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New
Visitors...Read This First:
This website is unusual in
that all
of the available official county records directly related
to genealogy (births, marriages, deaths and
burials) are posted here. The only exception is
that we are preserving privacy by not posting
births and marriages newer than 100 years old or
the data has not been released by state or
county officials.
The only "sets" of data related to
official records left to post are yearly updates
of the county births and marriages to
accommodate the privacy issue and newly released
data such as the Iowa Delayed Certificates of
Birth.
In
addition to the county records, we have
transcribed and posted every Federal Census from
1850 through 1930 and every Iowa State Census
from 1849 through 1895. Every gravestone has
been photographed and posted and a team is
dedicated to photographing new burials as they
occur. We have attempted
to post every obituary (over 34,100 on line)
and have a continuing project to make the
collection complete.
As
you peruse the "What's New" section
below, keep in mind that with the exception of
the marriage and birth records we post each year
the data we are adding is based on research by
the Madison County team aimed at enhancing the
official county, state and federal data already
on line. |
What's
New
Daily
Updates: The County Coordinator, along
with several members of the Madison County Genealogical
Society are working daily on obituaries, cemetery
records, marriage records, birth records, headstone
photos, newspaper gleanings, the Madison County Family
Tree, and other research
pertaining to Madison County. This results in many daily updates of this
website. If we were to list each change we have made
over the past six months, you would have to plow through
well over 100 pages of change documentation. However, we
have elected to post complete data sets for your perusal
as they are generated. See "1918 Madison County
Marriages" and "1918 Madison County
Births"
below to access new data sets.
If you visited this
website before and didn't find your relative's
information, we urge you to look again and to look each
time you visit here. In the period from Apr 2018 thru
Sep 2019, we have posted 219 new obituaries and added
alternate obituaries to 23 already on line. Finally, cemetery
records are regularly updated to reflect the most recent
burials. Listed
below are some of the highlights of What's New in the 12
months between October 01, 2018 and September 30, 2019.
1918
Madison County Marriages - The complete set of
Madison County marriages for calendar year 1918, comprised
of 166 records, have
been posted to our Marriage List as of September 30,
2019. To
see the list of 1918 marriages, click here.
To see them integrated with all marriages, select "Marriage
Records" on the left. (Posted 30 Sep
2019)
Random
Birth Records - As a part of routine
maintenance of the website as well as special projects,
we may run across Madison County births not found in the
official birth records. They may come from other
county's state census records, marriage records, or from
Social Security Applications or Draft Registrations.
These random records are accumulated and posted to the
website every 6 months. Birth records accumulated in the
6 months ending 30 Sep 2019 have been integrated into
our Birth records and also posted here as a separate
list. (Posted 30 Sep
2019)
1925
Iowa State Census: As you may
know, the 1925 Iowa State Census is the Holy Grail of
censuses because it contains not only the names of all
the county’s citizens but also their parent’s names,
places of birth, and places of marriage. Although the
census is accessible on line, there is presently no
index and finding your relative is dependent on how well
the enumerator spelled their name and how well the
transcriber deciphered it for the transcription. And, if
you want to find them on the actual census images, there
is virtually no guidance to doing so. A project to
provide the 1925 Madison County Census, fully indexed,
on this website, has been initiated. As of 14 Aug 2019,
the transcription work was completed except for proof
reading. The census is still projected to be fully on line at the beginning of 2020.
Town and township transcriptions are being posted
alphabetically and are posted through Walnut Township as of
15 Oct 2019. The index has been completed and can be accessed here.
Madison
County Family Tree Update - The
Madison County Family Tree is now hosted by RootsMagic
Online and will be updated weekly. It holds the
same information as the previous Family Tree although
the format is new and different. Please take time
to visit the Help screen to become familiar with the
site. The previous family tree was hosted by RootsWeb
which was taken over by Ancestry a few years ago. Since
that time, our weekly updates have not been shown. This
new Family Tree hosted by RootsMagic contains 18+ months
of updates, so you may find some helpful family
information. (Posted
08 Apr
2019)
Divorces
- In
early 2015, a dedicated group of Madison County
Genealogical Society members went through the records of
Madison County court proceedings at the County
Courthouse and extracted 868 divorce records.
These records were put in file folders within archival
quality file boxes devoted exclusively to divorces so
they can readily be retrieved. The records reside
in the Clerk of Court's office along with an index which
we have published herein under "Divorces".
(Posted 20 Jan
2019)
Composite
Census Index Now On Line
- If
you've been frustrated by having to open census after
census, looking for your relative, there is now an
easier way to find them. We have created a master census
index for Madison County, combining the indices from all
of the censuses we have transcribed. This index includes
all federal censuses from 1850 through 1930 and all
state censuses from 1849 through 1895. You can access
this index here
or through the Census Records link on the left.
(Posted
06 Dec 2018)
Funeral
Cards Added - An updated list of Funeral
Cards held by the Winterset Library was submitted for
posting by Pat Hochstetler. The list contained 461 new
records and those records are now integrated into the Funeral
Card Records. A list of the 461 additions can be
found here.
Copies of specific cards can be obtained by contacting
the Madison
County Genealogical Society. (Posted
17
Dec 2018)
1918
Madison County Births - The complete set of
Madison County births for calendar year 1918, comprised
of 360 records, have
been posted to our birth pages as of March 31, 2019. To
see the list of 1918 births, click here.
To see them integrated with all births, select "Birth
Records" on the left.
Current
Contributors: Maintenance and
improvement of this website would be impossible without
the continued support of volunteer contributors. Special
thanks go to Pat Hochstetler who has worked tirelessly
in transcribing older obituaries along with new
obituaries as well as
photographing gravestones. Over the past year, Eileen Reed
has submitted many obituaries and family photos which
are greatly appreciated. And finally, thanks go to Shirley
Keating who works on current obituaries and Ida Morse
who works on gravestone photos.
Gravestone
Photos: All gravestones in Madison County
have been photographed and posted at the Iowa Gravestones Project.
One hundred sixty six newly placed gravestones in the period 01
Apr 2018 to
30 Sep 2019 have been photographed and posted. A list of
the new postings can be seen in
a separately compiled list
of new Gravestone Photo postings.
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