Minnesota Genealogical Archives

   It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.

Minnesota Public Libraries - In Minnesota, within the entire library system, there is an interlibrary program that can be called upon for many printed materials. The reference librarian at the local library, for a small fee, can request assistance in locating a particular book through this system.

• Minnesota State Archives, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 • 651-259-3260
  Records created by state or local governments in the state of Minnesota. There is an on-going program of transferring these records to the Minnesota Historical Society Research Center. The collection is immense, covering a broad spectrum of Minnesota history beginning in 1849. Representative of the collections to be found are the State Board of Auditors for the adjustment of claims for war expenditures, 1862–68; Supreme Court Naturalization Records, 1858–1906; and Stillwater State Prison, 1853–1976. References to numerous items at this location are included under various subjects covered in this chapter.
  Manuscript Collections. Holds primary research materials that document Minnesota and its people. There are over 6,000 manuscript collections in this division of the Minnesota Historical Society, including diaries, letters, account books, scrapbooks, business papers, and personal papers of politicians and farmers.
• 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.)

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Historical & Genealogical Societies

   "Genealogists are generally positive and energetic, and most are ready to share their findings or research experience with anyone they can help. There are hundreds of genealogical societies at the grass-roots level. Knowledge of the genealogical community will place you in the midst of much activity, increase your productivity, and alert you to the importance of research standards and etiquette."
Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, Editor of FGS Forum,
Co-editor of The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy

   Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.
For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.

• Minnesota Historical Society, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 . 651-259-3000
  The Minnesota Historical Society has been collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Minnesota since 1849, which makes the society older than the state it represents. The collections are currently located in three locations: the Minnesota Historical Society (address above), Fort Snelling History Center (Archaeology, Historic Sites, and State Historic Preservation), and the Minnesota Historical Society Research Center (address below). In 1992 the material from all three locations will be housed in the new Minnesota History Center. See Minnesota Historical Society Library and Archives Division, Genealogical Resources of the Minnesota Historical Society: A Guide (St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1989) for an excellent guide to the multitude of sources in their collection. This handbook alphabetically lists resources, cross-referenced, with a description of contents, location within the society's departments, and means of access.
  At the above location are the audio-visual library (genealogists will appreciate the photograph collection of approximately 200,000 images, indexed by subject and name); the map library; the newspaper library (over 3 million issues of approximately 6,500 newspapers); reference library (over 500,000 books, pamphlets, periodicals, microforms, and documents); the largest collection of published Minnesota materials; extensive holdings on railroads, Canadian history, the fur trade, Scandinavians, and Native Americans in Minnesota; and publication offices.
• Minnesota Historical Society Research Center, 1500 Mississippi Street, St. Paul, MN 55101; (612) 296-6980
• Minnesota Genealogical Society, 1185 Concord St. N. Suite 218, South St. Paul, MN 55075-1187; (651) 455-9057
  Membership includes the quarterly Minnesota Genealogist and the MGS Newsletter. Meetings are held quarterly, with state and national speakers. The Minnesota Genealogical Society Library at 1101 Fort Road (West 7th Street), St. Paul, Minnesota 55116, contains over 3,000 reference books, research materials on Indian and Metis groups, and the books and research materials of several of the branches of the society. Special interest groups within the main society include Northwest Territory Canadian and French Heritage Center, Computer Interest Group, Czechoslovak Genealogical Society, Douglas County Genealogical Society, English Genealogical Society, German Interest Group, Irish Genealogical Society, The Scandinavian-American Genealogical Society, Danish-American Genealogical Society, Finnish Genealogy Group, Icelandic Genealogy Group, Norwegian Genealogy Group, Swedish Genealogy Group, Scottish Genealogical Society, and Yankee Interest Group. The Minnesota Genealogical Society office and library are staffed by volunteers, and hours are limited. Classes are provided for beginning and advanced genealogists.
• Iron Range Research Center, Highway 169 West, P.O. Box 392, Chisholm, MN 55719
  Located at the Iron Range Interpretative Center with a full-time library and archives staff, it is designated as the government records repository for iron range communities and includes manuscripts, oral histories, and photographs.
• Minnesota Regional Research Centers
  This network was originally established by the Minnesota Historical Society. James E. Fogerty states in Preliminary Guide to the Holdings of the Minnesota Regional Research Centers (St.Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1975) that its purpose was to expand research possibilities within the state by collecting and preserving sources at various locations in the state. See also, James Fogerty's Manuscript Collection of the Minnesota Regional Research Centers: Guide Number 2 (St. Paul, Minn.: Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Minnesota Historical Society, 1980).
  The centers, which are located on the campuses of, and now associated with, colleges and universities in the state, concentrate on topics of regional importance. They are not all staffed on a full-time basis. Material varies at individual centers from information on the Stephen H. Long expedition of 1823 to the account of an auto trip from Minnesota to California and back in 1929. There are oral history interviews and such items as the register of a nineteenth century inn on the Mississippi River. The eight centers and the counties they cover are as follows.
  • Central Minnesota Historical Center, Centennial Hall, Room 148, St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, MN 56301
    Serves Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Crow Wing, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, Wadena, and Wright counties.
  • North Central Minnesota Historical Center, The A. C. Clark Library, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN 56601
    Serves Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, and Lake of the Woods counties.
  • Northeast Minnesota Historical Center, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Library 375, Duluth, MN 55812
    Serves Carlton, Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties.
  • Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Livingston Lord Library, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN 56560
    Serves Becker, Clay, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Otter Tail, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, Roseau, and Wilkin counties.
  • Southern Minnesota Historical Center, Mankato State University, Mankato, MN 56001
    Serves Blue Earth, Brown, Fairbault, Freeborn, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Rice, Sibley, Steele, Waseca, and Watonwan counties.
  • Southwest Minnesota Historical Center, Southwest State University–BA 509, Marshall, MN 56258
    Serves Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, and Yellow Medicine counties.
  • West Central Minnesota Historical Center, University of Minnesota–Morris, Morris, MN 56267
    Serves Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Swift, and Traverse counties.
  • Minnesota Historical Society Research Center, 1500 Mississippi Street, St. Paul, MN 55101, (612) 296-6980
    Serves Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Wabasha and Winona counties.
    
