 1899-2011 Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 at Ancestry $

Research Facilities

Archives

Listed below are archives in Knox County. For state-wide archival repositories, see Indiana Archives and Libraries.

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Libraries

• Vincennes Indiana Family History Center

Libraries

Listed below are libraries in Knox County. For state-wide genealogical societies, see Indiana Archives and Libraries.

Societies

Listed below are societies in Knox County. For state-wide genealogical societies, see Indiana Societies.

Websites

• Knox County, Indiana Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
• Indiana Digital Archives Search by name in all records or specific collections
• Indiana Historical Society Digital Collections Extensive - keyword searches suggested
• Indiana Memory Click the map or select a statewide collection
• List of indexes and databases at Indiana State Library
• Indiana Genealogical Society Databases Free and Members-only. Scroll the list.
• Knox County INGenWeb
• USGenWeb
• EveryNameIndex.com for Indiana Free online genealogy indexes for county histories. Select a county.
• FamilySearch Catalog – 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.

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.

Family History Library