Searching for historical, cultural, and genealogical organizations in Minnesota

Looking for a county historical organization in Minnesota? How about a genealogical society in your ancestral areas? It’s easy to do a search for keyword phrases such as St. Louis County Historical Society and be directed to the website. Did you know about the Eveleth Heritage Committee or the Virginia Area Historical Society in the […]

Open hours for consultations in the next couple weeks

As has happened before, I finished some projects and now have some open hours for genealogical consultations in the next couple of weeks.  A consultation can be done in-person, by email, regular mail, or by Skype or Google Hangout. You don’t have to live in the St. Paul and Minneapolis metropolitan area. Need some side-by-side […]

Minnesota Genealogy: Finding Divorce Records

Learning that a family member may have been divorced 50, 75, or 150 years ago might yield a temporary shock to your system. It might also yield a plethora of family history details. Divorce in the past is different from divorce today in some ways. Societal and family pressures may have caused a family or […]

Minnesota Historical Society website and preservation

The Minnesota Historical Society’s website has many great features. I have blogged about some of these. Scroll down the right side of this blog to see the index to past posts. One of the important sections is “Preserve Your Family Treasures” which I have found to be quite helpful. The topics discussed are oral histories, […]

Online Finding Aids from the Minnesota Historical Society

When is the last time you checked the wonderful online finding aids for many of the collections at the Minnesota Historical Society? Of course, there’s the library catalog, general descriptions of collections, and paragraphs describing various types of records, but have you seen the detailed inventories for others? MHS has many in-house comprehensive finding aids […]

Minnesota State Archives acquisitions

The Minnesota State Archives continues to acquire records from around the state. This is a sampling of acquisitions over the last several months: February 2013:  Olmsted County.  Common School District No. 95/1354 (Kalmar Township).  Clerk’s Book (dated 1882- 1887).  1 volume. January 2013:  Ramsey County, St. Paul school records ( I.SD. No. 625), including a […]

Minnesota 1940 census is 19% indexed

That is amazing news. In less than a month since the 1940 census was made public, volunteers have indexed 19% of the 1940 U.S. census for Minnesota. I love indexing my home state. I recognize many names or can easily figure out what the enumerator wrote in most cases. I love seeing the multi-generation families […]