Genealogy Research in “Burned Counties”

What are your chances of coming across a burned county in your research? Pretty good. Courthouse disasters were common in the days before modern building codes. By one reckoning, the term applies to about 20 percent of Ohio counties (one in five!). It’s worse in the South, in part due to the Civil War. More than 40 percent of counties in Georgia and Alabama, and nearly as many in Mississippi, have suffered courthouse damage at least once.

1. Assess the damage.

Determine the date of the courthouse calamity, or dates if there were multiple events. Consult more than one source and give preference to sources that cite original reports of the disaster (such as newspaper coverage). Look in local histories and genealogical guides, at courthouse or genealogical society websites, and in the Burned Counties table of the FamilySearch wiki. The date is crucial, because records dating after that time should be unaffected. Note the date on a Burned County Records Inventory form.

Next, it’s time to find out exactly which records perished and which ones didn’t. Sometimes a fire or flood affected only part of a building or only some records. Sometimes the records you want were stored elsewhere and therefore unaffected by flames or floodwater. Here’s an eye-opening example: Indiana has about 25 burned counties, but in most counties some records survived, and in eight counties, all genealogically relevant records were saved.

2. Look for inventories.

Lists of records that once existed will help you find substitutes for what’s missing. If a record was around in 1940, for example, and no calamities have occurred since then, you know it probably still exists. Many counties and states have inventories records since the disaster-prone 1800s. There’s no guarantee that the records are still in the same location as when the inventory was taken, or even still exist, but at least you have a starting point.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted the most famous and widespread inventories during the late 1930s and early 1940s. These Historical Record Surveys document a variety of records. Some even discovered lost collections: WPA workers in Dubois, Ind., found 10 boxes of deeds that survived an 1839 courthouse fire. The surveys differed in each state. Missouri’s includes county government, church and vital records, manuscripts, and federal archives collections. In Texas, they skipped church records and some western counties altogether, but processed more than 10 million documents and transcribed or indexed thousands of property, vital, court and estate records.

Look first for Historical Records Surveys in state libraries, archives or historical societies. Copies of some may have ended up on the county level. A fast (but not guaranteed) search method is to enter “Historical Record Survey” and the state name in your web browser: information for both Missouri and Texas come up in Google with this method.

3. Build on existing foundations.

As you sift through proverbial record ruins, use what you discover for all it’s worth. Remaining records can provide a foundation upon which to reconstruct your ancestor’s life. Scour them for every clue they hold. Document and follow up on those clues. And don’t neglect less-common surviving sources that you may overlook when the records-pickings are ripe.

Records that survived a fire or flood may have water or smoke damage, but may still be usable. It’s worth asking, if you hope to handle them personally, what condition they’re in and whether you should dress for messy work. Be respectful of limited access policies; you may need to wait or pay for a staff member’s help. Ask whether microfilmed or other copies exist. A photocopied or scanned original is more reliable than a typed abstract or index, though the latter may be all that’s available.

It can take a practiced eye to recognize every valuable clue you find in county government documents. Make copies of originals for later reference. Then abstract or transcribe the unique data. For long legal documents that mostly consist of standard language, abstract (or extract) everything unique about it, including names, dates, dollar amounts, any legal action or claim taking place, etc. If you’re not sure whether you’re reading something unique or boilerplate, compare the document to similar ones in the same record set. You’ll quickly determine what makes yours unique.

You may want to fully transcribe documents that are difficult to read or are rich in unique information, such as deeds or divorce proceedings. This way you can better digest the meaning and capture clues buried in the narrative. Review the evidence you find to see if it leads to other clues. For example, if you find family listed in poorhouse records, look for a financial trail leading that direction: tax records, court-ordered support, a foreclosure or bankruptcy filing, etc.

4. Reconstruct records.

It’s true that county sources are often at the heart of family history research. But don’t get tunnel vision. Look for records other government offices and community sources kept. See whether someone has already made efforts to recreate the record. In a pinch, these may provide the dates, places or other information you’re looking for, or they may at least point to it.

First, look for delayed and re-recorded records in the burned county. Officials sometimes asked the locals to submit information about their marriages, land purchases and other events that were recorded at the courthouse before the disaster. Property records were usually re-recorded because of their financial importance. Look for re-recorded deeds soon after the disaster or with the next transaction for that property. Other records may have been re-recorded, too, sometimes long after the fact. Your adult relative may have applied for a delayed birth record if an original was lost or never existed. This was common in the 1930s, when people started needing proof of birth to apply for Social Security benefits.

Next, look to other government sources. States may have copies of vital records, especially for 20th-century births and deaths. Many states have taken censuses; see the Census Bureau’s list. You can search some of these on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org; consult State Research Guides or State Census Records by Ann S. Lainhart (Genealogical Publishing Co.) to learn more about them. Federal censuses (searchable on most genealogy data sites) and military paperwork can take you a long way, too.

Last but definitely not least, look to non-government sources created in or about your ancestor’s community: newspapers, church records, city directories, local and county histories, maps and atlases, and data compilations that government, historical or genealogical organizations created as substitutes for lost ones. See the Lost and Found chart below for quick ideas on where to look for certain types of information. Brainstorm further with our free Records Checklist. You’ll find lots of how-tos on researching various record types in back issues of Family Tree Magazine, on our website and through Family Tree University online courses.

5. Meet the neighbors.

The family phoenix

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