Iowa Genealogy

This page of our website provides links to Iowa genealogy databases and historical narratives about Iowa. These genealogical records may include, vital records (birth, marriage and divorce, death), ethnic records (Native American), court records (land, probate and wills, criminal and civil), church records (Bibles, baptisms, marriages, burials and histories), cemeteries, census records, military records directories and yearbooks.

Iowa Atlases, Gazetteers, Maps, Plat Books, and Farm Directories

Huebinger’s Map and Guides

The Huebinger series of automotive publications were popular a century ago as adventurous motorists braved the primitive roads and uncertain terrain of Iowa and beyond. Noted landmarks on these road-maps include schools, houses, churches, piles of stumps, unusual rocks, cemeteries, and windmills. Today, these map collections are actually history books showing how towns and cities have developed, roads have changed, and some communities have disappeared.

State of Iowa

Iowa Biographies

  • History of Adair County Iowa and Its People, vol 2
    Back in 1915, Lucian Moody Kilburn, was engaged to write a history of Adair County Iowa by the Pioneer Publishing Company of Chicago Illinois, he then being at that time a resident of the county for 50 years. The manuscript was divided into two volumes. This volume, numbered 2, provides biographical sketches of 348 leading men and women of the County of Adair including many of its founding families. You can read or download the free eBook.
  • Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Story County, Iowa
    The full manuscript contains a condensed history of the state of Iowa, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the state of Iowa, a descriptive history of Story county and 229 selected biographical sketches of the citizens of Story County, Iowa.
  • Ida County, Iowa Genealogy
    Biographies specific to Ida County that were extracted from numerous sources.
  • Biographical sketches of the 25th General assembly of Iowa
    Biographical sketches of the state officers and Iowa members of Congress for the session during 1894.

Iowa Cemetery Records

Iowa Census Records

Iowa Church Records

Iowa Directories

Iowa Genealogy

Iowa Genealogy Websites

United States GenWeb Project

Adair, Clay, Hancock, Madison, Sac, Adams, Clayton, Hardin, Mahaska, Scott, Allamakee, Clinton, Harrison, Marion, Shelby, Appanoose, Crawford, Henry, Marshall, Sioux, Audubon, Dallas, Howard, Mills, Story, Benton, Davis, Humboldt, Mitchell, Tama, Black Hawk, Decatur, Ida, Monona, Taylor, Boone, Delaware, Iowa, Monroe, Union, Bremer, Des Moines, Jackson, Montgomery, Van Buren, Buchanan, Dickinson, Jasper, Muscatine, Wapello, Buena Vista, Dubuque, Jefferson, O’Brien, Warren, Butler, Emmet, Johnson, Osceola, Washington, Calhoun, Fayette, Jones, Page, Wayne, Carroll, Floyd, Keokuk, Palo Alto, Webster, Cass, Franklin, Kossuth, Plymouth, Winnebago, Cedar, Fremont, Lee, Pocahontas, Winneshiek, Cerro Gordo, Greene, Linn, Polk, Woodbury, Cherokee, Grundy, Louisa, Pottawattamie, Worth, Chickasaw, Guthrie, Lucas, Poweshiek, Wright, Clarke, Hamilton, Lyon, Ringgold, UNKNOWN

American History and Genealogy Project

Buena Vista, Calhoun, Delaware, Harrison, Linn, Monona, Monroe, Pocahontas, Sac, Wayne, Woodbury

