Minnesota Archives and Libraries

These repositories preserve sources, maintain indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in Minnesota.

Online Resources

 * Minnesota Historical Society Library, Collections Online, Birth and death certificates, state census, veterans graves, newspapers. index/images.

Online Records


MnPals Union Catalog


 * This is a statewide colleges and universities catalog online. Scores of academic and special libraries participate. It is free. Resources include a Civil War veteran card index, Minnesota alien registration card index, Minnesota biography file, photographs, a Minneapolis newspaper index, and several subscription databases.

Wiki Articles on Major Repositories in Minnesota
Online Records· National Archives at Chicago· Minnesota Historical Society· Minnesota Genealogical Society· Iron Range Research Center· Newberry Library· Norwegian American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library

National Archives
National Archives at Chicago 7358 S. Pulaski Rd. Chicago, IL 60629-5898 Phone: (773)948-9001 Fax: (773)948-9050 Wesite [mailto:chicago.archives@nara.gov/ Email]


 * Serves Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Includes federal censuses, Indian censuses for Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; Indian school records, passenger arrival lists, U.S. District and Circuit Courts in Illinois 1819-1982, Indiana 1819-1961, Michigan 1815-1961, Minnesota 1890-1957, Ohio 1803-1961, Wisconsin 1839-1961; bankruptcies, criminal cases, a multi-state naturalization index 1840-1950, pre-World War I military service, pension and bounty land warrnat records, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Corp of Engineers, General Land Office applications and registers, Internal Revenue Service, African American histories, fugitive slaves, and Great Lakes and inland waterways.

Statewide Archives
Minnesota Historical Society and Its Regional Centers


 * Minnesota Historical Society 345 Kellogg Boulevard W. St. Paul, MN 55102-1906 USA Telephone: 651-296-2143 Fax: 651-297-7436 Website [mailto:webmaster@mnhs.org/ Email]


 * The Minnesota Historical Society Library acts as a State Archives, including a great genealogical collection, histories, biographies, newspapers, indexes, local, county, school district, city, and state or county government records, historical documents, and unpublished personal papers. Ethnic groups covered: Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Germans, and American Indians.ks, and genealogical data.

Reflections Website


 * Newspaper, photos, diaries and much more.


 * MHS Regional Centers. The Minnesota Historical Society has regional research centers to preserve local records of historical value. These centers may have family papers, manuscripts, oral history interviews, photographs, maps, drawings of homes, and business and organizational records. Some centers may hold local government records.


 * The centers are listed below with the counties they cover. Call them for their hours, which vary from center to center, and to learn about their collections.

Central Minnesota Historical Center Centennial Hall, Room 31 St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN 56301 Telephone: 320-255-3254 Website [mailto:cmhc@stcloudstate.edu/ Email]
 * This center serves the counties of Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Crow Wing, Isanti, Kanabec. Mille Lacs, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, Wadena, and Wright. Original manuscripts, family folders, diaries, journals, newspapers, land ownership maps, genealogies, and histories.


 * Northeast Minnesota Historical Center University of Minnesota-Duluth Library 375 Duluth, MN 55812 Telephone: 218-726-8526 [mailto:pmaus@d.umn.edu/ Email]
 * This center serves the counties of Carlton, Cook, Lake, and St. Louis. This is a very good research facility for the Great Lakes region with many county records, church records, histories, photos, and family folders.


 * Northwest Minnesota Historical Center Livingston Lord Library Moorhead State University Moorhead, MN 56563 Telephone: 218-236-2345 Fax: 218-299-5924 Website


 * This center serves the counties of Becker, Clay, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Otter Tail, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, Roseau, and Wilkin. For a guide to their collection see:


 * Northwest Minnesota Historical Center (Moorhead, Minnesota). Guide to the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center Collections. Moorhead, Minnesota: Livingston Lord Library, Moorhead State University, 1988.


 * Southern Minnesota Historical Center Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, MN 56001 Telephone: 507-389-1029 Website


 * This center serves the counties of Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Freeborn, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Rice, Sibley, Steele, Waseca, and Watonwan. Holds periodicals, family folders, cemetery transcripts, obituaries, documents, newspapers, local histories, and genealogies.


 * Southwest Minnesota Historical Center Southwest State University Social Science 141 Marshall, MN 56258 Telephone: 507-537-7373 Fax: 507-537-7154 Website


 * This center is very active in the genealogical community and has a great genealogical collection. It has some county and local government records that would normally go to the Minnesota Historical Society. It serves the counties of Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, and Yellow Medicine.


