1981 Hollywood Drive, Suite 300, Jackson, Tennessee  38305
Direct Line - (731) 300-3987 / Phone - (731) 660-6221 ext. 3810
Hours  -  Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Madison County, TN website - www.madisoncountytn.gov

The Madison County Archives was first established in 1999 in downtown Jackson and then relocated to the old Union University campus east of downtown before moving to its present location in 2009.  

We are located in the north end of the Madison County Complex building across Hollywood Drive from Poplar Heights Baptist Church and just south of the West Tennessee Area Council Boy Scouts of America.

Our Work

     The Madison County Archives is a department of the government of Madison County, Tennessee and is under the direct control of County Mayor A.J. Massey.  We develop and manage the county archives program, organize and preserve county historical records, and assist citizens and researchers in the use of the many fragile and important documents and bound volumes.  We work closely with elected officials and department heads to preserve the permanent records of their respective offices and advise the county mayor and the Madison County Public Records Commission on our performance.  Following the guidelines of the University of Tennessee County Technical Advisory Service, the permanent and historically significant records created by Madison County government offices and departments are transferred to the Madison County Archives based on a retention schedule. Click below to see the Public Records Policy for the Madison County Archives, Madison County, Tennessee.

PUBLIC RECORDS POLICY Madison County.pdf PUBLIC RECORDS POLICY Madison County.pdf
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Our Records

     Our records in our physical facility are original loose paper and bound volume records. They are on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives and some are digitized on the Family Search website. We do not have the majority of our records digitized to be accessed from this website; some indices to records are available on our County Records page on this website. Our staff welcomes research inquiries by phone, email, mail, or in person; we will scan and send records to patrons or make photocopies on an "as requested" basis.

Rules of Use

    Records are maintained on special shelving and racks and in lockable cabinets.  Researchers sign in our register book in our reception area and make their requests known to the staff, who retrieve and oversee the use of the requested documents.  Patrons may be asked to wear provided white cotton gloves or latex gloves when handling the most fragile documents. Photocopies can be made by staff at a charge, or scanned documents may be saved to a flash drive or emailed free of charge.  Patrons may also take photographs of documents or use hand scanners (if records are not too fragile) free of charge.  Our staff also welcomes research inquiries by email, mail, or phone.

     Some records are confidential and are still under the control of the issuing county official or department until such time as they may be open for public scrutiny.  Permission from authorizing officials must be obtained before access to these records will be granted. 

Public Records Commission

     The Madison County Public Records Commission is the trustee of the public record of Madison County government.  Civic memory is found in public records, the documents that are tools of government and evidence of the actions of government.  The confidence of citizen voters and taxpayers in their governments rests on the integrity of the public record.  Tennessee state law recognizes this by requiring that certain records be kept for a time until their usefulness is gone and they may be destroyed; and by requiring that other records are "permanent" and should be kept available for public inspection for so long as it is humanly possible to preserve them.  The Public Records Commission sees to the integrity of public records and civic memory, decides what is important enough to preserve permanently and what may be destroyed, and assures that a good public record is available for public inspection.  Our Public Records Commission works hand in hand with county departments and our Archives to achieve those objectives.*

     The Madison County Public Records Commission meets at least twice a year, elects its own officers, keeps records of decisions and transactions, reports at least once a year to the County Mayor and County Commission on commission activities and the state of records and archives management in Madison County, authorizes or disapproves requests from county offices to destroy original records using records retention schedules prepared by the County Technical Advisory Service for guidance, and reviews the operations of our Archives to assure the County Commission that it meets archives management standards.*

Members of the 2024-2025 Public Records Commission - Don Allen, Jay Bush, Paulette Fairchild (new appointment), Andy Hall, Lorri Skelton, and Jack Wood - were re-appointed by the County Mayor and the County Legislative Body during the June and August 2024 County Commission meetings and Fred Birmingham, Angie Byers, and Ricky Long are ex officio members by nature of the office they hold:

  • Lorri Skelton - Archivist, Madison County Archives - chairperson
  • Jack Wood - LibrarianJackson-Madison County Library Tennessee Room - vice chairman
  • Don Allen - Circuit Judge, Divison II
  • Fred Birmingham - County Clerk
  • Jay Bush - County Attorney
  • Angie Byers - County Register
  • Paulette Fairchild, Assistant Archivist, Madison County Archives
  • Andy Hall - County Commissioner
  • Ricky Long - County Historian

Sarah McClain, Commission Administrative Coordinator to the Madison County Board of Commissioners, is the recording secretary.

*Source:  Tennessee Archives Management Advisory bulletin "County Public Records Commissions and Municipal Records:  A Handbook of Statutory Provisions, Notes and TSLA Policies", Tennessee State Library and Archives

About Us

Lorri Skelton
Archivist & Certified Archives Manager

Paulette Fairchild
Assistant Archivist & Certified Archives Manager 

Latest News

  • The Madison County Archives will be closed Monday, October 14, in observance of Columbus Day.

Links

     Please click the links below to learn more about us and our mission.

Madison County Archives Reference Sources.pdf Madison County Archives Reference Sources.pdf
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  • Our reference sources - books, catalogs, finding aids, periodicals, etc. - are to be used in person in our researcher reception room; they may be loaned out with special permission from our staff.
Mission Statement and Collecting Policy.pdf Mission Statement and Collecting Policy.pdf
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replevin brochure.pdf replevin brochure.pdf
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  • The link above is information on Tennessee's Replevin law, courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Other Resources

The Tennessee Room at the

Jackson-Madison County Library

433 East Lafayette Street

Jackson, TN 38301

(731) 425-8600

 

 Tennessee State Library and Archives

403 Seventh Avenue North

1001 Rep. John Lewis Way North

Nashville, TN 37219

(615) 741-2764

Genealogical Fact Sheet on Madison County:

https://sos.tn.gov/tsla/pages/genealogical-fact-sheets-about-madison-county


Online Genealogy Index Search

Search military records, vital records and other Tennessee resources indexed over many years

 

Office of Vital Records

421 Fifth Avenue North

Nashville, TN  37247

(615) 741-1763

 

Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society

Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 5:30 PM in the Program Center of the Jackson-Madison County Library


 

Tennessee TNGen Web Project


Madison County Records on Family Search

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