Isabella County, Michigan Genealogy

United States

Michigan

Isabella County

Guide to Isabella County, Michigan ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Isabella County, Michigan
Map
Location of Michigan in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	March 2, 1831
County Seat	Mount Pleasant
Courthouse
Address	Isabella County Courthouse 200 N Main St. Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 Phone: (989) 772-0911 Isabella County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Queen Isabella I of Castile. The County has Mount Pleasant as its seat and the County was created 1859. The County is located in the central area of the state.

Isabella County, Michigan Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1880	1880	1880	1880	1838	1859	1820
Statewide registration started in 1867 for births and deaths. General compliance by 1915.

County Courthouse

County Clerk has birth, marriage, death, divorce and court records from 1880.

History

Isabella County
The county is located close to the geographic center of the lower peninsula of Michigan. While primarily rural in nature, Isabella County is also noted for it's oil and gas production and the manufacturing of machinery for industry, food service and wood products. Mt. Pleasant is the home of Central Michigan University and the Clarke Historical Library, the second largest genealogy and historical library in the state. Central Michigan University was opened in 1893 as the Central Normal School and Business Institute. The school was operated by the city of Mt. Pleasant until 1895 when it was taken over by the State of Michigan and became Central Michigan Normal School. CMU became a four year institution in 1918 and a university in 1959. The county also encompasses the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation, home of the Soaring Eagle Casino. City, Town and Village Names

Parent County

1831--Isabella County was created 2 March 1831 from Mackinac County and unorganized territory. It was attached to Saginaw, Ionia, and Midland Counties prior to organization 11 February 1859.
County seat: Mount Pleasant

Boundary Changes

See COUNTY EVOLUTION IN MICHIGAN, 1790-1897 by Richard W. Welch for the development of the counties in the state. This will help you to determine place of residence of your ancestors and under whose civil jurisdiction they resided. It is also useful for when you start to read the census records.

For animated maps illustrating Michigan county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Michigan County Boundary Maps" (1790-1897) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Places/Localities

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Clare	Mount Pleasant
Villages
Rosebush	Shepherd	Lake Isabella
Unincorporated communities
Blanchard	Sherman City
Census-designated places
Beal City	Loomis	Weidman
Townships
Broomfield Chippewa Coe Coldwater Deerfield Denver	Fremont Gilmore Isabella Lincoln Nottawa Rolland	Sherman Union Charter Vernon Wise

Neighboring Counties

Clare  • Gladwin  • Gratiot  • Mecosta  • Midland  • Montcalm  • Osceola

Resources

Cemeteries

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
USGenWeb	WorldCat	Billion Graves
Tombstone Project
EPodunk
Billion Graves
See Michigan Cemeteries for more information.

• Riverside Cemetery Listings - from the City of Mt. Pleasant; database of over 9,000 burials. 

Census

State Census

• 1894 - Michigan State Census, 1894 at FamilySearch — index

Church

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Michigan denominations, view the Michigan Church Records wiki page.

• 1819-1991 - Michigan, Church Records, 1819-1991 at FamilySearch — index

Emigration and Immigration

• 1929 - 1966 Michigan, Crew Lists for various ports, 1929-1966 at FamilySearch — index and images

Land

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See Michigan Land and Property for additional information about early Michigan land grants. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Isabella County, Michigan Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Michigan Local Histories.

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Maps of Michigan (1790-1897)

Military

Civil War

• Michigan, Civil War Centennial Observance Commission, Committee on Civil War Grave Registration, Burial Records at FamilySearch — index

World War I

• 1917-1919 - Michigan, Census of World War I Veterans with Card Index, 1917-1919 at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers

Finding More Michigan Newspapers

Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Isabella County, Michigan Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• The Saginaw News
• Do a Isabella County, Michigan Genealogy Place-name search for these and other records in the Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Obituaries

• 1820-2006 - Michigan Obituaries, 1820-2006 at FamilySearch — index and images

Probate

In most counties in Michigan, probate records have been kept by the county judge. They include wills, fee books, claim registers, legacy records, inheritance records, probate packets, and dockets. The records are available at the county courthouse.

The FamilySearch Catalog lists films of probate records. To find the records for this county, use the Place Search for Michigan, Isabella and search for Probate records in the list.

Note: Not every county in Michigan will have Probate Records in the FamilySearch Catalog.

Online Probate Records

• 1784 – 1980 Michigan Wills and Probate Records 1784-1980 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1797 – 1973 Michigan Probate Records 1797-1973 at FamilySearch — images

Vital Records

Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents. A copy or an extract of most original records can be purchased as shown below:

Birth Records and Death Records from the Michigan Department of Community Health (from 1867) or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred.

Marriage Records (from 1867) and Divorce Records (from 1897) from the County Clerk.

• How to order Michigan Vital Records

Birth

• 1867-1917 - Michigan, County Births, 1867-1917 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1867-1902 - Michigan Birth Registrations, 1867-1902-- Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as name of child, birthdate and place, if still-born, illegitimate or twin, gender, race and record number.

Marriage

• 1585-1945 - Michigan, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
• 1820-1937 - Michigan, County Marriages Index, 1820-1937 at FamilySearch — index
• 1820-1940 - Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1940 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1868-1925 - Michigan Marriage Registrations, 1868-1925 -- Free name indexes at FamilySearch.  Records include such information as names of bride and groom, date of license, ages, race, residences, birthplaces, occupations and names of the fathers of the bride and groom.

Death

• 1850-1880 - Michigan Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1867-1897 - Michigan Death Registrations, 1867-1897 --  Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch.   Records include such information as name of deceased, date and place of death, gender, color, marital status, age in years, months and days, disease or apparent cause of death, birthplace, names and occupations of parents, and the date the record was made.

Societies and Libraries

Isabella County, Genealogical Society Of
523 N. Fancher
Mt. Pleasant 48858

Genealogical Society of Isabella County
PO Box 117
Century House, 522 N Fancher
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48804-0117
E-mail:isagenesoc@yahoo.com
E-mail:info@isabellagenealogy.org
Website

Shepherd Area Genealogical Society
7859 E. Walton Rd.
Shepherd 48883

• List of Michigan Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical & Genealogical Societies

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes.

• For current information about a center near you, go to the Family History Center Map

• Introduction to Family History Centers

• Mount Pleasant Michigan Family History Center 1404 S Crawford Dr, Mount Pleasant, MI 48858 United States

Websites

• Isabella County, MI History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
• Michigan Genealogy Network Community on Google+
• Michigan Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county.
• FamilySearch Catalog
• Isabella County MI Genealogy (Michigan Genealogy)

To access available information, first log into FamilySearch.