Indiana Historical Societies

This directory lists 6 historical societies, museums, and archives in Indiana, among them the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, Conner Prairie in Fishers, and the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend. The guide that follows explains where Indiana's state-level records actually sit, which is less obvious than usual because three major repositories stand within a few blocks of each other on West Ohio Street in downtown Indianapolis.

Indiana Territory was created in 1800 and Indiana became the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816. Counties, not the state, recorded births and deaths beginning in 1882, and statewide death registration (1900) preceded birth registration (1907) by seven years, so a death certificate often exists for a person whose birth was never registered. Most of the state was surveyed and sold through seven federal land offices, with two exceptions worth knowing: the French-settled tracts around Vincennes and Clark's Grant at Clarksville, which were granted outside the rectangular survey.

Featured Historical Societies

Major repositories for Indiana research

The Indiana State Archives, run by the Indiana Archives and Records Administration (IARA), moved into a purpose-built building at 350 W. Ohio Street beside the Central Canal in Indianapolis, which opened in September 2026 after a quarter century in a warehouse. It holds records from the territorial period onward: federal land office field notes, plats, and tract books; naturalization records from 81 of Indiana's 92 counties; state institution and prison registers; military records; and Marion County court files. Many of these are name-indexed in the free Indiana Digital Archives at in.gov/iara.

• Indiana State Library, 315 W. Ohio Street: its Genealogy Division, a separate division since 1934, holds more than 80,000 books and 17,000 reels of microfilm with an emphasis on Indiana and its neighboring states. The Indiana Division next door keeps Indiana newspapers, county histories, maps, and city directories, and the library runs both Indiana Memory and Hoosier State Chronicles. See in.gov/library.
• Indiana Historical Society, William H. Smith Memorial Library, in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center at 450 W. Ohio Street: manuscripts, photographs, maps, and Indiana imprints from settlement to the present, open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Details at indianahistory.org/research.
• Indiana University Libraries in Bloomington hold a near-complete set of Indiana Sanborn fire insurance maps (1883 to 1969) and have released the public-domain sheets as free color downloads through IU Datacore.

Birth, death, marriage, and divorce records in Indiana

Indiana's county and town health officers began recording births and deaths in 1882. The state took over death registration in 1900 and birth registration in 1907, but general compliance was not reached until about 1920, so always check both the county health department and the state for events between 1882 and 1920.

• State certificates: the Indiana Department of Health, Division of Vital Records, 2 N. Meridian Street, Indianapolis, issues deaths from 1900 and births from 1907. Fees are $10 for a birth certificate and $8 for a death certificate, with additional copies of the same record at $4. Order by mail using the state forms, by phone, or online.
• County copies: local health departments offer walk-up service for events in their county and are often faster for pre-1920 records, which may exist only in the county register.
• Marriages: recorded from each county's formation (a few from 1788) by the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The state does not issue marriage certificates for historical research; use the county clerk, the pre-1850 and 1958 to 2017 marriage indexes compiled by the Indiana State Library, and the Indiana courts' marriage license lookup for recent licenses.
• Divorces: filed in the circuit or superior court of the county; contact the county clerk.

Land, deed, and property records

Indiana is a federal-land state. Seven General Land Office district offices sold the public domain: Cincinnati (for the southeastern 'Gore', 1801 to 1840), Vincennes (1807 to 1861), Jeffersonville (1808 to 1855), Brookville/Indianapolis (1820 to 1876), Terre Haute/Crawfordsville (1820 to 1853), Fort Wayne (1823 to 1852), and LaPorte/Winamac (1833 to 1855). The State Archives holds the surveyors' field notes, plat maps, and tract books for all surveyed land, and volunteers have indexed several of the land office registers (including Fort Wayne, LaPorte-Winamac, and Vincennes) in the Indiana Digital Archives. The Archives also keeps records of state-owned canal, school, and swamp lands and of Native American reserves, though purchasers of state lands are not yet indexed. Final patents and survey plats are free at the BLM's General Land Office Records site, and the National Archives at Chicago holds the original land entry applications.

Once land passed into private hands, every deed and mortgage was recorded by the County Recorder. Recorder's offices keep grantor and grantee indexes, and many counties now have online deed images back to the 1800s. Full details on the land office system are at the State Archives land records page.

