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United States Nebraska Douglas County

Douglas County, Nebraska genealogy and family history research page. Guide to genealogy, history, and courthouse sources including birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, wills, deeds and land records, Civil War records, family histories, cemeteries, churches, tax records, newspapers, and obituaries.

	Nebraska Online Records

Douglas County, Nebraska
Map
Location in the state of Nebraska
Map of the U.S. highlighting Nebraska Location of Nebraska in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	November 23, 1854
County Seat	Fremont
Courthouse
100pxpx Photo courtesy [[]]
Address	Douglas County Courthouse 1701 Farnam Street, #300 Omaha, Nebraska 68102 Phone: 402.444.7018

County Courthouse

Douglas County Courthouse
1701 Farnam Street
Omaha NE 68183-1001
Phone: 402.444.7143

County Judge has marriage and probate records.
Clerk District Court has divorce records.
County Clerk has military discharge records. ^[1]

History

Parent County

1854--Douglas County was created 23 November 1854 as an original county. County seat: Omaha ^[2] 

History of Douglas County :  Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska, Douglas County, Produced by Liz Lee

Records Lost

Places/Localities

Populated Places

Douglas County cities and villags

• Bennington
• Omaha
• Omaha Surveyed  original layout and settlers involved.

• Ralston
• Valley
• Boys' Town
• Waterloo

Neighboring Counties

• Dodge
• Pottawattamie County, Iowa
• Sarpy
• Saunders
• Washington

Railroads

In December 1863 the First Transcontinental Railroad started from Omaha, Nebraska.

• Union Pacific Railroad
• American Memory from Library of Congress has maps of the Union Pacific Railroad
• Wikipedia article on the Union Pacific Railroad
• Railroad Museum in Omaha, Nebraska

Resources

Cemeteries and Obituaries

• Douglas County Cemeteries from RootsWeb - Links to some cemeteries and transcriptions
• Omaha obituary index. Lists over 150,000 obituaries from Omaha and surrounding areas.

BillionGraves: Each page has Google map showing cemetery, and searchable database for each one, and photos of headstones.

• Bohemian Cemetery, Omaha
• Calvary Cemetery, Omahas
• Elkhorn Cemetery, Elkhorn
• Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery, Omaha
• Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha
• Golden Hill Cemetery, Omaha
• Graceland Park Cemetery, Omaha
• Mormon Cemetery, Omaha See note below.
• Mount Auburn Cemetery, Omaha
• Mount Calvary Cemetery, Elkhorn
• Mount Sinai Cemetery, Omaha
• Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Omaha
• Prospect Hill Cemetery, Omaha
• Saint Mary's Cemetery, Omaha
• Saint Mary Magdalene Cemetery, Omaha
• Springwell Cemetery, Omaha
• West Lawn Cemetery, Omaha

Note about 'Mormon Cemetery'. Burials here are largely from the late 1840s, when the Mormons began their trek west, this general area very close to this spot is where they stopped for the winter of 1846 and subsequent groups heading for what is now known as Utah staged from this general area. This area is also known as 'Winter Quarters' due to the fact that the first group stopped for the winter around this location. There may be a very few later than that here as well.

Census

For tips on accessing Douglas County, Nebraska census records online, see: Nebraska Census.

Church

Google maps shows many Douglas County churches

LDS Ward and Branch Records

• Omaha Branch Record of Members 1929-1942 at  Family History Library
• Omaha South Branch Record of Members 1941 at Family History Library
• Winter QuartersBishops Accounts 1840-1859 for Bishop Edward Hunter. Also includes Nauvoo, Illinois 5th Ward and Salt Lake City, Utah 13th Ward,

Court

• Douglas County Court
  1819 Farnam St.
  Omaha, NE 68183
  Telephone: (402) 444-7000
  
• Douglas County Court Directory Lists courts in Douglas County their addresses, their online resources , and links to their individual websites.

