|
New
Visitors...Read This First:
This website is unusual in
that all
of the 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.
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. In that regard,
1916 births have recently been posted (see
What's New).
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. We have attempted
to post every obituary (over 31,000 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 Coordinators, 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 50 to 100 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. 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 Oct 2016 thru
Mar 2017, we have posted 687 new obituaries and added
alternate obituaries to about 100 already on line. New
birth records added in this period through research
(exclusive of the 1916 births) number 113. In addition,
167 marriage transcriptions between 08 Sep 1878 and 06
Feb 1879 as well as the first half of 1880 were reviewed, verified and/or corrected.
During the marriage reviews, each married couple and
their offspring received extensive updating in the
Madison County Family Tree resulting in 1935 additional
people listed. Finally, cemetery
records were updated to reflect burials within the past
6 months. Listed
below are some of the highlights of What's New in the
past year.
New
Birth Record Project - In starting to
incorporate recently released Iowa State Birth Records
(ISBR) (1904-06) into our Birth List, it was discovered
that Iowa Delayed Certificates of Birth (IDCB) have been
released. The IDCB records cover from inception through
1939. The earliest Madison County, IDCB is for someone
born in 1860. For Madison County, the ISBR is comprised
of 430 records and the IDCB 4308. With 4738 records to
process and post as well as the corresponding effort to
verify and update the Madison County Family Tree, this
has become a major project. To better manage the
project, the records have been broken down into sets by
surname first letter. Progress will be posted here under
What's New and you can also review what's happening
globally and view the actual changes here.
| ISBR
& IDCB Birth List Record Set Integration |
Posted |
| "A"
- 148 records: 68 new & 80 amended |
06
Jun 2017 |
| "B"
- 461 records: 272 new & 189 amended |
16
Jun 2017 |
Wilkinson
Reminisces - William S.
Wilkinson arrived in Madison County as an 11 year old,
just two years after the first settlers arrived. His
account of early Madison County life was presented to
the Madison County Historical Society in 1901 and
reprinted in the Winterset News in 1906. Thanks go to
Pat Hochstetler for transcribing this document which, as
of 22 May 2017, appears in our County History pages. See
Wilkinson
Reminisces.
Special
Recognition: After over 15 years as a
Co-Coordinator for this website, Judy Wight Branson
resigned in late 2016 for health reasons. Judy was the
primary driving force behind compiling the original
Marriage List, the Birth List, the Cemetery List, and
the Gravestone Photo Project as well as pulling together
the cooperative effort between this website and the
members of the Madison County Genealogical Society who
are regular contributors. She has had a major impact on
Madison County genealogical resources available on the
internet and has left a worthy legacy for generations to
come.
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 finding and transcribing older obituaries. Thanks to
JoAnne Walker who continues to be the primary force
behind finding and documenting Civil War soldiers who
lived in Madison County. Over the past year, Eileen Reed
has submitted many obituaries and family photos which
are greatly appreciated. And finally, thanks go to our
team who works on current obituaries and gravestone
photos, Ida Morse, Mary Hart, and Shirley Keating.
Sample
Marriage Documents - Samples of
Madison County marriage documents from the 1880s,
dating as far back as 1866, were posted on 23 Jan 2017.
Click here
to view them.
Guardianship
Records Completed - Started in October 2015,
the Guardianship Records for Madison County have now
been completed. All remaining records were posted as of
02 Jan 2017. We have started a project to transcribe
them so that the names will come up in a digital search.
1916
Madison County Births - The complete set of
Madison County births for calendar year 1916, comprised
of 252 records, have
been posted to our birth pages as of April 1, 2017. Select "Birth
Records" on the left to access the new data.
Obituaries: On 13 Aug 2016, the
thirty-one-thousandth obituary was posted to our Obituary
Board. As of 01 Apr 2017, the total stands at 31,954.
Current obituaries comprise about 25% of the new
postings and older obituaries, all the way back to 1875
comprise the rest.
Worthington
Cemetery History - As of 28 Jul 2016, an
updated and more complete history of the Worthington
Cemetery has been added to our cemetery history pages
and can be viewed here.
Thanks go to Linda Griffith Smith for transcribing and
editing the document.
Early
County Settlement - Read about what
the country was like when the first settlers moved to
Madison County in 1846. George Guye, among the first
four families to move to Madison County from Missouri,
gave an interview to The Winterset News in 1915,
reminiscing about his earliest days here. The article is
located in Documents.
Madison County Newspapers Are
Now On Line From 1871 to 2003 - The
Winterset Library has announced the availability of a
new online historical research tool free for anyone who
has access to the Internet. The newspaper digitization
project was funded with grants from the Madison County
Historical Society, Madison County Genealogical Society,
and a family foundation. Point your browser to http://winterset.advantage-preservation.com
or click on "NEWSPAPERS" on the left side of
this page and you will discover the digitized version of
The Winterset Madisonian and all its title
variations from 1871-2003, and also the various years of
The Winterset News, The Winterset Reporter, The
Winterset Review, The Madison County Reporter, and
all their title variations.
Civil
War Soldiers - In conjunction with the 150th
anniversary of the Civil War, an organization (Civil War
150) was formed in Winterset to identify all Civil War
soldiers who were born, lived, and/or died in Madison
County. The County Coordinators are also uncovering
soldiers by way of our research of Madison County
marriages and an analysis of county censuses. Through our combined efforts, more than
300 soldiers have been added to our Civil
War List since October 2013. Special
thanks go to JoAnne Walker who has done much of the
research and coordinated between Civil War 150 and our
website. The Civil War 150 Project is now complete but we
continue to find and add soldiers to our Civil War List.
Between Oct 2016 and Apr 2017, 42 new soldiers have been
added. As of Apr 1, 2017, 1897 Civil War soldiers have
been identified and posted.
Madison
County Family Tree: Have you ever wondered
how all these people listed in the births, deaths, and
marriages are interrelated? To answer that question, the
County Coordinator has developed a "Madison
County Family Tree", currently including 89,422
names of people who were born, lived, married,
and/or died in Madison County. Information is being
added to the family tree daily and 1935 names have been added to the tree between
Oct 2016 and Apr 2017. Click on the Madison County
Family Tree icon to the left.
The Iowa Gravestones Project
includes 39,747
headstone photos for
Madison County cemeteries as of 01 Apr 2017.
This is an increase of 663 for the past 6 months. This project is now complete except that it is on-going
for new burials and will be updated anytime that
previously lost/buried gravestones are discovered.
|
