Historical society newsletters for the win! Hennepin County, Minnesota coroner records digitized.

One of the sessions I am teaching at this June’s virtual GRIP course Beyond Digging Deeper: Sources Methods, and Practices, is “Mining the Written Words of Repositories, Societies, and their Staff.” A perfect example of this is one of the electronic newsletters I receive from the Minnesota Historical Society. Via that I learned about this […]

Pipestone County Museum in Minnesota adds online newspapers

A news release in the Pipestone County Star from 11 April 2025 brings some welcome research news about free online newspapers. Pipestone County is in southwestern Minnesota, borders South Dakota, and is surrounded by several other Minnesota counties. The newspaper database currently holds the years 1879-1916 and the plan is to add additional years via […]

Roseau County, Minnesota history stories

I’ve blogged about the Minnesota Digital Library before and last week I learned about some additions to it through one of the library emails I receive. It involves the The Roseau County Historical Society and Museum in Northwestern Minnesota, along the border with Canada. “The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) is pleased to share newly digitized […]

Minneapolis, Minnesota building permits available for historical research, too

On January 14, 2025, I posted about the new online availability of Saint Paul, Minnesota building permits via the Ramsey County Historical Society. Apparently it was a popular subject to blog about. On social media and through this blog, I’ve been asked about those for Minneapolis. Yes, they are available and at NO COST! No, […]

Forest Finns: another area of study for genealogists with Scandinavian heritage

The Minnesota Genealogical Society’s Mid-Month Education News for December 2024 lists classes and webinars as it usually does. It also lists the upcoming hours change for the Hoffman Library in 2025. Then I read about a possible new group that will meet at the Minnesota Genealogy Center. Forest Finns! Of course, I had to learn […]

Recent Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Large Grants 

I am always thrilled when historical organizations post lists of awards and grants to organizations. A few of the grants in Minnesota are listed after this press release excerpt. Shelving for collections, ADA access, preservation of historical buildings, histories, and other items are on the recipients list. Many more can be viewed at https://www.mnhs.org/media/news/legacy-amendment-large-grants-fy25 City […]

Minnesota Digital Library: Beltrami County oral histories online

A recent newsletter from the University of Minnesota reminded me to look at other parts of the Minnesota Digital Library. The MDL is best described directly from its website. MDL “supports discovery and education through access to unique digital collections shared by cultural heritage organizations from across the state of Minnesota. Our contributors include libraries, […]

Minnesota Historical Society Digital Newspaper Hub adds more old newspapers

The updates to digitized newspapers for Minnesota keeps adding to my research task list! I already found one new item about my late father-in-law. MN Digital Newspaper Hub – May 2024 content updateA content update to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub today added 10,025 new issues and 158,877 new newspaper pages. New publicly available titles […]