Anoka County, Minnesota Genealogical Records Information

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Anoka County History and Information

Anoka County Facts

Click HERE to see full size D.O.T. County Map

Anoka County was created on May 23, 1857 from Ramsey County. The County Seat is Anoka. The County was named for the Dakota word meaning "on both sides". County was named after the City of Anoka, which was laid out on both sides of the Rum River.

Counties adjacent to Anoka County are Isanti County (north), Chisago County (northeast), Washington County (southeast), Ramsey County (southeast), Hennepin County (southwest), Sherburne County (northwest). Anoka County Cities and Towns Include Andover, Anoka, Bethel, Blaine, Centerville, Circle Pines, Columbia Heights, Columbus, Coon Rapids, East Bethel, Fridley, Ham Lake, Hilltop, Lexington, Lino Lakes, Oak Grove, Ramsey, St. Francis, Spring Lake Park. Townships Include Burns and Linwood Townships. See also County History and County Courthouse for more details.

The Anoka County Official Government Website
Search the Minnesota USGenWeb Archives
Anoka County, Minnesota History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Anoka County Courthouse

See Also Minnesota Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ FIRST!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

All Departments below can be contacted by clicking the link, by contacting the Phone number below for each department or contacting the County Courthouse at 2100 3rd Avenue, Anoka, MN 55303; Phone: (763) 421-4760. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Anoka County Recorder's Office has Birth Records from 1870, Marriage Records from 1858, Death Records from 1870 and Land Records from 1857.
The Recorders Office is responsible for all the real estate records for properties located in the County. Permanent records of deeds, mortgages and other various real estate records are recorded/filed in this office. As Local Registrar, the office protects and issues certified copies of Birth and Death records, Marriage Certificates & Military Discharge Records.

Anoka County Court Administrator's Office has Probate Records from 1858 and has Court Records from 1858.
The Court Administrator's Office maintains court files for Civil, Criminal, Traffic, Probate, Conciliation, Juvenile, Tax and Family Court matters.

Click Here to Search Minnesota Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Anoka County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Anoka County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Naturalization Records Index, 1854-1957: An index to the microfilmed Minnesota Naturalization Records
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Minnesota Land Records: This database contains information on Minnesota (U.S.A.) land records. The database comes from the Bureau of Land Management's Minnesota Pre-1908 Homestaed and Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. Information recorded in the collection includes patentee name, land office, legal description, etc.
Anoka County, Minnesota Court Books at Amazon.com

Anoka County Tax Records

See Also Military Records in Minnesota

Click Here to Search Minnesota Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.

The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.

Below is a list of online resources for Anoka County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Anoka County Military Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Civil War Soldiers: List of over 26,000 soldiers mustered from Minnesota during the American Civil War
Minnesota Volunteers in the Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection: This database indexes names of persons from Minnesota who enlisted in the Spanish American War.
Minnesota Society of Daughters of the American Revolution
National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, 1776 D Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006; Phone: (202) 628-1776
Minnesota Society of Sons of the American Revolution
National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, 1000 South Fourth Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40203; (502) 589-1776
Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900 from the State of Minnesota (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Pension applications for service in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1917, grouped according to the units in which the veterans served.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Minnesota (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Anoka County, Minnesota Military Books at Amazon.com

Anoka County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Minnesota Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Anoka County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Anoka County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Anoka County Genealogical Society, 2135 3rd Ave. No., Anoka, Minnesota 55303
Anoka County Historical Society, 2135 - 3rd Ave. No., Anoka, Minnesota 55303; Phone: (763) 421-0600
Local Minnesota Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Minnesota State Archives, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 • 651-259-3260
Minnesota Historical Society, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 • 651-259-3000
Minnesota Genealogical Society, 1185 Concord St. N. Suite 218, South St. Paul, MN 55075-1187; (651) 455-9057
National Archives - Great Lakes Region (Chicago), 7358 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60629-5898; 773-948-9001; E-mail: chicago.archives@nara.gov (Maintains retired records from Federal agencies and courts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Minnesota.)
Minnesota Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Minnesota Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Anoka County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Minnesota Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Anoka County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Anoka County Tombstone Transcription Project.

The Minnesota Historical Records Survey Project of Madison published the Directory of Churches and Religious Organizations in Minnesota in 1941 and Guide to Church Vital Statistics Records in Minnesota in 1942. There are also numerous publications by the project for specific denominations. Extensive microfilm collections of church records in Minnesota are available through the FHL. The State Historical Society of Minnesota and Area Research Centers have a variety of church records including microfilm and original records.

Numerous cemeteries have been read and transcribed by local genealogical societies in Minnesota. The transcriptions are frequently deposited with an Area Research Center, a local library, or the State Historical Society of Minnesota. A considerable number have been printed in the Minnesota State Genealogical Society Newsletter. Some have been privately published.

