St. Clair County, Michigan Genealogy

United States

Michigan Genealogy

St. Clair County

Guide to St. Clair County, Michigan ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

St. Clair County, Michigan
Map
Location of Michigan in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	March 28, 1820
County Seat	Port Huron
Courthouse
Address	St. Clair County Courthouse 201 McMorran Blvd. Port Huron, MI 48060-4006 Phone: (810) 985-2200 St. Clair County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Arthur St. Clair, an American Revolutionary War General and Governor of the Northwest Territory. The County is located in the east area of the state.

St. Clair County, Michigan Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1867	1834	1868	1849	1821	1828	1820
Statewide registration started in 1867 for births and deaths. General compliance by 1915.

County Courthouse

County Clerk has birth records from 1867, marriage records from 1834,
death records from 1868, divorce and court records from 1849.

History

Parent County

1820--St. Clair County was created 28 March 1820 from Macomb County. It was attached to Macomb County prior to organization 8 May 1821.  County seat: Port Huron

Boundary Changes

For animated maps illustrating Michigan county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Michigan County Boundary Maps" (1790-1897) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Places/Localities

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Algonac Marine City Marysville	Memphis Port Huron Richmond	St. Clair Yale
Villages
Capac	Emmett
Unincorporated communities
Abbottsford Adair Allenton Anchorville Atkins Avoca Avalon Beach Bedore Belle River Berville Blaine Broadbridge Station Brockway Casco Cherry Beach Clays Landing Columbus Copeland Corner Fair Haven	Fargo Forster Gardendale Grande Pointe Goodells Hawthorne Jeddo Keewahdin Kimball Lakeport Lambs Lesterville Maple Leaf Martindale Beach Miller Muirs Muttonville North Lakeport North Street	Perch Point Peters Pointe aux Tremble Rattle Run Riley Center Riverside Roberts Landing Ruby Sans Souci Smiths Creek Snyderville South Park Sparlingville Starville Tappan Thornton Wadhams Wales Center West Tappan
Census-designated places
Pearl Beach
Townships
Berlin Brockway Burtchville Casco China Clay Clyde Columbus	Cottrellville East China Emmett Fort Gratiot Grant Greenwood Ira Kenockee	Kimball Lynn Mussey Port Huron Riley St. Clair Wales

Neighboring Counties

Lapeer  • Macomb  • Sanilac

Resources

Biographies

• St. Clair County Biographies. MiGenWeb Project

Cemeteries

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
MIGenWeb	WorldCat	Billion Graves
Tombstone Project
MIInterment
EPodunk
Billion Graves
See Michigan Cemeteries for more information.

• Lakeside Cemetery

Census

State Census

• 1894 - Michigan State Census, 1894 at FamilySearch — index

Church

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Michigan denominations, view the Michigan Church Records wiki page.

• 1819-1991 - Michigan, Church Records, 1819-1991 at FamilySearch — index

Emigration and Immigration

• 1929 - 1966 Michigan, Crew Lists for various ports, 1929-1966 at FamilySearch — index and images
  

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

Local Histories

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

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Maps of Michigan (1790-1897)
• Standard Atlast of St. Clair County, Michigan

Military

Civil War

Civil War service men from St. Clair County served in various regiments. Men often joined a regiment or a company (within a regiment)that originated in their county. Listed below are the military units that were formed in or had many men from St. Clair County.

Online Records

• Michigan, Civil War Centennial Observance Commission, Committee on Civil War Grave Registration, Burial Records at FamilySearch — index

World War I

• 1917-1919 - Michigan, Census of World War I Veterans with Card Index, 1917-1919 at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers

Finding More Michigan Newspapers

Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as St. Clair County, Michigan Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).
• The Saginaw News
• Do a St. Clair County, Michigan Genealogy Place-name search for these and other records in the Family History Library Catalog (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search).

Obituaries

• St. Clair County Obituaries. MiGenWeb Project
• 1820-2006 - Michigan Obituaries, 1820-2006 at FamilySearch — index and images

Probate

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

The FamilySearch Catalog lists films of probate records. To find the records for this county, use the Place Search for Michigan, St. Clair and search for Probate records in the list.

Note: Not every county in Michigan will have Probate Records in the FamilySearch Catalog.

Online Probate Records

• 1784 – 1980 Michigan Wills and Probate Records 1784-1980 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1797 – 1973 Michigan Probate Records 1797-1973 at FamilySearch — images

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 as shown below:

Birth Records and Death Records from the Michigan Department of Community Health (from 1867) or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred.

Marriage Records (from 1867) and Divorce Records (from 1897) from the County Clerk.

• How to order Michigan Vital Records

Birth

• 1867-1917 - Michigan, County Births, 1867-1917 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1867-1902 - Michigan Birth Registrations, 1867-1902-- Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as name of child, birthdate and place, if still-born, illegitimate or twin, gender, race and record number.

Marriage

• 1585-1945 - Michigan, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
• 1820-1937 - Michigan, County Marriages Index, 1820-1937 at FamilySearch — index
• 1820-1940 - Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1940 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1838-1898 - St. Clair County Marriages and Deaths - Includes all the County plus data on Ontario Canada names.
• 1868-1925 - Michigan Marriage Registrations, 1868-1925 -- Free name indexes at FamilySearch. Records include such information as names of bride and groom, date of license, ages, race, residences, birthplaces, occupations and names of the fathers of the bride and groom.
• St. Clair County Marriages. MiGenWeb Project

Death

• 1838-1898 - St. Clair County Marriages and Deaths - Includes all the County plus data on Ontario Canada names.
• 1850-1880 - Michigan Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1867-1897 - Michigan Death Registrations, 1867-1897 -- Free name indexes and images at FamilySearch. Records include such information as name of deceased, date and place of death, gender, color, marital status, age in years, months and days, disease or apparent cause of death, birthplace, names and occupations of parents, and the date the record was made.
• 1897-1920 - Michigan Death Records, 1897-1920 Images are available free from Seeking Michigan.
• Grannies Genealogy Garden has links to other genealogy sites that may be useful.

Societies and Libraries

St. Clair County Family History Group, Inc.
PO Box 611483
Port Huron, Michigan 48061-1483
Website

St. Clair Shores Genealogical Group
22500 Eleven Mile Rd.
St. Clair Shores 48081

The Searchers c/o Pierson
14300 "V" Avenue
Vicksburg MI 49097-9360

Rootstalkers The
PO Box 161
Anchorville 48004

Algonac Clay Historical Society
1240 St. Clair River Dr.
PO Box 228
Algonac, MI 48001
Telephone: 810-794-9015
Website

Capac Historical Society Museum Mission
401 East Kempf
Capac Michigan, 48014
Telephone: 810-395-2859
E-mail:capacmuseum@hotmail.com
Website

• List of Michigan Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical & Genealogical Societies

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes.

• For current information about a center near you, go to the Family History Center Map

• Introduction to Family History Centers

• Blue Water Michigan Family History Center 1990 N River Rd, St Clair, MI 48079 United States

Websites

• St. Clair County, MI History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
• Michigan Genealogy Network Community on Google+
• Michigan Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
• USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county.
• FamilySearch Catalog
• St Clair County MI Genealogy (ldsgenealogy.com)

To access available information, first log into FamilySearch.