TIPS FOR USING THIS WEBSITE
Not in any particular order
At the bottom of the Cemeteries page is a link to all names in Jennings County on Find A Grave.
Cemetery names in old newspaper articles and obituaries may not be the same as they are now. As an example, City Cemetery in North Vernon is now Hillcrest. Also we have duplicate names for some cemeteries such as Bear Creek, there are at least three in the county, plus two that are called Hopewell.
Most of the items are taken from old documents so spelling and punctuation errors are common. Use various possible spellings when searching. Along the same line, the words and comments are often no longer in use, so you may need to check definition on some of them.
When the search engine takes you to a very long page you can simplify your search by entering Ctrl and the letter F and using the search box that pops up to enter the word you are looking for.
Be sure to check neighboring counties for both records and burials. Jennings County is bordered by Decatur, Bartholomew, Jackson, Jefferson, Ripley and had connections early on to Scott & Clark Counties.
NO formal Birth or Death records were kept in Jennings County prior to 1882 so you will not find those records through our local agencies.
Prior to the 1940's Adoption records were not sealed, you can find information on them mixed in with civil court records.
Nick names were very common, focus on the last names, and look for variations such as Sallie/Sally for Sarah, Polly for Mary, Frank for Francis/Franklin, Bert for Herbert and many more.
In some cases rather than using their actual middle initial women would be listed with their maiden name or its first letter as their middle initial.
I try to put any notes I add to pages in this color purple.
Jennings county has many streams that wander through it, travel was limited in the rainy season by having to ford streams (wade or drive through them) certain areas were designated as a Ford that people knew had a solid bottom and the debth made it a good place to normally cross. During times of heavy rain, two things stopped many forms of travel, one was the Fords had too much water in them to safely cross, the other was the dirt roads turned into a muddy mess and a wagon or buggy just did not function.
I get more requests to find early graves than anything else, many people were buried on the family farm and if anything was used to mark the grave it was a wooden marker which has vanished with time or a "field stone", more commonly known as a rock. I would love to find all the burial places for our early settlers but in many cases it is just not possible. My own 3rd great grandparents died here and although I am pretty sure I know where they are buried, their are no markers for either of them.
Another thought for you, "carved in stone" does not always mean accurate. Some examples of this problem are Civil War markers, these were sometimes ordered by people who did not have the facts. Here in Jennings County a well meaning, patriotic mayor had people contact him if they knew of a soldier buried here and he ordered stones. Unfortunately he did not always get all the facts correct. Then you have cases were stones were either replaced or added many years after the fact and errors occurred. In just the last year I have found three instances of death dates on stones being off considerably. This was done by checking death records and newspaper notices against the date on the stone. In one case the error was large, the stone says 1894 but he did not die until 1904.
At the bottom of the Cemeteries page is a link to all names in Jennings County on Find A Grave.
Cemetery names in old newspaper articles and obituaries may not be the same as they are now. As an example, City Cemetery in North Vernon is now Hillcrest. Also we have duplicate names for some cemeteries such as Bear Creek, there are at least three in the county, plus two that are called Hopewell.
Most of the items are taken from old documents so spelling and punctuation errors are common. Use various possible spellings when searching. Along the same line, the words and comments are often no longer in use, so you may need to check definition on some of them.
When the search engine takes you to a very long page you can simplify your search by entering Ctrl and the letter F and using the search box that pops up to enter the word you are looking for.
Be sure to check neighboring counties for both records and burials. Jennings County is bordered by Decatur, Bartholomew, Jackson, Jefferson, Ripley and had connections early on to Scott & Clark Counties.
NO formal Birth or Death records were kept in Jennings County prior to 1882 so you will not find those records through our local agencies.
Prior to the 1940's Adoption records were not sealed, you can find information on them mixed in with civil court records.
Nick names were very common, focus on the last names, and look for variations such as Sallie/Sally for Sarah, Polly for Mary, Frank for Francis/Franklin, Bert for Herbert and many more.
In some cases rather than using their actual middle initial women would be listed with their maiden name or its first letter as their middle initial.
I try to put any notes I add to pages in this color purple.
Jennings county has many streams that wander through it, travel was limited in the rainy season by having to ford streams (wade or drive through them) certain areas were designated as a Ford that people knew had a solid bottom and the debth made it a good place to normally cross. During times of heavy rain, two things stopped many forms of travel, one was the Fords had too much water in them to safely cross, the other was the dirt roads turned into a muddy mess and a wagon or buggy just did not function.
I get more requests to find early graves than anything else, many people were buried on the family farm and if anything was used to mark the grave it was a wooden marker which has vanished with time or a "field stone", more commonly known as a rock. I would love to find all the burial places for our early settlers but in many cases it is just not possible. My own 3rd great grandparents died here and although I am pretty sure I know where they are buried, their are no markers for either of them.
Another thought for you, "carved in stone" does not always mean accurate. Some examples of this problem are Civil War markers, these were sometimes ordered by people who did not have the facts. Here in Jennings County a well meaning, patriotic mayor had people contact him if they knew of a soldier buried here and he ordered stones. Unfortunately he did not always get all the facts correct. Then you have cases were stones were either replaced or added many years after the fact and errors occurred. In just the last year I have found three instances of death dates on stones being off considerably. This was done by checking death records and newspaper notices against the date on the stone. In one case the error was large, the stone says 1894 but he did not die until 1904.
If you have questions please feel free to contact me (Sheila Kell) at Kfurballkell@aol.com
You may use this material for your own personal research, however it may not be used for commercial publications without express written consent of the contributor, INGenWeb, and