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Genealogy and Local History Resources

The Charlestown-Clark County Public Library has a paid subscription to two online genealogy databases and two historic map databases. Access is provided free to patrons of the library.

HeritageQuestOnline - This database is available at the Charlestown Clark County Public Libraries or from your home computer. Click on the link above and enter the barcode number from your library card to access this database from home. Click this link, if you are in one of our libraries so you will not need to enter your barcode. This site offers searchable census records, family and local history books, Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank, U.S. Serial Set, and more.

Ancestry.com Library Edition - This database can only be accessed by using a computer at any of the five branches of the Charlestown Clark County Public Libraries. Ancestry.com contains coverage of the U.S. and the U.K., including census, vital, church, court, and immigration records, as well as record collections from Canada and other areas. A collection of more than 4,000 databases and 1.5 billion names including U.S. federal census images and indexes from 1790 to 1930; the Map Center containing more than 1,000 historical maps; American Genealogical Biographical Index, Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1630, Social Security Death Index, WWI Draft Registration Cards, Federal Slave Narratives, and a Civil War collection.

Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 - This database can only be accessed by using a computer at any of the five branches of the Charlestown Clark County Public Libraries. This library subscribes to the Indiana maps only. Produced for over a century, more than 660,000 Sanborn maps chart the growth and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Sanborn maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of 50 feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers.

Historic Map Works Library Edition - This database can only be accessed by using a computer at any of the five branches of the Charlestown Clark County Public Libraries. This is one of the most extensive digital map collections available, with nearly one million high-resolution, full color historic maps. With access to more than five centuries of maps, genealogists, historians, and researchers can gain insight into how physical and human geographies have changed over time. The core of the collection consists of land ownership (cadastral) maps illustrating the geographic and developmental history of the United States. This unique content allows users to track the "residential genealogy" of families and locations.

  Regional Genealogy and Local History Resources
  Online Genealogy and History Resources

Indiana Memory Project

Indiana Memory is a web site created by the Indiana State Library to bring together original source documents of the history of Indiana. Beginning in 2007 Charlestown-Clark County Library began digitizing a collection of World War II letters in order to make them accessible to more people by providing images on the internet. Those letters can be seen on Indiana Memory at Jesse G. Dorsey WWII Correspondence. To read more about this project visit the Jesse G. Dorsey page.

Currently, we are working on digitizing a wide range of items that the library owns. There are hundreds of items of Clark County history which include Civil War letter, store ledgers from the 1800s, judge docket ledgers from 1890-1920s, Korean War letters, hotel ledgers, photographs, and much more. As work on these items is completed, they will be added to Indiana Memory web site. There are over two hundred items at Clark County Collection for viewing on the Indiana Memory web site. A list of these items (with links to the collection) can be seen on the Local History page of this web site.

Charlestown-Clark County Public Library is continually interested in collecting original source documents that tell the history of Clark County, Indiana.

Additionally, a wide range of genealogy and local history resources are available at each of the five branches. The following list includes a portion of the materials available. Inquiries can be made through the Ask A Librarian link or by calling the branch library.

Charlestown Library Indiana Room:

  • BOOKS - List of Family and Local History Books

  • CEMETERY RECORDS – listings for all Clark County Townships; cemetery index for New Washington Christian Church & Crown Hill; Clark Co. Cemetery and Church Records

  • BIRTH RECORDS – index to Birth Records, Clark County, Indiana 1882-1920

  • MARRIAGES – index to Marriages Clark County, Indiana 1905-1920; Marriage Records 1807-1824

  • DEATH RECORDS – index to Death Records Clark County, Indiana 1882-1920

  • Charlestown Marriages Divorces Deaths 1920’s-1940’s

  • WILLS – Clark County, Indiana Abstracts of Wills and Executors’ Records 1801-1833

  • Obituary Scrapbook

  • Civil Order Book 1824-1828

  • Clark County Estray Book 1801-1817 and Clark County Marriages 1807-1829

  • CENSUS – Census of Indiana Territory for 1807; 1820 Federal Census for IN; Indiana 1830 Census Index; 1850 Federal Census for Indiana; (all census records available online from Ancestry.com which free to use at all branch libraries)

  • NEWSLETTERS AND MAGAZINES – Hoosier Journal of Ancestry; Washington County, IN Historical Society Newsletter; Lexington Historical Society; Scott County Genealogical Society; Southern Indiana Genealogical Society Quarterly 1980-81, 1993-current; Out Door Indiana most 1958-current

  • An Index to Biographical & Historical Souvenir for the Counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington Indiana

  • Special Publications for Clark and Surrounding County

  • General Information Files (county and state)

  • Family History Files (9 file drawers)

  • MICROFILM – Census, Early Newspapers, Diaries/Journals/Ledgers, Church Records, Newspapers (recent back issues)

  • MANUSCRIPTS – Ledgers/Account Books, Letters, Docket Books, Scrapbooks, Documents

  • PHOTOGRAPHS – Early Citizens, Schools, Buildings, Historic Sites, Dwellings

  • CITY DIRECTORY – Indiana Caron’s New Albany-Jeffersonville 1947; 1953; 1955; 1956; 1958-1980; 1982-1991; Polk’s New Albany-Jeffersonville 1993; 1996-2008; Polk’s Clark County Indiana 2001-2003; Polk’s Clark, Floyd, Harrison Counties Indiana 4004-2009

  • SPECIAL FILES AND COLLECTIONS – Jonathan Jennings, One Room Schools, Tunnel Mill/John Work, Rose Island, 1937 Flood, Charlestown History, Indiana Army Ammunition Plant

