Branch County Clerk
Courthouse, 31 Division Street
Coldwater, MI 49036
Phone: 517-279-4306
Fax: 517-278-5627
Web: www.countyofbranch.com

Genealogy Research Hours: Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Identification Requirements: Drivers License

Certified Copy/Additional: $15.00/$5.00 (effective January 2002)

Genealogy Record Copy: n/a

Other Copy Fees: $1.00 per page (Court records)

Comments: Office space allows for two genealogists at one time. No children are allowed as there is not enough room to accommodate them. The public library, next door to the courthouse, has a Heritage Room where researchers have access to cemetery records, old newspapers on microfilm, census records on microfilm, death indexes and marriage indexes.

Births: 1867 to present. Birth records are available only to the individual named on the birth record (registrant), the parents of the registrant, a legal guardian of the registrant, a legal representative of the registrant or an heir of the registrant. However, birth records 110 years and older are open to the public. An heir is defined as any relative of a deceased individual. Heirs must supply the date and place of death of the registrant when requesting a copy. This policy is in accordance with MCL 333.2882.

Deaths: 1867 to present. We have our entire Death Index on our web page: www.co.branch.mi.us/.

Marriages: 1833 to present

Divorces: 1867 to present

Naturalization: Various years

Other: For additional local and state government records with potential genealogical value, see the Archival Circulars for records maintained at the Archives of Michigan.

NOTE: Please call before visiting or mailing fees to confirm hours and other specifics. This information is current to December 2001. If you find differences between the information here and the practices or holdings of the County Clerk's office, please ask the Clerk to inform the Archives of Michigan about needed revisions.

Anne Norlander, Calhoun County Clerk-Register, and Toni Fritz, the Clerk-Register's Administrative Assistant, conducted a survey of offices in 1993 in order to make this information available to the public. Calhoun County printed the 1994 Michigan County Clerks Genealogy Directory, prepared as a product of this inventory. The Archives of Michigan revised this on-line edition of the directory in 2001.

Click Archives of Michigan to visit the Archives of Michigan home page.

Click Michigan County Clerks for other entries in the Michigan County Clerks Directory.

Archives of Michigan
Michigan Library and Historical Center
702 W. Kalamazoo Street
Lansing, MI 48913
Phone: (517) 373-1408
E-mail: archives@michigan.gov