Family and Local History Room Collection

A selection of materials available in the Family and Local History Room

This page is a work in progress! Download our brochure [HERE] for a better listing of what is available.

Microfilm

We have a wide variety of resources available on microfilm including newspapers, Clark County vital records, various Clark County historical records, and the U.S. Federal Census. Click on a tab below to view our microfilm holdings for that category.

Newspapers on microfilm

The Evening News
(Jeffersonville, IN)
Nov. 1872 – present
(not inclusive)
The National Democrat
(Jeffersonville, IN)
June 1872 – June 1916
(not inclusive)
The Jeffersonville Star
(Jeffersonville, IN)
Mar. 1914 – Dec. 1921
(not inclusive)
The Courier-Journal
(Louisville, KY)
Jan. – May 1937
The Reflector/The Daily Reflector
(Indiana Reformatory, Jeffersonville, IN)
Nov. 1903 – Oct. 1915
Clark County Republican/Citizen-Record
(Jeffersonville, IN)
Oct. 1919 – Feb. 1920

Looking for more Clark County newspapers? Check with the Charlestown-Clark County Public Libraries for papers for cities and towns in the rest of Clark County.

Vital Records on microfilm

Clark County Marriage Records 1808 – 1901
(Missing years 1848–1855 because the book was too faded to film)
Clark County Birth Records 1882 – 1922
Clark County Death Records 1882 – 1971
Individual City/Town Death Records:
Jeffersonville 1921 – 1956
Clarksville 1907 – 1939
Charlestown 1907 – 1937
Sellersburg 1911 – 1937
Borden 1913 – 1937

Historical Records on microfilm

Clark County Deed Indexes: Grantor 1860 – 1900
Clark County Deed Indexes: Grantee 1870 – 1900
Clark County Wills 1801 – 1833;
1852 – 1895
Clark County Probate Court 1817 – 1852
Court of Common Pleas — Order Books 1801 – 1817
Court of Common Pleas — Minute Books 1801 – 1814
Court of General Quarter Sessions — Minute Books 1801 – 1808
Circuit Court — Order Books 1824 – 1831
Circuit Court — Minute Books 1815 – 1816
Courts of Oyer & Terminer, General Jail Delivery,
& Circuit Courts held by Federal Judges
1802 – 1813
County Commissioner’s Records 1817 – 1828;
1832 – 1852
Clark County Estray Book 1802 – 1818

Census Records on microfilm

Indiana Territorial Census 1807
U.S. Federal Census
Indiana (most counties) 1820 – 1880; 1900 – 1930
Kentucky 1810; 1900 (Jefferson County)
Connecticut 1790
Maine 1790
Maryland 1790
Massachusetts 1790
New Hampshire 1790
New York 1790
North Carolina 1790
Pennsylvania 1790
Rhode Island 1790
South Carolina 1790
Vermont 1790

Miscellaneous Records on microfilm

Caron Jeffersonville City Directory 1901 – 1902
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Jeffersonville 1886; 1898; 1904; 1911; 1925
Jesse Dorsey collection of the “Speedometer” Oct. 1921 – Aug. 1929
Guernsey Ledger, Monroe Township 1860 – 1861
Surveys and abstracts of Clark’s Grant/Illinois Grant

Jeffersonville City Directories

Click below for a downloadable list of Jeffersonville city directories in the Family and Local History Room and online.
Jeffersonville City Directories

Indexes

This is the temporary home for a variety of indexes. Please read each index description carefully to locate the right one. Note that all of our indexes are works in progress. Click on the blue titles to open or download an index. Email the library at dstepro@jefflibrary.org if you find issues in any index on this page. The library applauds our wonderful volunteers for the hundreds of hours of work they have invested in our indexing projects.


Revolutionary War Soldiers with Death information in the Evening News or National Democrat

Early newspapers often carried stories about area soldiers and patriots of the American Revolution, sometimes including information from people who actually knew the subjects and their families. View Jeffersonville Township newspapers via NewspaperArchive, linked at right, or via microfilm in the Indiana Room.

Briar Hill Cemetery”
This index contains information about burials in the African American cemetery known as Briar Hill or Watson Cemetery of Clark County. Information presented here comes primarily from obituaries and death certificates.


Family File List by Surname

The family files contain a wide variety of information, from family newsletters and reunion information to obituaries and short family histories.

City of Jeffersonville, Indiana, Historical Public Records, Police Officers’ Oaths, and City Financial Records
This index aids in identifying materials from Jeffersonville Township Public Library’s City of Jeffersonville Collection in Special Collections. Upon request, library staff will be happy to retrieve materials in the Special Collections. Please contact staff in advance of your visit if you wish to see materials listed in this index. As this list is not ordered by surname, we recommend using your computer operating system’s “find” feature to locate the transaction or person you seek.

Regional History Folder List
Located in the Family and Local History Room, the regional history files contain newspaper and magazine clippings, advertising materials, pamphlets, and other items of interest to local history and family researchers. This index provides a guide to the materials available. Please contact the library staff in advance of your visit so that materials can be retrieved and ready when you arrive.

Index to Clark County Coroner’s Reports, 1880-1923
Mysterious, accidental, or violent deaths required the attention of the Clark Count Coroner. Unlike other death records, these bear little genealogical information, but focus on discovering the cause of death. Because they record deaths that may be missed elsewhere and provide information about day-to-day lives, these records are often valuable to researchers. Digital copies of records are currently available upon request; please contact the library. Coming soon: online digitized copies of coroner’s records.

Orphans of Clark County Found in Newspaper and Court Records
This is an evolving index of information providing difficult-to-find genealogical information about local children raised outside of their biological families. To protect the privacy of living people, the information in this index is either more than one hundred years old or derived from public records like regional newspapers. Court materials may not be available due to poor condition. Researchers may view Jeffersonville Township newspapers via NewspaperArchive, linked at right, or via microfilm in the Family and Local History Room. Courier-Journal articles can be found through the ProQuest Historical Newspapers link, also at right.

Clark County Indiana Poor Farm Cemetery Burials
Created by Tami Kruer, this index lists persons whose burial records show that they were buried in the Clark County Poor Farm Cemetery. Many of these people died at the Clark County Poor Farm, a county-run, tax funded institution that housed and cared for those who for any reason could not care for themselves. For a history of poor farms in Indiana, visit https://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/files/hp-home.pdf.

Index to Obituaries in Local Newspapers 08.11.20
Obituaries provide valuable information for family historians and researchers. Unlike the other indexes in this list, the obituaries will download to your device rather than opening as a web page. This growing index is several sheets long, so please note the dates marked at the bottom tab for each sheet. Also, be aware that this file may be too large to view effectively on smaller devices like phones. Most of the sheets in this index focus on the period after the beginning of reliably published newspapers in Jeffersonville Township, around 1872. The index is a work in progress; many obituaries have yet to be indexed. View Jeffersonville Township newspapers via NewspaperArchive, linked at right, or via microfilm in the Family and Local History Room. Family and Local History Room staff will be glad to assist researchers in locating obituaries.