  • YEAR BOOKS - Charlestown High School Yearbooks 1941, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1952-1969, 1972-2008; Charlestown Middle School Yearbooks 1988, 1990-1994, 1996, 1999, 2008, 2009; 1973 Charlestown Jr. High Yearbook; 1938 50th Reunion Book for Charlestown High School

 Sellersburg Library Indiana Room:

  • Books - Family History and Local History Books

  • History and Genealogy Magazines

  • CEMETERY RECORDS – All Clark County Township listings; Garr Funeral Home Records 1930-1985; Clark County, Indiana Cemeteries Index Project by Lois Mauk; Clark County, IN Cemetery Index (few small cemeteries not listed); Cemetery Records Scott County, IN; Scottsburg Cemetery Records 1986; Floyd County Cemeteries; New Albany National Cemetery; Floyd County, Indiana Wolf Cemetery

  • Family History Files

  • BIRTH RECORDS - Clark County, Indiana Index 1882-1920 vol. I A-J, vol. II K-Z; Floyd County, Indiana Index 1882-1920 vol. I A-L and vol. II M-Z; Harrison County, Indiana Index 1882-1920 A-Z and Index 1921-1941

  • Marriage and Will Records Clark County, Indiana 1807-1834

  • WILLS - Will and Bond Record 'B', March, 1853-Sept, 1864 Floyd County, Indiana

  • MARRIAGE RECORDS - Clark County, Indiana Index 1905-1920 vol. I A-C, vol. II D-G, vol. III H-L, vol. IV Mc-P, vol. V Q-S, vol. VI T-Z; Floyd County, Indiana Marriage Records 1837-1845; Scott County, Indiana Marriages 1820-1850; Harrison County, Indiana Index 1881-1920 vol. I A-K, vol. II L-Z, 1882-1920 Supplemental Records

  • DEATH RECORDS - Clark County, Indiana Index 1882-1920 vol. I A-Z; Floyd County, Indiana Index 1882-1920 A-Z

  • DAR - Bible Records for Clark County Families (DAR 1956); DAR Patriot Index 1966; DAR Patriot Index Vol. II 1976

  • Church Histories and Records

  • Louisville Cement Company – Speed History Files (2 file drawers); Jesse G. Dorsey Collection of World War II Correspondence (letters have been digitized and are available for viewing online); WWII letter writers; Korean War letter writers; Speedometers; The Speed Way; The Warning Star; Louisville Cement Magazine; 3-ring Binders: Louisville Cement Company Thirty Year Banquet 1950-1961 (8 binders); Highlights of Charles Ridenour's Speed and Cement Industry History; Cementing the Past; Louisville Cement Company; Louisville Cement Company Pictures Employees; Louisville Cement Company Area Pictures; many other documents

  • Military (area Soldiers)

  • Sellersburg History Files; Sellersburg/Speed 3-ring binders

  • Clark County History Files

  • Indiana History Files

  • NEWSPAPERS - Sellersburg News 1961-1963, 1965-1974

  • CENSUS - Sellersburg 1990

  • MANUSCRIPTS – Ledgers/Account Books, Sellersburg Court Docket Book, Letters, Post Cards, Scrapbooks

  • Area Maps

  • PHOTOGRAPHS – Early Citizens, Schools, Buildings, Historic Sites, Dwellings, and Businesses in Speed and Sellersburg

  • YEAR BOOKS - Silver Creek High School Yearbooks 1933 (copy), 1941-42, 1944-45 (copies), 1946-2007; Silver Creek Junior High Yearbooks 1972-1973, 1976-1980, 1982-1989, 1998-2001, Sellersburg Elementary Yearbooks 1973-1974, 1977-1988; Stout Elementary Yearbooks 1973, 1978; Memphis Elementary Yearbooks 1974-1976

 Borden Library:

  • CEMETERY RECORDS – Carr and Wood Townships

  • GENEALOGICAL SOURCES – Borden Obituaries (1989-2006), Old obituaries book I (from Borden Sentinel newspaper), The McKinley Clan 1763-1999, The Bells of Pleasant Ridge 1760-2000, Littell Funeral Home Records book 1 & 2 1906-1956,  1911 Telephone Directory, WWII Obituaries, Martinsburg Store Ledger

  • LOCAL HISTORY – Reminiscences of New Providence 1884-1994, Early Wood Township, History of the Borden Institute, Memories of Pleasant Ridge, The Goldstar Book by Fanny B. Coats, and Borden History File

  • YEAR BOOKS - Borden School Yearbooks (includes K-12 school) 1949-2003, 2008 (missing 1993 and 1995)

New Washington Library:

  • CEMETERY RECORDS – Washington and Other Area Townships

  • GENEALOGICAL SOURCES – Cole Family Obituaries; Area Obituaries 1980-2006 townships of Bethlehem, Oregon, Owen, & Washington; Family/Community Histories; Old Newspapers; national bank directory of 1909; Newspaper clippings of New Washington School happenings: 1984-current (some pre ‘84)

  • YEAR BOOKS - New Washington K-12 Yearbooks 1950, 1954, 1958, 1961-1964, 1972-1974, 1976-1977; New Washington Middle and High School Yearbooks 1980, 1982-2007; New Washington Elementary Yearbooks 1979, 1987-2005

 Henryville Library:

  • CEMETERY RECORDS – Charlestown, Monroe, and Oregon Townships

  • YEAR BOOKS - Henryville High School Yearbooks 1948-1952, 1954-1957, 1959-1966, 1969-1973, 1977-1983, 1988, 1990-1997, 1999-2000, 2006; some Henryville Junior High and Elementary Yearbooks

U.S. 1940 Census Has Been Released

The 1940 census records were released by the US National Archives April 2, 2012, and brought online through a partnership with Archives.com. This website allows you full access to the 1940 census images, in addition to 1940 census maps and descriptions. Go to 1940census.archives.gov/

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