Monroe County (IN) Court Records Index 1818-187

Click here to download an Excel file of the index. It will open with Office 2003 and newer versions.

There are two files, one alphabetized by surname of plaintiff, the other by defendant. To select one or the other, click the corresponding "Sheet" tab at the bottom left of the sheet - labeled "Alphabetical by Plaintiff" and "Alpha by Defendent." Photocopies of front and back sheets are $1 apiece.

Preface

The Monroe County History Center holds all known original Monroe County Court Records to approximately 1950. The documents were previously held by the County Clerk’s office and were transferred to the Historical Society in the 1990’s. Some records listed in the original ledgers were lost before this transfer.*

This index comprises the earliest county court records from 1818 to c. 1875 held at the History Center. Both civil and criminal cases are included. In criminal cases, the defendant broke a law and the plaintiff is the State of Indiana. In some cases, the defendant broke a law at the offense of another individual (for example, a robbery), and these cases are listed by the plaintiff with the signifier (State ex rel.) following the plaintiff’s name. Divorce cases are marked in the notes section.

Probate records have been separated and are also available in the Genealogy Library with their own index.
Every effort has been made to reflect the accurate spelling of each name and to maintain consistency of naming for companies, organizations, and municipalities.

Elizabeth Schlemmer
Library Manager
November 2011

*See the previous court record index published by Claude and Rachel Rice for reference to court records as listed on original ledgers.

Vocabulary

We chose standard terms for entities that were written multiple ways on documents in the collection:
Monroe County Board of Commissioners
Bloomington, Town of
Ellettsville, Town of
First National Bank
New Albany & Salem RR (aka the Monon railroad)
Louisville, New Albany & Chicago RR (aka the Monon railroad)

Definitions:
Adm. is an abbreviation to signify that the individual is the administrator of an estate.
Et ux. is an abbreviation for et uxor which means “and spouse.”
Et al. is an abbreviation for et alii which means “and other persons.”
Ex rel. is an abbreviation for ex relatione which means “on the relation of.” In this index it is usually seen as (State ex rel.) which signifies that the defendant broke a law in the event of offending the plaintiff.

Punctuation:
When multiple individuals are listed as plaintiffs or defendants they are separated by a semicolon if they have different surnames or by commas and ampersands if they have the same surname.

Acknowledgments

This index is the product of a tremendous collaboration of Genealogy Library volunteers. The project was started almost ten years ago by then Library Director Loretta Condra and volunteer Lucy Jacobs. Many others have joined the effort. These dedicated volunteers spent hundreds of hours cleaning and filing the original court records and preparing the revised index. Sincere thanks to all!

Lucy Jacobs, Sarah Rosencrans, David Goss, Jake Sheff, Scott Evard, Christine Bachman, Maribeth McKaig,
Eugene Jeng, Caitlin Benallack, Lauren Baker, Beth Brockman, Aaron Walker, Jena Mattix, Lee Ehman, Pam Bilo, Liz Knapp, Randi Richardson, Penny Mathiesen, Hannah Micona, Kristin Milks, Christina Jurusik, Angelina Zara, Matthew Kruse, Kate McNally, Mary Ngo, Rhonda Wathen, Matthew Cesnik, Nathaniel Pockras, Loretta Condra