Welcome to the Madison County IAGenWeb site.

Madison County is located in the south central part of Iowa. It was created in 1846 and organized in 1849 from unorganized territory (Mahaska). Madison County has many covered bridges made famous in the book The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. It is also the home of the "Delicious" apple and the birthplace of John Wayne. The county seat is Winterset.

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.

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.

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