The
Tennessee General Assembly first
created Putnam County in 1842 from
White, Jackson, Overton, Smith and Fentress
Counties, but an 1844 injunction
charged that it violated state constitutional
requirements. In 1854 the general
assembly reestablished the county,
although it was harried by boundary
disputes for decades. The new county
seat, Cookeville, was named after
Richard F. Cooke, whose efforts were
critical to the county's second attempt
at creation. Putnam County's named in honor of Israel Putnam (1718-1790), French and Indian War soldier and commander at the Revolutionary War battles of Bunker Hill and Long Island.
Newspapers were published in Cookeville. Scattered early issues are available from 1858, and a complete run begins in 1899. See Extended History for More information. There were fires at the Putnam County courthouse
in the 1860s and in 1898 most early records were destroyed.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Putnam County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1879 and Probate Records from 1874 and is located at Courthouse, 29
N. Washington,
Cookeville, TN 38501; Telephone:
(931) 526-7106. The County Clerk maintains Marriage & Divorce records. It also has jurisdiction over probate cases. Wills, administrations, and all other records pertaining to probate are recorded in the respective county clerk's office. If the will or administration was contested, the records of these actions may be filed in the circuit court or chancery court.
Putnam County Register of Deeds has Land Records from 1854 and is located at Courthouse,
29 N. Washington, Cookeville, TN 38501; Telephone: (931)
526-7106. The Register of Deeds office has land records beginning with county organization, land records are available from the register of deeds at the Putnam county courthouse. Land and property records include transfer of real estate or personal property, mortgages, leases, surveys, and entries.
Putnam County Clerk of Circuit Court has Court Records from 1874 and is located at Courthouse,
29 N. Washington, Cookeville, TN 38501; Telephone: (931)
526-1508. Circuit Court Clerks serve an important role in the operation of the court system in Tennessee. Chancery courts have jurisdiction over property disputes, and circuit courts oversee criminal cases, divorces, and adoptions. Early courts included courts of common pleas and quarter sessions.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Tennessee Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Tennessee Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Tennessee State Vital Records, is located at Central Services Building,
1st Floor,
421 5th Avenue North,
Nashville, Tennessee 37243;
Phone (615) 741-1763,
FAX (615) 741-9860. The Tennessee Office of Vital Records registers and maintains the original certificates of births, deaths, marriages and divorces that occur in Tennessee. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Records are available beginning with January 1914, for Nashville since June 1881, for Knoxville since July
1881, and for Chattanooga since January 1882. Records of some births that occurred in the major cities from 1881-1913 are also available. A certified photocopy of the original record may be obtained at a fee of $12.00 for the first copy and $4.00 for each additional copy of the same record requested at the same time. For persons born from 1949 to the present, a certified copy produced by computer is also available at a fee of $7.00 for the first copy and $4.00 for each additional copy of the same record requested at the same time. You can download an application online for Birth Certificates. For Earlier Records See Tennessee State Library and Archives Below.
Death Certificates: Death records are available for the past 50 years (1957). The fee is $7.00 per certified copy. The cause of death is not normally included on a certified copy unless specifically requested and then is available only to certain family members or legal representatives. You can download an application online for Death Certificates. For Earlier Records See Tennessee State Library and Archives Below.
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage and divorce records are available for the past 50 years at a fee of $12.00 for the first copy and $4.00 for each additional copy of the same record requested at the same time. You can download an application online for Marriage Certificates or Divorce Certificate. For Earlier Records See Tennessee State Library and Archives Below.
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Make certified checks and money orders should be made payable to "Tennessee Vital Records". Credit Cards may be uses by using VitalChek services Please do not send cash or checks. Fees are non refundable. Additional fees are required for expedited service. Mail all Applications to: Tennessee State Vital Records, Central Services Building,
1st Floor,
421 5th Avenue North,
Nashville, TN, 37243.
Tennessee
State Library and Archives have the following records:
Birth Records & "Delayed" Birth Certificates:
Tennessee began keeping birth records statewide in 1908. TSLA has statewide birth records for the years 1908-1912. To find a birth record, we need the following information: name of child, date of birth or approximate date of birth, county of birth (if known) and names of parents (if known).
The larger cities in Tennessee did keep earlier birth records: Nashville (beginning in 1881); Knoxville (beginning in 1881); Chattanooga (beginning in 1879); and Memphis (beginning in 1874). Only the early Nashville birth records are indexed. For birth records after 1912 or for "delayed" birth certificates filed for persons born after 1903, contact the Office of Vital Records above.
