Pre-1882 Indiana Deaths
Dawne Slater-Putt, Certified Genealogist and professional librarian for the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center, has compiled a database of pre-1882 death date data for Indiana individuals from various publishes sources. The database is made available here with Ms. Slater-Putt's permission.
The state of Indiana did not require the recording of deaths until 1882. In the absence of official records, this database gathers information from other sources about the deaths of individuals in Indiana prior to 1882. These sources include biographical sketches in county histories, family Bibles, private family records, material submitted to genealogical periodicals by genealogists (such as pedigree and family group charts), unpublished manuscript material, state biographical sources, obituaries from newspapers, Civil War pension files, funeral home records, and more.
Since the published biographical sketches, pedigree charts and many other sources consulted were not contemporary with the deaths they describe, the information in this database should be verified by additional research. With the exception of a few private family records, most of the sources may be consulted by researchers for the purpose of making judgments about the accuracy of the data.
Searching
This database may be searched in the following ways:
- Fuzzy: will search for that string of characters. Searching for Smith would find Smith, Smithson, Arrowsmith, etc.
- Exact: will search only for that exact text. Searching for Smith will find only Smith.
- Soundex: will search for the Soundex equivalent. Searching for Smith will find Smith, Smythe, Schmidt, etc.