 * West Central Minnesota Historical Center University of Minnesota–Morris 600 East 4th Street Morris, MN 56267 Telephone: 320-589-6183 Fax: 320-589-6117 Website [mailto:ahernwh@mrs.umn.edu/ Email]


 * This center serves the counties of Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Swift, and Traverse.

Minnesota Genealogical Society 1385 Mendota Heights Road, Suite 100 Mendota Heights, MN 55120-1367 Telephone: 651-330-9312 Website [mailto:info@mngs.org Email]


 * Located in the Minnesota Genealogy Center, the Minnesota Genealogical Society is an all-volunteer non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The goal of the Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS) and its branches is to provide education on methods of genealogical research, social activities with other individuals with genealogy interests, and a place to research ancestors. The William J. Hoffman Library & Research Center provides a wide variety of information covering many countries, articles on vital statistics, military records, immigration, mapping records and many other areas of research. The library collection includes ethnic sources, how-to-books, genealogical periodicals, and family surname folders. They also have many indexes of court records, cemeteries, and histories. MGS is also a FamilySearch Affiliate Library.

Regional
Immigration History Research Center 826 Berry Street University of Minnesota St. Paul, MN 55114 Telephone: 612-627-4208 Fax: 612-627-4190 Website [mailto:ihrc@gold.tc.umn.edu/ Email]


 * The Immigration History Research Center’s collection is national in scope but includes European immigration to Minnesota by Czechs, Poles, Byelorussians, Carpath-Rusins, Finns, Greeks, Italians, Russians, also Albanians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Estonians, Hungarians, Jews, Latvians, Lithuanians, Macedonians, Romanians, Serbs, Slavs, and Ukrainians. The immigrants are from central, eastern, and southern European countries. A majority of their records are in a foreign language. For a guide see:
 * University of Minnesota. Immigration History Research Center. The Immigration History Research Center: A Guide to Collections. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1991. (Family History Library ; . Summary of the archival and library holdings. The purpose of this guide is to assist researchers in determining the usefulness of the collection and to explain the procedure for gaining access to records.

Iron Range Research Center Minnesota Discovery Center 1005 Discovery Drive Chisholm, MN 55719 USA Telephone: 218-254-7959 Fax: 218-254-5235 Website


 * This center has an extensive collection of records dealing with the string of towns that extends about 200 miles east to west across St. Louis County and other counties. This was a mining area where many immigrants were employed. They have name indexes of immigrants.

Stearns History Museum Research Center 235-33rd Avenue South St. Cloud, MN 56301 USA Telephone: 320-253-8424 Website [mailto:info@stearns-museum.org/ Email]


 * This county facility has a statewide and nationwide scope. Their strength is research for immigrants from Germany, and lowlands of western Europe (Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, and southern France). They have amazing indexes of early settlers.

University of Minnesota Wilson Library 309 19th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA Telephone: 612-624-3321 Website Email


 * Their historical manuscript collection is great, including newspapers, business records, church records, local histories, maps, Norwegian Bygdebøker, and government documents.

Out of State
Newberry Library 60 West Waltron Street Chicago, IL 60610 Telephone: 312-255-3512 Newberry [mailto:genealogy@newberry.org/ Email]


 * A large Chicago repository with genealogies, local historiescensuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records many from Minnesota, the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and the British Isles. They have over 17,000 printed genealogies. The collection is noteworthy for its colonial America, especially New England holdings. They have church, town, and county histories from all parts of the United States, Canada, and the British Isles. This includes a comprehensive set of New England town histories, and strong collection of county histories from the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Their Civil War unit histories collection is one of the best. This library has research guides on various subjects related to genealogy and library holdings cataloged from 1978. See


 * Genealogy Collection Guides and Research Tools for more information about the collections.  
 * A surname index to genealogical periodicals and local history books in the Newberry Library was completed in 1915 and published as The Genealogical Index of the Newberry Library Since this index is old, be sure to use the online guide sheet to this collection before using the source.

Norwegian American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library 415 West Main St. Madison, Wisconsin 53703 USA Telephone: 608-255-2224 [mailto:genealogy@nagcnl.org/ Email]


 * This center has records of many Norwegian-Americans, including U.S. and Norwegian censuses, passenger lists, church records, family records, and Norwegian bygdebøker (farm histories).