TSLA also has "delayed" birth certificates for persons born 1869 - 1903. These delayed certificates were filed at the request of the individual or that person's representative for legal reasons. To locate a delayed birth certificate, we need the following information: name of child, date of birth or approximate date of birth, county of birth (if known) and names of parents (if known). E-mail TSLA and they can check thier index to the "delayed" birth records for a specified name. Please specify that you are requesting a "delayed" birth certificate.
There is a $20 fee to search for a birth record. If the record is found, they will mail a copy to you. If the record is not found, you will be notified by mail. The $20 fee is not refundable. Payment in advance by check, money order or credit card is required. Send your request to Tennessee State Library and Archives, Research Department, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville TN 37243-0312. [GO TO FORMS PAGE]
Death Records:
Tennessee began keeping death records statewide in 1908. TSLA has statewide death records for the years 1908-1912 and 1914-1955. To find a death record, we need the following information: name of individual, date of death (or three year range to search), county of death (if known) and name of spouse (if known). Please keep in mind that some deaths were not recorded, due to poor record-keeping by local officials.
For death records from 1956 to the present, contact theOffice of Vital Records above.
The larger cities in Tennessee did keep earlier death records: Nashville (beginning in 1874); Knoxville (beginning in 1881); Chattanooga (beginning in 1872); and Memphis (beginning in 1848). Only the early Nashville and Memphis death records are indexed. TSLA can search the unindexed records for one year only; you must provide us with the name of individual, date of death, the city, and the name of the spouse (if known).
There is a $20 fee to search for a death record. If the record is found, they will mail a copy to you. If the record is not found, you will be notified by mail. The $20 fee is not refundable. Payment in advance by check, money order or credit card is required. Send your request to Tennessee State Library and Archives, Research Department, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville TN 37243-0312. [GO TO FORMS PAGE]
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Click Here to Search Tennessee Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Putnam County, Tennessee are 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Putnam County, Tennessee are Industry and Agriculture Schedules available for the years 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1860, 1870 and 1880.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Tennessee and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Tennessee showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Tennessee showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches, cemeteries, roads, ect... free for viewing or download here
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Maps. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Tennessee Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Tennessee (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Tennessee tax lists can be used to locate families, document historic properties and study community history. Early tax lists generally include all white males over 21 and indicate whether they owned land or slaves. They usually do not provide other personal information.
The tax lists enumerated for Putnam County for the years: 1854, 1855, 1883, 1884, 1893-1900 ; are available on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. They are generally filed with each county's records, but some early lists are in a separate collection. To order a search of the records by mail, follow this link [EMAIL]
The 1796 Constitution levied taxes on “every freeman of
the age of twenty-one years and upward possessing a freehold
in the county wherein he may vote, and being an inhabitant of
this State, and every freeman being an inhabitant of any one
county in the State six months immediately preceding the day
of the election, shall be entitled to vote....”
Many early surviving tax records were published in an effort
to replace the missing federal censuses.
Original extant tax records are preserved in the respective
county courthouse as well as in the Tennessee
State Library and Archives, where a card index exists for tax records in its
collection pre-dating 1835, arranged by county, date, and district.
The 1891 tax lists of male inhabitant voters in each county
were recently found. Available on microfilm at the Tennessee
State Library and Archives, these nine reels are arranged alphabetically
within each district in each county. Tax records from trustees
office in counties are available on microfilm as well.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
Putnam County Genealogical Addresses (See Also Tennessee Genealogical Addresses) - The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Tennessee Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Tennessee Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
Although
few histories for Tennessee churches have been published, there
are church records for almost every county in the state.
Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist were the principal religions
of early settlers in the state, and documents from these
groups make up the largest number of records available. Other
representative religions include Lutheran, Church of Christ,
Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. Most early Tennessee
churches only kept minutes and membership records.
Church records could, however, include records of baptism, marriage,
burial, membership, or removal, but it is rare to find all or
several of these categories maintained by one church. .
As with cemetery records, the DAR has collected church records
for Tennessee, available at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C.,
and through the FHL.
Many compilations of church records have been compiled and/or
published for the state. The Tennessee
State Library and Archives has records of over one hundred churches that pre-date 1900.
There is a online Tennessee Marriage and Bible Records which contains over 25,000 records for the state of Tennessee for the years approximately 1720-1890. This includes marriages, births, deaths, and wills, etc., has been obtained from family bibles, church, court, and county records.
A large collection of transcripts of Tennessee cemetery records has been compiled by members of chapters of the DAR. Records collection available at the Tennessee
State Library and Archives and through the FHL. The state library and archives has notebooks containing listings of cemetery records.
