Pioneer Certificates

To honor the first families of Tazewell county, the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is  compiling a roster of settlers who were county residents by 1875. The society will issue certificates to descendants of early settlers of Tazewell County. The application, with the completed lineage and documentation, will be kept on file in the library.  Eventually, the information will be published in book form.   Here's a list of the Tazewell County Pioneers we've recognized so far.

A numbered parchment certificate, suitable for framing, with the name of the ancestor and descendant will be issued (see sample).  In addition to receiving the Pioneer Certificate, applicants will be helping to preserve the history of their ancestral pioneers - an excellent way to honor these early families, many of which seldom receive proper recognition.

Eligibility

To qualify for a Pioneer Certificate, an applicant must be directly descended from an ancestor who settled in Tazewell County as follows:

• Early Family Certificate (1851-1875) - Silver Seal
• Old Settlers Certificate (1827-1850) - Gold Seal
• Pioneer Certificate (prior to 1827) - Gold Seal with Purple Ribbon

Documented evidence connecting each generation must accompany the application such as census records; birth, death, and marriage records; school or church records; Bible records; military records; obituaries; estates records; land records; tombstone inscriptions (give location of cemetery); county histories; etc. Do not send original documents. Please submit copies only, as all applications or verifying material will become the property of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society.

Anyone may apply. Applicants need not have ever been residents of Tazewell County. After proof of direct descent has been submitted and eligibility has been determined, we will mail the appropriate certificate.  Separate certificates will be issued for each ancestor properly submitted.  The fee for each application is $10.

A Pioneer Certificate application packet is available for download in Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) files.

To view the pioneer.pdf file, a copy of the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader software must be on the computer you are using. Macintosh and Windows versions of Acrobat® Reader may be downloaded free of charge from Adobe, by clicking on