Sweetwater County, Wyoming Genealogy

United States Wyoming  Sweetwater County

Guide to Sweetwater County, Wyoming ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Historical Facts

 * Parent County: Formed from the western half of Laramie county 27 Dec 1867 (Laramie county originally encompassed the entire state). Originally named Carter county and original county seat South Pass City. The county was renamed Sweetwater by the first Wyoming Legislative Assembly. The county seat was moved to Green River in 1873. 
 * County Seat: Green River
 * Neighboring Counties: Carbon | Daggett County, Utah | Fremont | Lincoln | Moffat County, Colorado  | Sublette | Summit County, Utah | Uinta

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Wyoming County boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Wyoming County Boundary Maps" (1848-1965) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Cemeteries
Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

Church Records
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Green River, McKinnon, Reliance, Rock Springs,Rock Springs 1st, Rock Springs 2nd, Superior, Winton

Land and Property

 * BLM General Land Office Records

Migration
Early migration routes to and from for European and African American settlers included:


 * South Pass
 * Green River
 * Oregon Trail 1830s to 1890s from western Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon
 * Sublette-Greenwood_Cutoff 1844 from South Pass, Wyoming to Fort Hall, Idaho
 * California Trail 1846 to 1869 from western Missouri to northern California
 * Mormon Trail 1846 to 1869 from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah
 * Cherokee Trail 1850 from Salina, Oklahoma to Grainger/Fort Bridger, Wyoming
 * Union Pacific Railroad 1925 from Grainger, Wyoming via Boise to Portland, Oregon

Newspapers

 * Wyoming Newspaper Project searchable digitized newspapers from Rock Springs, Green River and Bryan, WY

Probate
The bulk of the probate case files from the 1870's to the 1940's have been transferred to the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne. Check their website for additional details.

Public Records
1882 Poll Book for Green River, Sweetwater County, Wyoming.

Courthouse
County Clerk has marriage records from 1864 and land records from 1876. Clerk District Court has divorce, probate and court records.

Family History Centers

 * Green River Wyoming Family History Center
 * Rock Spring Wyoming Family History Center

Libraries

 * Sweetwater County Library System Polk directories, microfilm of Green River and Rock Springs newspapers.

Museums

 * Rock Springs Historical Museum Various holdings including sporadic Polk city directories and high school yearbooks.


 * Sweetwater County Historical Museum 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way Green River 82935

Marriage

 * Western States Marriage Index over 924 marriages 7 Jun 1870 to 25 Jun 1904


 * Sweetwater County GenWeb Marriage index, formation of county to 2009 available as a spreadsheet

Websites

 * Sweetwater County, WY History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * Wyoming Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Wyoming Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Genealogy Trails: Sweetwater County Site. A Volunteer project dedicated to making genealogy records free to the public. Includes links to births, marriages and deaths; newspaper stories obituaries, censuses, military data, and more.