Many records created by local and state governments do not fit into the categories used in this outline. Records of state licensing and certification bureaus, mayors, commissioners, overseers of the poor, and care of schools are examples of government sources that may give genealogical information not contained in other records. Some collections that contain a variety of records, such as land, history, tax, court, or other records, may be classified as “public records.”

County commissioners’ records began when a county was organized. They record the administrative functions for the county and list names and dates of county residents involved in petitioning for roads and bridges, licensing, care of the poor, pauper burial payments, jurors, payment of coroner inquests, payment of bounties, and appointments. Some of these records are on microfilm at the Family History Library.

Other Indiana public records include apprentice records, which record children bound to a master to learn a trade; county payment of indigent soldiers (beginning in 1889); and petitions for incorporation of towns, including town censuses.

Public records are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

INDIANA, [COUNTY]- PUBLIC RECORDS

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