Gila County Arizona Genealogy and History

County Seat: Globe

Search Free Gila County, Arizona Genealogy and Family History Records Online including census, cemetery, vital, military and other genealogical and historical records that can be used for your family history research.

Gila County, Arizona genealogy and family history page is a place where you can come in and research your genealogy and family history. We also do our best to provide a history of the area, to provide you with an overview of the time in which your ancestors lived.

We regret that we are unable to do personal research for you. All genealogical and family history records we come across are being added to this website. Please keep checking back.

Gila County Arizona History

The county was formed from parts of Maricopa County and Pinal County on February 8, 1881. The boundary was then extended eastward to the San Carlos River by public petition in 1889. The original county seat was in the mining community of Globe City, now Globe, Arizona.

Popular theory says that the word Gila was derived from a Spanish contraction of Hah-quah-sa-eel, a Yuma word meaning "running water which is salty".

In the 1880s, a long range war broke out in Gila County that became the most costly feud in American history, resulting in an almost complete annihilation of the families involved. The Pleasant Valley War (also sometimes called the Tonto Basin Feud or Tonto Basin War) matched the cattle-herding Grahams against the sheep-herding Tewksburys. Once partisan feelings became tense and hostilities began, Frederick Russell Burnham, who later became a celebrated scout and the inspiration for the boy scouts, was drawn into the conflict on the losing side. Burnham shot many men in the feud, and was himself nearly killed by a bounty hunter. Tom Horn, a famous assassin, was also known to have taken part as a killer for hire, but it is unknown as to which side employed him, and both sides suffered several murders to which no suspect was ever identified. In the 1960s, it was home of Gerald Gault, who was the subject of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in re Gault, that stated juveniles have the same rights as adults when arrested to be notified of the charges against them, the rights to attorneys and to confront their accusers.

Gila County Genealogy Records

Biographies	Birth Records	Cemetery Records	Census Records
Church Records	Cities & Towns	County Records	Death Records
Family Bibles	History Topics	Marriage Records	Military Records
Miscellaneous Data	Newspaper Data	Obituaries	School Records
Wills/Probate Records

Adjacent Counties

Yavapai County - northwest
Maricopa County - west
Pinal County - south
Graham County - southeast
Navajo County - east, northeast
Coconino County - north

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