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DEKALB COUNTY, TENNESSEE GENEALOGY |
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My name is David Johnson, and I am the Dekalb County, Tennessee GenWeb County Coordinator. If you have any genealogy materials to contribute to this page or any questions or comments, please contact me.
Last update 07/28/2010
What's New
List of all updates (past and present) to this site

| Dekalb
County, Tennessee was established by an act of the General Assembly of
the State of Tennessee on December 2, 1837. The area west of the Caney
Fork River came from Warren County and a small strip from Cannon
County. The area east of the Caney Fork River came from White County.
Generally, much of the area north of the "Indian Boundary" of the
Holston Treaty of 1791 that was included in Dekalb County came from
Smith County. Dekalb County is located in middle Tennessee, one of the three divisions of Tennessee. |
There are two site searches below. The Freefind search is best. The Google site search is now also searching this site correctly, but it will always be slower to catch changes I make. These search engines search only this site and my Dekalb County TNLHN site where the 1850 census is located.
Freefind Site Search
View Old Queries: November 2004 and Earlier
Dekalb County Mailing List:
| TNDEKALB-L
is a mailing list hosted by rootsweb for anyone with a
genealogical interest in Dekalb County, Tennessee. Full instructions
for subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing list are at rootsweb,
here: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/usa/TN/dekalb.html From this page you can subscribe or unsubscribe or even browse the archived mailing list messages. |
A Tribute to Athol K Foster and his service as



Robbie (Rowland) Ragland and Charles Butler Ragland ca. 1929
I've been cautioned that this car is a URO
(Unidentified Rolling Object)
Photo taken by Jack and Ruth Rowland
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Dekalb County's radio station WJLE is now streaming a broadcast live on the internet at scheduled times. Click the link to see the schedule of broadcast times. Usually they will start a music broadcast earlier than the scheduled time. Select "Listen Live" at the bottom of their page to hear the broadcast. Also check out their main page with local scenes and news. They also have obituaries. A Wonderful Site.
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| Genealogy Archives | |
| Administrator's Settlements | Past County Officials |
| Bible Transcriptions | Postmasters |
| Cemetery Directions | R. M. Johnson Journal |
| Cemetery Transcriptions | Salem Baptist Church Membership Lists |
| Court Records | Slave Records in various documents |
| Deeds | Social Security Death Index at rootsweb |
| Eli Vick's Store Ledger | Surnames |
| Family Histories | Tennessee
Death Index at TSLA Years 1908-1912 Years 1914-1931 There were no death certificates in 1913. |
| Marriages | Index
of TN Health Dept. Death Certificates
Years 1949-2005 |
| Obituaries by Marie Beckman Grucz | Will Transcriptions |
| Metes and Bounds Measurements Found in Deeds: |
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1 rod = 1 pole = 16.5 feet 1 chain = 4 rods or 4 poles = 66 feet 1 furlong = 10 chains = 40 rods or 40 poles = 660 feet 1 acre = 1 chain x 1 furlong = 66 feet x 660 feet = 43,560 square feet 1 square mile = 640 acres, which was the amount of land given to a Revolutionary War Private on completion of 84 months of service (the full 7 years from the war's beginning in 1776 to its end in 1783). If a tract of land is stated to be a total size of, for example, 1000 poles (not two dimensions given, but one number), it means it is 1000 square poles in size. This is more commonly seen on surveys rather than deeds. |
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NOW AVAILABLE Early Virginia Families with Middle Tennessee Connections has just been published by Justin Potter Library of Smithville, Tennessee. The author is Thomas G. Webb, DeKalb County historian, who has spent more than 60 years researching the history of the several families in the book. The result is a 384-page hardback book with a complete first-name index. Besides related families, more than 30 main families are presented. They are: |
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| Bennett Boykin Braswell Cathcart Childers Cooper Davis Downing Flood Frazier |
Gribble Harris Jennings Magness Mason Moser Nicholls Parker Power Rich |
Robinson Rowland Smith Snow Spoe Strother Tubb Washer Weedon Wilson Yeargin |
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Most of these families have been traced to the 1600s in Virginia, then down to the present time. This is more than just a list of names and dates, and many of the people are presented in great detail, so that we can understand their way of life and their reasons for making the decisions they made. All research is thoroughly documented and footnoted, with references to the original documents. The book contains more than 40 pages of family and historical photographs. The hardback cover is done in full color, with photographs of locations in DeKalb County. A limited number of books will be published, and no second printing is planned, so it is important to obtain your book as soon as possible. The book can be purchased in person or by mail from Justin Potter Library, 101 South First Street, Smithville, TN 37166 (Phone 615-597-4359). The cost is $35.00, or $40.00 postpaid. Checks should be made payable to Justin Potter Library. The book can also be purchased in person at F. Z. Webb Pharmacy and Gifts, 400 Public Square in Smithville. |
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Death
Record Search All Tennessee Counties 1949-2005 also Divorces 1980-2005 and Marriage Records 1980-2005 |
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| The
Shelby County, Tennessee Registrar of Deeds has a website where you can
