Wisconsin County Resources

When mailing requests to any Wisconsin county office, use the name of the county and “County Courthouse,” with the address listed below. Records at the county level are the responsibility of the following offices: birth, marriage, death, and land—register of deeds; court—clerk of courts; probate—county probate court.

Setting up a county with a fully functional government was usually done in three stages: “establishment,” legally defining a specific area as a county; “organization for county purposes,” which involved setting up a governing body or board, land registry office, and fiscal structure; and “organization for judicial purposes,” which involved setting up a county court and law enforcement. In some counties the three stages were accomplished more or less simultaneously. In others they were done separately over many years. When a county was established, but not fully organized, it was typically “attached” to another county that was often, but not always, a parent county. Since these levels of organization and questions of attachment affect the creation and location of records, they can be quite important to the researcher.

For example, when Ashland County was attached for judicial purposes to Bayfield County in 1866, the courthouse in Ashland County did not close. The county board still met, land transactions and marriages were still recorded by the register of deeds, and taxes were still collected in and for Ashland County. Only the courts and law enforcement were affected, and for those records between 1866 and 1873, the researcher would have to check in Bayfield County.

The year given in the county charts for “Date Formed” is the year that passage of the law created the county. With that date is the name of the parent county or counties. Additional lines identify the purposes (c-county purposes; j-judicial purposes), the county or counties to which it was attached, and the dates of that attachment.

The date listed for each category of record is usually the earliest registration filed. The earliest date does not indicate that there are numerous records for that year and does not mean that all such events were actually registered. It has been estimated that less than 50 percent of the vital records, for example, were prepared and submitted for permanent filing prior to 1907. Land deeds, probate, and court records generally begin in Wisconsin with the organization of the county. Prior to that date, check the “Parent County.” Some counties formed from other counties transcribed their portion of property deeds to be kept with the new county deed records.

Information on county formation and earliest record dates was provided by James L. Hansen, Reference Librarian, Wisconsin Historical Society. Addresses were obtained from the Wisconsin Counties Association website at www.wicounties.org or the relevant county’s website.

