Minnesota County Facts

   Records at the county level are the responsibility of the following offices: office of the court administrator—birth, death, and marriage; county recorder—land records; office of the probate judge—probate files; and office of the court administrator—criminal and civil court records. Although birth, marriage, and death records are the earliest located in that county, it cannot be considered that all records exist from date of formation. The earliest land records may be deeds, mortgages, or grantor-grantee/grantee-grantor indexes, but all do not necessarily start with that year. The earliest year for probate records may be probate files or wills. Court records may be civil and/or criminal. In some counties, the earlier criminal files may be found in the civil court files.

For some counties there are two years for date of formation listed. The first is the year the county was created. The second is the year it was fully organized if it differs from the creation year. Under the heading “Parent County/ies,” the name/s listed may be the county or counties from which the respective county was formed, or it may be names by which the county was originally known. “Unorganized” denotes that it was formed from non-county area. A county name in parentheses is the county to which the unorganized land may have been attached at that time. Counties listed with an asterisk (*) are not parent counties but other counties in which you may also find records for the respective county since it may have been “attached” to that county for some period of time.

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