Iowa History

  • Sagas of the Hawkeyes : being stories and incidents of early Iowa
    These articles about history in Iowa have been culled from old newspapers, local histories and biographies and were published in 1945 as a manuscript..
  • IGS Certificates (Pioneer, Statehood & Century)
  • Annals of Iowa (1863-2014)
    A quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of history published by the State Historical Society of Iowa.
  • Irving Weber’s Iowa City History Articles
    In January 1973, at the age of 72, Irving Weber (1900-1997) began writing articles on local history for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Over the next 25 years the paper published 850 of his weekly columns. Half of the columns were reprinted in eight volumes titled Irving Weber’s Iowa City. This digital collection provides the complete set of Weber’s newspaper columns, either in their original formats or as reprinted in the books.
  • Iowa Pioneer Lives
    Letters, diaries, and photographs documenting the lives of Iowa’s first white settlers, mid- to late-19th century.
  • Looking backward on Hawkeyeland
    A reissue of the May 1947 printing, which is a revision and enlargement, prepared for the Iowa Centennial Committee, of an article published in the Morrell magazine, Dec. 1946.
  • Our Iowa : its beginnings and growth
    The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Cumulative index, volumes I-XL, 1903-1942
  • One hundred years of Iowa medicine, commemorating the centenary of the Iowa State Medical Society, 1850-1950
    Iowa medicine prior to 1850. Iowa State Medical Society. The presidents, 1850-1950. Official branches of the State Society. City, district and county medical associations. Medical education in Iowa. Medical journalism in Iowa. Hospitals in Iowa. State Society Iowa Medical Women, and Branch 19 American Medical Women’s Association. Woman’s Auxiliary to the Iowa State Medical Society. Iowa State Medical Library. The doctor in Spanish American War, World War I, World War II. Iowa State Board of Health and Medical Examiners. Growth of psychiatry in Iowa. History of nursing in Iowa. Public health nursing. History of pharmacy in Iowa. Diary (1850-1913) of Dr. J.M. Shaffer, Keokuk. The Centennial session.
  • The first 75 years: History of education in Iowa
    State Responsibility for Teacher Education in Iowa. Government and Maintenance of the Institution. The Faculty; Selection, Compensation, Tenure, Retirement. Scope and Limitation of the Institutional Program. The Program of Pre-Service and In-Service Education Teachers. The Students: Government, Social Education, and Extracurricular Activities.
  • History of P. E.O. in Iowa
    P. E. O. is a society for women founded by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in 1869.
  • History of Adair County Iowa and its People – vol 1
    Back in 1915, Lucian Moody Kilburn, was engaged to write a history of Adair County Iowa by the Pioneer Publishing Company of Chicago Illinois, he then being at that time a resident of the county for 50 years. The actual general history of the county, however, was prepared by Gordon K. Miller. The manuscript was divided into two volumes. This volume, volume 1, provides the general history of Adair County that Mr. Miller prepared. You can read or download the free eBook from this website.

Iowa Land Records

  • U.S., Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1820-1908
    3,907 land management tract books containing official records of the land status and transactions involving surveyed public lands arranged by state and then by township and range. These books indicate who obtained the land, and include a physical description of the tract and where the land is located. The type of transaction is also recorded such as cash entry, credit entry, homesteads, patents (deeds) granted by the Federal Government, and other conveyances of title such as Indian allotments, internal improvement grants (to states), military bounty land warrants, private land claims, railroad grants, school grants, and swamp grants. Additional items of information included in the tract books are as follows: number of acres, date of sale, purchase price, land office, entry number, final Certificate of Purchase number, and notes on relinquishments and conversions.
  • Arizona Land Patents online. Index.

Iowa Locality Genealogical Records

Adair County, Iowa Genealogy

  • Adair County, Iowa Grave Registration
    Transcribed in 1939. These grave transcriptions are compiled from all cemeteries in Adair County and then listed by surnames. Should make finding a particular person easier when the cemetery is not known.
  • Middle River Homestead
    Written by Ernest Almon Smith and published in 1955. A history of his family and their settlement in Adair County, Iowa.
  • Iowa Genealogical Records – DAR Vol 13
    Volume 13 of the Iowa Genealogical Records compiled by DAR in 1929. First marriage records for Adair, Calhoun, David, Mahaska, and Poweshiek counties; early settlers of Johnson county; History of Bethel Methodist Church, Sigourney; Mayflower list of passengers; first wills of Jefferson county; Genealogies of the Alden, Applegate, Atwood, Beaumont, Cozine, Eddy, Fuller, Hardenbergh, Higgins, Leech, Marshall, McCaddon, McHenry, Pierce, Pratt, Safford, Sampson, Smith, Stevens, Teater, Teter, Waldron, West, Wing, and Wormley families.

Adams County, Iowa Genealogy

Allamakee County, Iowa Genealogy

  • Iowa Genealogical Records – DAR Vol 1955
    Volume of the Iowa Genealogical Records compiled by DAR in 1953. Early wills of Allamakee County, 1854-1881; Early wills of Black Hawk County, 1853-1881; Record of Wills of Mahaska County up to 1900; Abstracts of wills, guardianships, and estates in Poweshiek County up to 1900; Woodbury County Will Book A, 1856-1885, Will Book B, 1880-1889.

Appanoose County, Iowa Genealogy

Audubon County, Iowa Genealogy

  • Audubon County, Iowa Grave Registration
    Transcribed in 1939. These grave transcriptions are compiled from all cemeteries in Audubon County and then listed by surnames. Should make finding a particular person easier when the cemetery is not known.

