Marion County Tools

First, a few basic facts about Marion county. It was created from Non-County Area 3 on August 4, 1845. In other words, it was not first part of another county (which can be important to know for some types of records). It was named after Francis Marion, an officer during the Revolutionary War. The current county seat is Knoxville. If you are interested in seeing how Iowa's counties (or other states as well) were formed, view the animated map at Iowa County Maps: Interactive History & Complete List.

These are tools or links that are specific to Marion county, Iowa.

Towns and Townships in Marion County, Iowa

This page on this current site, IAGenWeb.org/marion, focuses on the various towns, communities, and townships within Marion County.

Welcome to Marion County, Iowa

This is the new official website for the county that is very attractive and informative. Among other things of interest to genealogists, notice the complete lists of churches and cemeteries on the Visit Our Communities! page, the Where Do I Go To...? page, and the GIS Map Information page.

Marion County, Iowa Genealogy

This is the page at FamilySearch.org is a Wiki that focuses on genealogical topics for Marion County, Iowa. It has a lot of worth while information for anyone doing genealogy work in this county.

Marion County IAGenWeb Mailing List

This link brings you to the Marion County Queries Board and information on the old RootsWeb Mail lists..

Lookups for Marion County genealogical books

This is a list of names of those who will lookup information found in books related to Marion county.

Message Board for Marion County

This message board is located with Ancestry.com and lists comments and queries related to Marion county.

Marion County Iowa Genealogical Society

This message board is located with Ancestry.com and lists comments and queries related to Marion county.

Pella Historical Society

This gives additional information about the this local historical society.

Alphabetical Index to the 1840 Iowa Territory Census

Transcribed by USGenWeb Census Project volunteers and coordinated by IAGenWeb's Cathy Joynt Labath, this is a helpful resource for anyone whose ancestors settled in the territory before Marion County or the state itself was formed. You can find this and other transcribed censuses arranged by counties on this site.

History of Marion County, 1881

Scanned images of pages from the 1881 History for Clay, Lake Prairie, and Liberty townships. Includes biographies of people who lived in these townships. The site, done by Mitch Schwartz, has information on a number of other counties, including Mahaska, Wapello, and Keokuk.

1901 Plat Maps of Marion County

Another resource from Mitch Schwartz: 16 plat maps from 1901 and an outline map of the townships as well. Iowa Genealogy will take you to maps and other resources for more counties in the region.

Hammond Bridge in Marion County

An extensive description with photos of the history and the 2003 rehabilitation of a covered bridge in Marion County. The Hammond Bridge is located in Indiana Township.

The Walton Family of Marion County, IA and Harrison Co, MO

John W. Walton, first mentioned in Marion County Land Records in 1851, married Susan Jane Koons and then Anna Amelia Morgan, with whom he had four or five children in the 1860s. Includes brief histories of the Jasper Koons and Solomon Morgan families.

Hollanders of Iowa by Jacob Van der Zee, 1912

If your ancestors came from Holland to Marion County, then this is a story you'll want to read.

The Political Graveyard: Marion County, Iowa

Politicians who were born, lived, or died in Marion County and information about special memorials to them. Contains links to the Political Graveyard sites for neighboring counties as well

John S. Kirk's Research on Marion County Families - the associated website, http://www.associatedfinance.com/genealogy.html, is VERY slow in responding, if at all. Let me know if you have other results.

[NOTE: sometimes this link does not work but not sure why. If it times out without producing the page, try coming back at another time. I hate to remove it since it has always worked for me but others have reported it not working.] The public portion of John's web site includes information on a number of Marion County families, including Buwalda, De Heer, Dykstra, Kuiper, Ruisch, Van Hemert, Van Zee, and Weyers; plus Havinga, Nieuwendorp, Roorda, Rozendaal, Schippers, Sneller, Terlouw, Vander Marten, Ver Dught, and Verwers. Among others! His private web site, to which you can request access, has even more, including photos, bios, and documentation.

Iowa, Genealogy.com

This site used to have separate county pages but at least for IA these separate pages have been dropped and all IA counties are lumped together. You may still find a search here fruitful (in part because our ancestors often crossed county lines so that you may still find this useful).

Iowa Biography Project: Marion County

Includes indexes to the biographies in Pioneers of Marion County, published in 1872, and History of Marion County, Iowa published in 1881; as well as an index to the Souvenir History of Pella, Iowa. It also links to the Marion County Ancestry Message Board, where many online biographies can be found.

Marion County, Iowa Casualties in World War II

Part of a site, organized by state and then county, on military casualties. Provided by AccessGenealogy.