Lenawee County, Michigan Genealogy

United States

Michigan

Lenawee County

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

Lenawee County, Michigan
Map
Location of Michigan in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	September 10, 1822
County Seat	Adrian
Courthouse
Address	Lenawee County Courthouse 425 N Main Street Adrian, MI 49221 Phone: 517-264-4606 Lenawee County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for a Native American word meaning "male", from the Delaware "leno or lenno" or the Shawnee "lenawai". The County has Adrian as its seat and the County was created September 10, 1826. The County is located in the southeast area of the state.

Lenawee County, Michigan Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1867	1867	1867	1870	1827	1827	1820
Statewide registration started in 1867 for births and deaths. General compliance by 1915.

County Courthouse

County Clerk has birth, marriage and death records from 1867, divorce and court records from 1870.

History

Parent County

1822--Lenawee County was created 10 September 1822 from Monroe County. It was attached to Monroe County prior to organization 31 December 1826. County seat: Adrian

Boundary Changes

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

1852 A fire on March 4, 1852 destroyed the courthouse and most of the files.

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
Adrian Hudson	Morenci	Tecumseh
Villages
Addison Blissfield Britton	Cement City Clayton Clinton	Deerfield Onsted
Unincorporated communities
Birdsall Cadmus East Ogden Evans Lake	Geneva Gorman Ridgeville Springville	Tipton Weston Sand Creek
Census-designated places
Jasper	Manitou Beach-Devils Lake
Townships
Adrian Charter Blissfield Cambridge Clinton Deerfield Dover Fairfield Franklin	Hudson Macon Madison_Charter Medina Ogden Palmyra Raisin	Ridgeway Riga Rollin Rome Seneca Tecumseh Woodstock

Adrian

Ogden

Palmyra

Neighboring Counties

Fulton County, Ohio  • Hillsdale  • Jackson • Lucas County, Ohio  • Monroe  • Washtenaw

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
MIGenWeb Archives
Tombstone Project
MIInterment
EPodunk
Billion Graves
See Michigan Cemeteries for more information.

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 Lenawee 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.

An excellent source for early history of Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan can be found in One Hundred Years-A Country Town:The Village of Tecumseh, Michigan 1824-1924 by Clara Waldron. Published by Thomas A Riordan, 1968.

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Family Maps of Lenawee County, Michigan Genealogy (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.
• Maps of Michigan (1790-1897)

Military

Civil War

Civil War service men from Lenawee County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies and regiments that had many men from Lenawee County.

- 12th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Company F

- 17th Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Company A

- Engineer Regiment of the West, Missouri Volunteers (Union), Company E

Online Records

• 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 Lenawee County, Michigan Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• The Saginaw News
• Do a Lenawee 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, Lenawee 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
• 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

• Lenawee County Historical Society
  110 E. Church St.
  Adrian, MI 49221
  Phone: 517-265-6071
  Website
• Adrian District Library
  143 E. Maumee St.
  Adrian, MI 49221
  Phone: 517-265-2265
  Website
• Bean Creek Valley Historical Society
  205 So. Market Church
  Hudson, MI 49247
• Blissfield Area Historical Society
  105 N. Lane Street
  Blissfield, MI 49228
• Onsted Community Historical Society
  1145 Sand Lake
  Onsted, MI 49265

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

• Adrian Michigan Family History Center 140 Sand Creek Hwy, Adrian, MI 49221 United States

Websites

• 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
• Lenawee County MI Genealogy (Michigan Genealogy)

To access available information, first log into FamilySearch.