Benton County, Iowa Genealogy

  • Pioneer recollections
    Stories and pictures depicting the early history and development of Benton county, selected from the family albums and libraries of the descendants of the pioneers of the county. Also stories as written or dictated by these residents, from records in their possession or tales related to them by their parents. Compiled by Harley Ransom and published in 1941.
  • History of Benton County, Iowa
    Compiled from materials in the public archives, the Iowa Historical society’s collection, the newspapers, and data of personal interviews. Compiled under the editorial supervision of Mr. Luther B. Hill, General Historian, and a corps of local editors. Published in 1910 by Lewis Publishing Company. Poorly photocopied book.
  • 1872 Atlas of Benton County, Iowa
    Drawn from actual surveys and the county records, to which is added a rail road map of the state of Iowa
  • Benton County, Iowa Records
    Contains marriage records from the Congregational Church of Belle Plaine, Iowa, 1896-1957 and cemetery records from four different cemeteries located in Benton County: Bear Creek Cemetery, Cox Cemetery, Keisling Cemetery, and Urbana Cemetery. There is an index to the cemeteries found on pages 25-26, but no index to the marriage records.
  • Iowa Genealogical Records – DAR Vol 3
    Volume 3 of the Iowa Genealogical Records compiled by DAR in 1927. Marriage records from Black Hawk, Jones, Keokuk, Linn, Muscatine, and Wapello counties; court records of Muscatine County; history of Cass County; Genealogies on the Arnold, Cantwell, Hatfield, Clark, Curtis, Goodrich, Harvey, Hopkins, Hutchinson, Kellogg, Moorman, Newhouse, Painter, Pasco, Rogers, Ryan, Speer, Stone, Wheeler, and Wright families.
  • Iowa Genealogical Records – DAR Vol 10
    Volume 10 of the Iowa Genealogical Records compiled by DAR in 1928. Grave records [cemeteries] from the following counties: Black Hawk, Benton, Clayton, Dallas, Hardin, Henry, Humboldt, Marion, Story, and Woodbury.
  • Iowa Genealogical Records – DAR Vol 41
    Volume 41 of the Iowa Genealogical Records compiled by DAR in 1937. Cemetery records from Benton, Black Hawk, Buchanan, Butler, and Bremer counties. Also lists the 1859-1881 Bremer County marriage records.
  • Iowa Marriage Records
    Consists primarily of D.A.R. records comp. from 1932-1955.
    • pt. 1 Marriage records from Christ Methodist Church, Belle Plaine, 1878-1954, Benton Co.
    • pt. 2 Marriage register no. 2, Buchanan Co. 1859-1865.
    • pt. 3 Lucas Co. marriages, 1881-1899.
    • pt. 4 Marriages in Mahaska Co., 1844-1851.
    • pt. 5 Union Co. marriage records, 1855-1880.
    • pt. 6 Genealogical Dept. records of the early pioneers of Slaughter or Washington Co., 1836-1932; from newspaper records

Grundy County, Iowa Genealogy

Beaman Genealogy

Hancock County, Iowa Genealogy

  • History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa
    History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa together with sketches of their cities, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and 641 biographies of representative citizens. Also included is a history of Iowa embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, and a brief review of its civil and military history.

Harrison County, Iowa Genealogy

Ida County Genealogy

Kossuth County, Iowa Genealogy

  • History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa
    History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa together with sketches of their cities, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and 641 biographies of representative citizens. Also included is a history of Iowa embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, and a brief review of its civil and military history.

Story County, Iowa Genealogy

  • Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Story County, Iowa
    The full manuscript contains a condensed history of the state of Iowa, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the state of Iowa, a descriptive history of Story county and 229 selected biographical sketches of the citizens of Story County, Iowa.

Webster County, Iowa Genealogy

Winnebago County, Iowa Genealogy

  • History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa
    History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago Counties, Iowa together with sketches of their cities, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and 641 biographies of representative citizens. Also included is a history of Iowa embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, and a brief review of its civil and military history.

Iowa Military Records

Iowa Native American Records

Iowa Vital Records

  • Iowa Vital Records
  • Iowa Vital Records
    Various records reporting on marriages as well as wedding anniversaries [probably extracted from newspapers, though source is not listed]. The content is arranged alphabetically by personal names.

Iowa Yearbooks

  • Drake University Yearbooks 1901-1994
  • University of Iowa’s Hawkeye Yearbook 1892-1992
    Published from 1892 until 1992 (except for a brief interruption during the 1970s), The University of Iowa’s Hawkeye yearbook features student portraits, photographs of the campus, club and team information, and frequently a foreword by the administration. These documents highlight the continuity and change of life on The University of Iowa campus during late 19th and 20th centuries. Please note that from 1892-1946 the yearbook was a project of the junior class and therefore editions from that time were dated to reflect the class’s graduation year, not the year of publication.