Polk County IA Genealogy

USA (1,379,301) > Iowa (43,684) > Polk County (1,176)

If you're not sure which records would be helpful, you can try our Ancestor Source Finder tool. Polk Records by Type Birth Records (9) Cemetery Records (234) Census Records (69) Church Records (29) City Directories (274) Court Records (2) Death Records (24) Histories and Genealogies (45) Immigration Records (6) Land Records (13) Map Records (33) Marriage Records (14) Military Records (14) Minority Records (2) Miscellaneous Records (3) Newspapers and Obituaries (248) Probate Records (9) School Records (148)

Overview of Polk County Records

• Polk County was created in 1846 from unorganized territory.
• Birth, marriage, and death records for 1880 and later can be obtained from the Iowa Department of Public Health.
• The Polk County Recorder has birth records from 1880 to 1921 and from 1942 to the present, marriage records starting in 1880, death records starting in 1941, and adoption records starting in 1927.
• The Polk County Clerk Courts has probate records starting in 1855, clerk records starting in 1850, divorce records starting in 1870, and naturalization records from 1870 to 1928.
• Online indexes and images for many of the above records can be found by using the links on this site.