• National Genealogical Society, 4527 17th Street North, Arlington, Virginia 22207-2399; (703) 525-0050 or (800) 473-0060
• International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry, P.O. BOX 436937, CHICAGO, IL 60643-6937; Phone: (773) 238-2686
• 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

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Minnesota Genealogical Publications

Search The PERiodical Source Index

 The Minnesota Genealogist, quarterly publication of the Minnesota Genealogical Society, includes a variety of genealogical articles, cemetery readings, newspaper and vital records extractions, book reviews, queries, and miscellaneous information of interest to the Minnesota researcher. Indexes are available through the society.

Minnesota History usually contains three to four full-length historical articles. It is indexed and published quarterly by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Various local and county genealogical and historical societies publish excellent newsletters helpful in research.

 [ see specific county page for individual county list ]

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Minnesota Newspapers

Search Historical Newspapers

   While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

   Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

   Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

   The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

George S. Hage, Newspapers on the Minnesota Frontier, 1849–50 (St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1967) provides an excellent source for the historical development of Minnesota's newspapers. Minnesota Historical Society was chartered as a repository for these territorial “day-books of history” beginning in 1849. On 28 April 1849, the first issue of the Minnesota Pioneer was published by James Madison Goodhue. By 14 July of that year Minnesota had three newspapers, all printed in St. Paul. The St. Anthony Express, the earliest newspaper in what is now Minneapolis, was first printed in 1851. The prime objective of all the early papers was to attract settlers to the territory.

There are two reference sources available for locating information in the Minnesota Pioneer. The Minnesota Pioneer Index is a card file located at the Minnesota Historical Society that covers the newspaper through 4 Sept 1851. Alfred J. Dahlquist's Minnesota Genealogical Journal (Brooklyn Park, Minn.: Park Genealogical Book Co., 1984–87) includes important extractions from the same newspaper through 4 April 1854. Obituaries, probate notices, lists of arrivals at St. Paul hotels, and letters remaining at the post office are covered.

The Minnesota Biography File is an extensive ongoing alphabetical card file index citing obituaries and other biographical details from newspapers, serials, books, and microfilmed scrapbooks in the collection at the Minnesota Historical Society.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul city libraries have printed contemporary indexes of their respective major newspapers. The Minnesota Regional Research Centers and local historical and genealogical groups may have indexing projects of community newspapers underway.

Two other sources are the Babcock Newspaper Index to articles in Minnesota newspapers, 1849–58, which is a card index located at Minnesota Historical Society Research Center and the University of Minnesota, and the Immigration History Research Center's Newspapers on Microfilm (St. Paul, Minn.: Immigration History Research Center, 1978). The latter is for ethnic newspapers.

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