mainly search Shelby County government records. If you go to the link I
give below, then go to the column on the page where it says
"Archives". There you will find 3 "statewide" record
categories, where you can choose any of the 3 categories, including deaths. It
works as an index giving information to order the record, but the
actual name and death/marriage/divorce date is also given. Also if
there are many records that meet your search criteria, all those will
be listed. You are also given a link to order the record from the state
health department. Death record results contain name, date, age, county, marital status, race, gender, and file number. It doesn't get any better for free. |
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| GO TO THE SEARCH PAGE |
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The
Land Laws of Tennessee |
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| This book gives all information about the laws of public and private land sales, grants, deeds- every law concerning land in Tennessee and the changes in the law throughout history. It can help explain why certain things are on deeds, where grants were issued from at various times in Tennessee history, and can possibly help you find in which government office your ancestor's grant might be located. If you want or need any information about Tennessee land, this has it all. |
| Dekalb County Funeral Homes | |
| Dekalb Funeral Chapel (with obits) | Love-Cantrell Funeral Home (with obits) You have to enter at least 2 letters, or better a surname, into their search box to see any past obits- they do have a lot, but you can't simply browse all. |
| Avant
Funeral Home- no website 109 High St., Alexandria, TN (615) 529-2323 24hr Obituary line: (615) 529-2221 |
Anderson
Funeral Home- no website 302 West Main Street, Alexandria, TN (615) 529-2173 or Smithville, TN (615) 529-2988 |
| Smithville
Memorial Chapel- no website 614 Murphy St Smithville, TN 37166 (615) 597-6277 |
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| Photos | |
| Pictoral History of Dekalb County | More Photos at the TNLHN Dekalb County site |
| Photo of Adam Dale (1st settler) at DAR site | Photo of Street Scene and Courthouse at the Presswood Hanging, 1872, with Dekalb's 1st courthouse |
| Robert Lack's Photos- he needs help with identification of many | Photo of the teacher and students of Holmes Creek School in 1927- need help with identification of these people |
| Photo of the Teachers and Students of Bright Hill School- Most are named | Roy- Vick- Yeargin Photos- Submitted by Marie Wingate |
| Salem Cemetery Photos | Foutch Family Photos- Submitted by Marie Wingate |
| The
University of Tennessee has placed copies of it's yearbooks with all
the pages and photos for the years 1897 through 2004 online. If any of
your kin or ancestors attended this University, you might find their
photo at that web site. The main page has a search box where you can
enter any name, and all occurrences of that name, with links to the
yearbook page, will be listed. For students, their hometown is also
given.
The link is here. |
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| Lookup Volunteers | |
| The Fite Family History | Dale Cantrell |
| Salem Baptist Church Minutes 1809-1909 | Dale Cantrell |
| If you want a lookup for other items such as marriage, census, cemetery, etc., it would be best to just post a query in the queries section. The link for that is further up the page. I will see that and do lookups for the censuses that are not already online- 1870, 1900, 1910, 1920. Others might do lookups in books they own. Another place to get lookups is the mailing list. | |
| Reunions |
| Local History |
| Goodspeed's History of Dekalb County and Goodspeed's Biographies |
| History of Dekalb County, Tennessee by Will T Hale |
| Google Books has "History of Middle Tennessee Baptists" by John Harvey Grime- The Dekalb County churches start on pages 60 and following- read it all online- starts abt 1800 |
| "You Can Go Home" by James W Lee Jr |
| "Historian Unravels Liberty Mule Mystery", by Thomas G. Webb |
| "The Last Bear Fight" from The Smithville Review |
| "The Foutch/Malone Feud" by Chris Tramel |
| John Presswood, Jr hanging in 1872, from the Smithville Review |
| "Dekalb Countians in State and US Government" by Thomas Webb |
| Genealogy Room Named For Thomas G Webb |
| More history at the TNLHN Dekalb County site -pioneer roads and migration, map and discussion of the Holston Treaty Indian Boundary that ran through Dekalb County, bios of early settlers, photo of Center Hill Dam construction, etc. |
| Genealogy Resources |
| The Webb Families of Dekalb County, Tennessee and 23 Related Families- by Thomas Webb |
| An Inventory of Dekalb County Books at the library - 3 Titles For Sale |
| An Inventory of Dekalb County Records on Microfilm Available at TSLA |
| Tennessee State Library and Archives main page |
| Libraries in Dekalb County |
| Introduction to Tennessee Land History - an explanation of how Tennessee land was surveyed and the Surveyor's Districts |
| County offices contact information |
| Tennessee GenWeb Special Projects main page |
| The Family History Library's DeKalb County resources site
Several of their links are links back to our DeKalb Co., TN GenWeb pages which you already had access to here. Other links contain lists of materials available at the Family History Library. |
| OUR NEIGHBORS' SITES |
| Go to Cannon County page |
| Go to Putnam County page |
| Go to Smith County page |
| Go to Warren County page |
| Go to White County page |
| Go to Wilson County page |
| Return to TNGenWeb page |
See my Jackson County, Tennessee page at TN-ALHN
You
are one of visitors to this page since July 3, 1996. Come
back again soon!
© 1997 through 2010, All Rights Reserved.
Some of the graphics on this site came from:
Thanksgiving graphics from Annes Place
Christmas banner is my own creation and copyright 2008
The floral banner on this page is my own creation and copyright 2008