County genealogical and historical societies and local citizens have collected, compiled, and published numerous volumes of cemetery records.
Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Putnam County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers throughout the world.
Click Here to Search Tennessee Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Putnam County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Putnam County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Tennessee Valley Genealogy Meetup Group! - Meet other local Genealogists and people who are interested in Genealogy who live in the North Alabama and South Central Tennessee Areas. We welcome beginners and beginners classes will be held as soon as a location can be set up. For everyone else we gather to share tips, exchange information, talk shop, etc.!
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Tennessee Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Putnam County is located in the Upper Cumberland region. It spreads across three
major geographic divisions of Tennessee: the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland
Rim, and the Central Basin. Most of the county falls in the Highland Rim. A principal
early nineteenth-century east-west migration route, the Walton Road, passes through
the length of Putnam County. Many families stopped at this point about midway
between Knoxville and Nashville on their journey along the Walton Road. There
they established small subsistence farms, growing corn and other crops in the
generally poor soil. By 1860 the population had risen to 8,591, including 718
blacks and 33 Native Americans. Settlement halted during the Civil War, when
Putnam County civilians were harassed by both Confederate and Unionist guerrilla
attacks that destroyed farmland and homes.
Between 1865 and 1910 the county population tripled. Part of the growth was due
to the railroads that reached Putnam in the 1890s. The Nashville and Knoxville
reached Cookeville from the west in 1890, and the Tennessee Central connected
the Southern Railroad at Harriman to the new town of Monterey in Putnam County,
founded when the tracks reached it in 1893. Other new villages were created in
the wake of the railroad, including Buffalo Valley, Silver Point, Boma, Baxter,
Algood, and Brotherton. Eventually the Tennessee Central ran all the way to Knoxville,
and in 1902 its proprietor, Jere Baxter, bought the Nashville and Knoxville.
The National Register-listed Tennessee Central depot in Cookeville contains an
excellent local museum on the railroad days in Putnam County. Three years later
Baxter moved the TC engine service facilities and crew change stop from Cookeville
to Monterey, which became an important railroad-promoted resort area around the
turn of the century. Industrialist John Wilder maintained a home and office there
in the early 1900s.
Railroads brought prosperity to Putnam County farmers who finally gained access
to urban markets. Railroads also served industry like the Cumberland Mountain
Coal Company, the executives of which had organized Monterey, lumbering in the
county's rich forests, and manufacturing. Education also grew during Putnam County's
railroad years. The University of Dixie, known as Dixie College, was chartered
by the general assembly in 1909 and opened in 1912. Organized through the efforts
of the Church of Christ, this school merged with the new Tennessee Polytechnic
Institute (TPI), which was created in 1915. TPI included three divisions: a two-year
college, a four-year technical high school, and Putnam County's Central High
School.
As the twentieth century progressed, Putnam County's agriculture suffered the
setbacks being felt around the country in the 1920s. More farmers turned to poultry,
egg, and dairy production as corn, tobacco, and hogs declined with decreasing
profits. However, county leaders were optimistic about the prosperity that industrialization
and commerce might bring. By 1928 Cookeville was calling itself the "Hub City--The
Hub of the Upper Cumberland."
Roads helped deliver some of the growth that Putnam Countians awaited. Although
the Memphis-to-Bristol Highway bypassed Cookeville to pass through Sparta to
the south, U.S. Highway 70 North, the first modern highway in the Upper Cumberland,
was completed through Putnam County in 1930. The county's transportation network
also benefited from New Deal programs. The Cookeville airport was built in 1934
with matching Civil Works Administration and city funds.
With only modest industrialization, the county economy suffered in the postwar
period because of persistent unemployment and low wages, causing many workers
to leave Putnam during World War II through the 1950s. The next decade, though,
saw expansion and increasing prosperity thanks to the construction of Interstate
40, rapid industrialization, the growth of Tennessee Technological University,
and federal aid. Tennessee Polytechnic Institute changed its name to Tennessee
Technological University in 1965 during the massive growth of the state higher
education system. Today it is the county's largest nonmanufacturing employer
and boasts an enrollment over 8,400. Tennessee Tech administers the Joe L. Evins
Appalachian Center for Crafts, located near Center Hill Lake, which supports
the modern practice of traditional crafts. The completion of I-40 through the
county in the mid-1960s attracted manufacturing jobs as well. Today Putnam County
has a 2000 population of 62,315 and is a fast-growing center for the Upper Cumberland
region.
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