The Minnesota State Old Cemetery Society, 6100 West Mequon Road, Mequon, WI 53092, publishes a newsletter and maintains an archive of tombstone inscriptions from around the state. Contact the society for membership information

Below is a list of online resources for Anoka County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Anoka County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Minnesota Cemetery Inscription Index, Select Counties: This database is an index to cemetery inscriptions of cemeteries in several Minnesota (U.S.A.) counties and cities. It contains the names of nearly 600,000 persons. Researchers will find birth date, death date, name of cemetery and, in some cases, the closest living relative.
Anoka County, Minnesota Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Anoka County, Minnesota Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Minnesota Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Anoka County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Anoka County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Search the Family Tree DNA Project - Use DNA testing to break through your genealogical barriers!
Sites on USGenweb: [ Anoka County ] [ Minnesota ] [ Main Page ]
Anoka County USGenweb Archives
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Minnesota Family Group Sheets
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Minnesota Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Anoka County, Minnesota Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Minnesota County History Name Index: This database is a name index of eleven county histories and plat books for the area immediately south of the city of St. Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Researchers will find the name of the county resident, the book in which the person's name appears, and the page number. Where information is available, town of residence is also given.
Minnesota Crew Lists, 1929-1952: For several decades in the early half of the twentieth century, Two Harbors, Minnesota was one of the busiest iron ore loading ports in the world. This database is an index to the crew lists (NOT passenger lists) of vessels that arrived at Two Harbors,

Anoka County, organized on May 23, 1857, almost a year before Minnesota became a state, is located in the eastern part of the state, about midway between the northern and southern boundary limits. It is bounded on the north by Isanti County, east of Chisago and Washington Counties, south by Ramsey and Hennepin Counties and west by Hennepin and Sherburne Counties, and southwest by the Mississippi River.

The first white men known to have trod the ground that became the County of Anoka were (about 1680) Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan monk, and two companions.

According to the record kept by Father Hennepin and still preserved, a band of over 100 Indians captured them near Lake Pepin and planned to kill them, but finally decided to keep them for slaves. A few miles below St. Anthony Falls the canoe of the white men was destroyed and they were compelled to walk the long weary miles to Mille Lacs Lake where the villages of the Sioux were located. They remained with their captors.

Father Hennepin gave the river, along whose full length they traveled, a more beautiful name than it now bears. He called it the St. Francis (from which St. Francis Twp. took its name), but it later became known as the Rum.

Anoka County lies on both sides of the Rum River which enters the county about 20 miles north of where it enters the Mississippi. The first house in Anoka County was built in 1844 on the east bank near the mouth of the Rum River by Joseph Belanger, a fur trader in the employ of William American Fur Company on the upper Mississippi. This building was abandoned as a fur post after a couple of years but it was used many times, temporarily, by new settlers as one after another Came, established his own home and left the old building for someone else's use.

Other traders came to the post in 1846 and 1847 and a community started to grow as early as 1850 in the neighborhood of Anoka in what is now Ramsey Township. A wooden bridge, the first over the Rum, was built in 1853 and this activity brought people to Anoka. That same year construction of a dam was begun, with logs for the piling being cut near Round Lake and floated down the river. As more settlers came into the area, the community was given the name Anoka from the Indian tongue, meaning "on both sides", or "from both sides", as houses and buildings started rising on both sides of the Rum River.

One of the first acts of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature, which convened in 1849, was the organization of the counties of Washington, Ramsey and Benton. The Rum River was the dividing line between the two latter counties, and so the territory now embraced in Anoka County formed a part of both. In 1856, Sherburne County was detached from Benton and that portion of territory lying east of Sherburne County and west of Rum River was also detached and became a part of Ramsey Co.

By an act of the Legislative Assembly, passed on the 23, May 1857, Anoka Co. was organized with the same boundaries as today with the exception of the southeastern tip of the County. The organization at that time did not include the Twp. of Fridley which was organized the same day as Manomin (or Mahnomen as it was also spelled) County. Manomin county contained the exact lines of the former Twp. of Fridley including Columbia Heights and was organized through an error, intentional or otherwise. On the 12, April 1870, a petition, signed by a majority of voters of Manomin Co., for admission as a township, was presented to the County Commissioners of Anoka County, was granted.

The Governor, Samuel Medary, appointed as the first board of commissioners for Anoka County E.H. Davis, J.P. Austin and Silas O. Lum, with George W. Putnam as clerk. These commissioners met at Anoka and appointed the following county officers: Sheriff, James C. Frost; Treasurer, James M. McGlauflin; Coroner, Jos. C. Varney. Eight townships were created: Anoka, Watertown, Round Lake, Bethel, Columbus, St. Francis, Oak Grove and Centerville. The name Watertown was soon changed to Dover and a little later to Ramsey. There were only three voting precincts, Anoka, St. Francis and Columbus. Round Lake Township was later changed to the Town of Grow.

County Courthouse

A one-story, wooden building on the hill of the current Fridley City Hall parking lot served as Anoka County's first courthouse until 1878, when $200,000 in bonds were sold to build the towered brick building that stood until 1960.

The 1878 yellow brick courthouse was built in the Romanesque Revival style. Its tall central tower had an unusual single-gable top with iron cresting along its ridge and a segmentally arched double doorway on the first floor. The mansard roof, also iron crested, gave the building a French Second Empire effect.

Court convened there for 82 years until 1960, when the county moved to a two-story rectangular block building faced with brick on the lower level and aluminum-ribbed enamel panels and glass on the second. A two-story section connected the old structure with the new east wing. It cost $1.5 milliion to build the building with an entry canopy.

The east wing was expanded to the street in 1966 for $277,000. In 1972, the county added a third floor, 1,700-square-foot addition at a cost of $460,000. By 1976, expansion again became necessary. Four stories of brick above a high limestone basement were placed on the remaining space on the west side of the block. Finished as needed, all five floors were completed by 1980 at a total cost of $3.2 million.

While the use of the same brick and creamy native limestone blends the collection of government buildings, it represents a catalogue of the building styles popular from the corporation box style of the 1950s to the smooth brick diagonals and punched openings of the 1980s.

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