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United States Iowa Van Buren County

Guide to Van Buren County Iowa genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

	Iowa Online Records

Van Buren County, Iowa
Map
Location in the state of Iowa
Location of Iowa in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	December 7, 1836
County Seat	Keosaugua
Courthouse

County Courthouse

History

Martin Van Buren.JPG

The county is named after President Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) who served as United States Vice President at the time of the county's formation.^[1]

Parent County

1836--Van Buren County was created 7 December 1836 from Des Moines County. County seat:  Keosauqua ^[2]

Boundary Changes

See an interactive map of Iowa boundary changes.

Record Loss

Places/Localities

Populated Places

Neighboring Counties

Davis | Henry | Lee | Jefferson | Wapello | Clark County, Missouri | Scotland County, Missouri

Resources

Cemeteries

Church

Most church records are held by individual churches. For contact information, check a phone directory, such as SearchBug or Dex Knows. Some denominations are gathering their records into a central repository. For more information about these major repositories, see Iowa Church Records.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

LDS Ward and Branch Records

• Keosauqua
• Van Buren

Lutheran

• Records of the Zion Lutheran Church, Douds, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

Court

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

Local Histories 

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

Maps

Migration

Early migration routes to and from Van Buren County, Iowa for European settlers included:

• Mormon Trail 1846 from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah^[3]

Military

Newspapers

Wikipedia has more about this subject: List of online newspaper archives

NewspaperArchive.com ($) has a large collection of digitized Iowa newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries.

Probate

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

The Family History Library Catalog lists films of probate records. To find the records for this county, use the Place Search for Iowa - Van Buren - Probate records.

Taxation

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 from the Iowa Department of Public Health or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred.

Societies and Libraries

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog
• Van Buren County, Iowa Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)

References

1. ↑ "Martin Van Buren," Wikipedia.
2. ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
3. ↑ National Park Service, "Auto Tour Route Maps" in Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail at http://www.nps.gov/mopi/planyourvisit/maps.htm (accessed 18 July 2011).

• This page was last modified on 14 June 2013, at 21:50.
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