(The Heritage Quest and the Ancestry Library can only be used in the Stewart County Public Library.)

Stewart County was formed in 1803 from Montgomery County. As an official county Stewart County obtained all the land from the Kentucky line to the Alabama line and west to the Mississippi river. The land west of the Tennessee River was Indian territory, but it was within Tennessee's borders and Stewart County had jurisdiction over it.

As the population increased in the county, Humphreys County split from Stewart to form its own county in 1809. The government discouraged settlements in West Tennessee because they wished to remain at peace with the Indians. Finally the land was purchased from the Chickasaw nation in 1818 and the Indians moved farther west. With no Indians and improved roads, many settlers began to enter and occupy the western section of Tennessee. From 1819 to 1824, all of the Indian territory of west Tennessee was formed into counties and Stewart County lost its vast domain. The last county to split from Stewart was Houston County in 1871.

The Stewart County Public Library History and Genealogy Department is housed in the Destine Martin Room, the room was named in honor of her service as Librarian from the early 1960's through 1984. The Departments collection contains over 1,000 volumes and 314 items of microfilm. This collection grows daily through department purchases and donations from appreciative genealogist and historians. Because of the collection's size and continuous growth, the information in the following holdings will be brief and representative in nature.

The holdings include volumes on Stewart County history, submitted family histories, civil war volumes, volumes on other states; mostly Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, and general histories.