Land

• DoGIS.com Geographical Information Systems for Douglas County. Locate addresses and land parcels in the county

Local Histories

Maps

Migration

Early migration routes to and from Douglas County, Nebraska for European and African American settlers included:

• Missouri River
• Platte River
• Oregon Trail 1830s to 1890s from western Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon^[3]
• California Trail 1846 to 1869 from western Missouri to northern California^[4]
• Mormon Trail 1846 to 1869 from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah^[5]

Military

• Grand Army of the Republic in Douglas County, Nebraska --  Provisional Organization - July 10, 1867  --  Permanent Organization June 12, 1877

1. History of Nebraska GAR
   
2. GAR information is available through the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
   

• Original Post
  

1.  Post # 1 OMAHA Chartered Dec. 13, 1866 by National Headquarters 15 members
   

• Later Posts
  

1. Post #2 FT. OMAHA Phil Kearny Jan. 1, 1876-1896 Post moved to South Omaha Membership: Total-136+
   
2. Post #2-A South Omaha Phil Kearny Oct 5, 1896-1924 Charter surrendered April 30, 1924 Membership: Total-304+
   
3. Post # 7 Omaha  George Custer June 5, 1876-1946 Changed Jan 9, 1922 when last 3 Omaha posts were combined to Old Guard (A reference to their being the last of their kind) Membership: Total-477+
   
4. Post #110 Omaha Aug. 18, 1882-1921 Combined with Post #7 Omaha, changed on July (23), 1888 to U.S.Grant, Membership: Charter-18 Total-344+
   
5. Post # 262 Omaha April 6, 1888-1921, Combined with Post 7  Gate City , (Post originally requested name of Thomas J. Potter) changed January 30, 1889 to Phil Sheridan, changed March 21, 1890 to George Crook, Membership: Total-400+
   
6. Post # 282 South Omaha R.R. Livingston May 7, 1889-1896 Combined with Post 2-A 1827-1888 Membership: Charter-N/A Total-66+
   
7. Post # 300 Florence James Isom March 29, 1890-1890 Charter surrendered 1/29/189,1Membership: Total-12
   
8. Post # 337 South Omaha Samuel Dennis April 16, 1895-1896 Combined with Post 2-A Membership: Charter-27 Total-34

Newspapers 

• Library of Congress Chronicling America newspaper project contains digital copies of newspapers for Douglas County, Nebraska. Some are foreign language newspaprs. Years of publication vary.

Obituaries

• Omaha Obits - site with obituary listings that includes the Omaha Bee, the Omaha Star (African-American paper) and the Jewish Press; provided by the Greater Ohama Genealogical Society. 

Probate

• Probate records 1912-1970housed by the North Platte Genealogical Society at North Platte, Nebraska

Taxation

Vital Records

• Douglas County births from early Omaha newspapers at the W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha. These birth announcements were extracted by those looking for obituaries in the same papers.
• Obituaries from Omaha and surroundong areas, Nearly 19,000 listings  from Omaha newspapers.
• 
  

Societies and Libraries

• Greater Omaha Genealogical Society
  Website: http://gogsmembers.wordpress.com/
• Historical Society of Douglas County
• Webpage: http://www.omahahistory.org/

Family History Centers

• Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
• Omaha Nebraska Family History Center

Web Sites

• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
• Family History Library Catalog
• Linkpendium links for Douglas County, Nebraska
• Linkforum for Douglas County, Nebraska
• Cyndi's List For Nebraska then scroll to Douglas County. Links to websites for multiple subjects
  

References

1. ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Douglas County, Nebraska page 430, At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
2. ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
3. ↑ Jim Tompkins, "The Oregon Trail 1841-1848 Map I" in Oregon Trail Landmarks at http://www.oregonpioneers.com/OTMap1.jpg (accessed 18 July 2011).
4. ↑ "Oregon California Trails Association" at http://octatrails.micromaps.com/ (accessed 18 July 2011).
5. ↑ "The Pioneer Story: The Mormon Pioneer Trail" in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/pioneerstory.htm (accessed 18 July 2011).