Sasha Aslanian, a reporter from Minnesota Public Radio, has a wonderful story today about Pilgrim Baptist Church. The church is celebrating 150 year of existence. It was founded by former slaves. Sasha relates “. . . Robert Hickman, an escaped slave from Missouri who 150 years ago led slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad, […]
Have you recently checked the Minnesota category of the Historical Record Collections at FamilySearch? It has 22 section of material related to the state. Add a lot more when you check out the U.S. census records. Many have digitized images, some are record abstracts, and some are indexes. Check out the list below (and many […]
Why is it that some dates just stick in our minds? For me, one is the date of Minnesota statehood. On May 11, 1858 Minnesota became the 32nd state in the United States. That’s 155 years ago. One of my great grandfathers, Michael Hanley, had already arrived in Minnesota Territory. He is on the 1857 […]
Earlier this month at the banquet during the Minnesota Genealogical Society’s annual North Star Conference, I was presented with an award. It’s the “Minnesota Genealogy Ambassador Award for representing Minnesota on the national genealogy scene and bringing honor to Minnesota genealogy.” It was an easy award to win and receive. Easy to win because I […]
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 […]
I just did a run-through of my Minnesota Genealogy Crash Course for Family Tree University. I will be presenting it live next Wednesday, April 25th at 7:00 pm here in the Midwest. That will be at 8:00 Eastern, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific. Diane Haddad at the Genealogy Insider just posted some teasers about the […]
On Wednesday, April 25th, I will be presenting a webinar on Minnesota genealogy. It’s part of Family Tree University. I have been researching, writing, and teaching about Minnesota genealogical research for more years than I am willing to admit. When I began my Minnesota research, the late Minnesota Historical Society librarian, Wiley Pope, gave me […]
The 2012 editions of the St. Louis County Minnesota Land Atlas and Plat Books are now available. This county is in Northeastern Minnesota and runs north to the Canadian border. Duluth, Hibbing, Hermantown, Chisholm, Ely, Eveleth, and the famous Embarass are some of the cities in this beautiful county. It also includes parts of Superior […]
What a tribute to their deceased father. “RICHMOND, Minn. — On Wednesday afternoon at Sts. Peter and Paul cemetery in Richmond, Harold Hemmesch’s family gathered to dig his grave.It wasn’t the first time Hemmesch’s children dug into the ground of the cemetery. Their father had been a gravedigger for 50 years, and they had all […]
This is an overview of what exists for Minnesota birth, death, and marriage records and ways to access them. This is not a 100% comprehensive finding aid, but it should lead you to more records.Birth & Death RecordsBirth and death records were generally created at the county level beginning in 1870 or later if the […]