Newspapers and city directories

Hoosier State Chronicles (newspapers.library.in.gov), Indiana's digital historic newspaper program at the State Library, is free and currently holds about 198,000 issues and 1.69 million pages, searchable by keyword, title, county, and date. Indiana titles digitized under the National Digital Newspaper Program are also on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America site. The State Library's Indiana Division holds the state's largest newspaper microfilm collection and will tell you which library holds a title that has not been scanned.

City directories for Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Terre Haute, and many smaller towns are in the State Library's Indiana Division; some of its smaller telephone and county directories exist nowhere else. The Indiana Historical Society library also holds long directory runs. Directories let you follow an address or a surname year by year between censuses; see how to use old city directories.

Census, military, and statewide indexes

Indiana appears in every federal census from 1820 onward. The state took its own censuses purely for statistical totals, so there are no Indiana state census name lists to search; use tax duplicates, enumerations of voters, and school enumerations held at the county level as substitutes.

• Indiana Digital Archives: free name indexes to naturalizations, land office entries, state prison and hospital admissions, wills, and military records held by the State Archives.
• Indiana Memory (digital.library.in.gov): the State Library's statewide digital collection portal, organized by county and topic, with photographs, yearbooks, maps, and local documents from libraries and societies across Indiana.
• Naturalizations: with 81 counties' records at the State Archives and the remainder at county courthouses or the National Archives at Chicago, Indiana is one of the easier states for citizenship research; FamilySearch has been digitizing the Archives' holdings.

Researching a house or building in Indiana

The Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA) of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources serves as the state's historic preservation office. Its SHAARD database (State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database) and the Indiana Historic Buildings, Bridges and Sites map let you look up whether a property was recorded in a county survey and what rating it received, and the division files nominations to both the National Register and the Indiana State Register. Start at in.gov/dnr/historic-preservation. State historical markers are a separate program of the Indiana Historical Bureau, which has a Find a Marker search at in.gov/history.

For the building itself, pull the County Recorder's deed chain as described in tracing a property's deed history, then check the lot on Sanborn maps. Indiana University's free color Sanborn scans at libraries.indiana.edu/sanborn-maps are browsable by city and year, so you can see the footprint, material, and use of a building at each edition between 1883 and the 1920s. Our guides to dating a house and researching an old building walk through the rest of the process.

Working with Indiana historical societies

Indiana's local history network is county-based: all 92 counties have a historical society or museum, and the Indiana Historical Society supports them through its local history services program. Many county societies also run a genealogy library inside the county public library, which is often the best-staffed place to ask about cemetery readings, obituary indexes, and plat books. Expect limited hours, frequently two or three afternoons a week, and plan a visit around them. If you are hunting a grave, the county society's cemetery index is usually more complete than any national website; combine it with the approach in finding where someone is buried.

Additional Indiana History Resources

• Indiana Archives and Records Administration - Indiana State Archives: land office records, naturalizations, institutional and military records
• Indiana Digital Archives (name indexes) - Free indexes to naturalization, land, prison, will, and military records
• Indiana State Library - Genealogy Division and Indiana Division: books, microfilm, newspapers, city directories
• Hoosier State Chronicles - Indiana's free digital historic newspaper program
• Indiana Memory - Statewide digital collections portal organized by county
• Indiana Historical Society Library - William H. Smith Memorial Library, Indianapolis
• Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology - State preservation office; SHAARD database, National and State Registers
• Indiana Historical Bureau - State historical marker program and marker search
• Indiana Sanborn Maps (IU Libraries) - Free color scans of public-domain Indiana fire insurance maps
• Indiana Department of Health Vital Records - Birth certificates from 1907 and death certificates from 1900

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Indiana start recording births and deaths?

County health officers began recording them in 1882. Statewide death registration started in 1900 and birth registration in 1907, with general compliance by about 1920. The Indiana Department of Health, Division of Vital Records, issues state copies; county health departments hold the earlier registers.

Where are Indiana's original land office records?

At the Indiana State Archives in Indianapolis, which holds the field notes, plat maps, and tract books for all seven land offices that sold Indiana's public domain, with several offices indexed online. The BLM General Land Office site has the final patents, and the National Archives at Chicago has the entry applications.

Does Indiana have state census records?

No name lists. Indiana took state censuses for statistical purposes only, so there are no Indiana state census schedules to search. Use the federal censuses from 1820, county tax lists, voter enumerations, and school enumerations instead.

How do I find out if an Indiana house is on the National Register?

Search the SHAARD database and the Indiana Historic Buildings, Bridges and Sites map maintained by the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. They show county survey entries and ratings as well as National Register and Indiana State Register listings, and listed properties have nomination forms with researched building histories.