Map	County	County Address	Date Formed- Parent County(ies)	Jurisdictional Purposes	Birth	Marriage	Death	Land	Probate	Court
G5	Adams	402 Main/P.O. Box 278, Friendship 53934	1848 Portage	(c/j-Sauk, 1848–53)	1857	1854	1876	1853	1855	1854
C4	Ashland	201 W. Main St., Ashland 54806	1860 La Pointe	(j-Bayfield, 1866–73)	1876	1871	1877	1856	1878	1873
	Bad Axe		1851 Crawford (renamed Vernon, 1862)
D2	Barron	330 E. LaSalle Ave., Barron 54812	1859 (as Dallas) Polk	(c/j-Polk, 1859–60; Dunn, 1860–68;j-Dunn, 1868–74) renamed Barron, 1869	1877	1868	1877	1870	1880	1874
B3	Bayfield	117 E. Fifth St., Washburn 54891	1845 (as La Pointe) St. Croix	(j-Crawford, 1845; St. Croix, 1849–50) renamed Bayfield, 1866	1879	1869	1870	1850	1857	1859
F7	Brown	305 E. Walnut St., Green Bay 54305	1818 unorganized territory		1814	1823	1834	1820	1824	1823
F2	Buffalo	407 S. Second St., Alma 54610	1853 Jackson		1855	1856	1873	1854	1854	1853
C1	Burnett	7410 County Road K, Siren 54872	1856 Polk	(j-Polk, 1856–59; c/j-Polk, 1859–64; j-Polk, 1866–71)	1853?	1869?	1846?	1866	1868	1870
G7	Calumet	206 Court St., Chilton 53014	1836 Brown	(c/j-Brown, 1836–42; j-Brown, 1842–44 Fond du Lac, 1844–50)	1858	1850	1856	1840	1850	1850
E3	Chippewa	711 N. Bridge St., Chippewa Falls 54729	1845 Crawford	(c/j-Crawford, 1845–51; La Crosse, 1851–53)	1858	1854	1855	1854	1856	1856
F4	Clark	517 Court St., Neillsville 54456	1853 Jackson	(c/j-Jackson, 1853; j-Jackson, 1854–56)	1869	1857	1877	1855	1870	1857
H5	Columbia	400 DeWitt St./P.O. Box 177, Portage 53901	1846 Portage		1860	1849	1877	1826	1847	1851
J3	Crawford	220 North Beaumont Rd., Prairie du Chien 53821	1818 unorganized territory		1858	1816	1876	1820	1819	1824
	Dallas		1859 Polk (renamed Barron, 1869)
J5	Dane	210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Madison 53703	1836 Crawford/Iowa/Milwaukee	(c/j-Iowa, 1836–39)	1860	1839	1876	1835	1847	1841
H6	Dodge	127 E. Oak St., Juneau 53039	1836 Brown/Milwaukee	(c/j-Milwaukee, 1836–40)	1870	1843	1852	1877	1844	1844
E8	Door	421 Nebraska St./P.O. Box 670, Sturgeon Bay 54235	1851 Brown	(j-Manitowoc, 1851–55;Brown, 1855–60)	1852	1856	1856	1857	1861	1861
B2	Douglas	1313 Belknap St., Superior 54480	1854 La Pointe		1861	1854	1877	1854	1856	1855
E2	Dunn	800 Wilson Ave., Menomonie 54751	1854 Chippewa	(j-Chippewa, 1854–56)	1861	1858	1869	1877	1858	1859
F3	Eau Claire	721 Oxford Ave., Eau Claire 54703	1856 Chippewa		1870	1857	1876	1856	1858	1854
C7	Florence	501 Lake Ave., Florence 54121	1882 Marinette/Oconto		1882	1882	1882	1882	1882	1882
H7	Fond du Lac	160 S. Macy St., Fond du Lac 54935	1836 Brown	(c/j-Brown, 1836–39;j-Brown, 1839–44)	1852	1844	1854	1836	1839	1844
D6	Forest	200 E. Madison St., Crandon 54520	1885 Langlade		1891	1886	1871	1865	1887	1885
	Gates		1901 Chippewa (renamed Rusk, 1905)
J3	Grant	111 S. Jefferson St., Lancaster 53813	1836 Iowa		1870	1842	1876	1837	1836	1836
K5	Green	1016 Sixteenth Ave., Monroe 53566	1836 Iowa	(c/j-Iowa, 1836–38)	1862	1838	1874	1836	1850	1838
H6	Green Lake	492 Hill St., Green Lake 54941	1858 Marquette		1864	1858	1877	1843	1853	1858
J4	Iowa	222 N. Iowa St., Dodgeville 53533	1829 Crawford		1876	1836	1871	1832	1837	1834
B4	Iron	300 Taconite St., Hurley 54534	1893 Ashland		1886	1893	1887	1886	1893	1893
G3	Jackson	307 Main St., Black River Falls 54615	1853 La Crosse		1861	1853	1872	1854	1869	1854
J6	Jefferson	320 S. Main St., Jefferson 53549	1836 Milwaukee	(c/j-Milwaukee, 1836–39)	1852	1844	1856	1838	1846	1842
G4	Juneau	220 E. State St., Mauston 53948	1856 Adams		1877	1857	1876	1857	1860	1857
K7	Kenosha	1010 56th St., Kenosha 53140	1850 Racine		1876	1850	1876	1838	1850	1852
F8	Kewaunee	613 Dodge St., Kewaunee 54216	1852 Door	(j-Manitowoc, 1852–55;Brown, 1855–58)	1861	1859	1872	1856	1859	1858
G3	La Crosse	400 Fourth St. North, La Crosse 54601	1851 Crawford		1866	1851	1876	1851	1851	1850
K4	Lafayette	626 Main St./P.O. Box 40, Darlington 53530	1846 Iowa	(c/j-Iowa, 1846–47)	1854	1847	1877	1836	1847	1847
E6	Langlade	800 Clermont St., Antigo 54409	1879 (as New) Oconto	(c/j-Shawano, 1879–81) renamed Langlade, 1881	1882	1881	1882	1858	1881	1881
	La Pointe		1845 St. Croix (renamed Bayfield, 1866)
E5	Lincoln	1110 E. Main St., Merrill 54452	1874 Marathon	(j-Marathon, 1874–75)	1875	1875	1871	1867	1883	1885
G7	Manitowoc	1010 S. Eighth St., Manitowoc 54220	1836 Brown	(c/j-Brown, 1836–38;j-Brown, 1839–48)	1858	1849	1864	1835	1850	1848

Wisconsin County Resources

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