Tennessee State Library and Archives

Since 1854 the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) has been collecting and preserving Tennessee history. With a vast collection books, official records and private manuscripts, TSLA is the premier research library for Tennessee genealogy. Many indexes and finding aids are available online to help researchers learn about the many and varied collections housed at TSLA.

In partnership with Ancestry.com, TSLA is providing access to several important collections of Tennessee records. The first of these, Death Certificates 1908-1958, is now available. Birth records 1908-1912 and early birth and death records from the four metropolitan cities of Tennessee will be added soon.

Additional records available include:

Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909. When the Social Security Administration was created in 1935, the agency asked for birth certificates as proof the applicant qualified for entry into the program. Most Tennesseans who wished to apply were born prior to the 1908 state law that first required the issuing of birth certificates. Beginning in 1935, Tennessee began to issue Delayed Birth Certificates thru an application process that required supporting documents.

Enumeration of Male Votes, 1891. The 1890 census was destroyed in a records warehouse fire in 1921. There are no Tennessee census records for 1890. There is a list of male voters in each county in 1891. Some of these voter lists include ages, but no other personal or family information is provided.

In 2012 the invaluable collection of Tennessee Land Grants will appear on Ancestry, along with a collection of early Tennessee tax lists.

These records will be available through the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) to residents of Tennessee, as well as to subscribers at Ancestry.com.

Genealogists are welcome visitors at TSLA. Please visit our web site to help plan your visit.