Salt Lake County, Utah Genealogy

United States &gt; Utah &gt; Salt Lake County

History
The area that was to become Salt Lake County was settled in 1847 when Mormon Pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fleeing persecution in the East, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley after traveling through Emigration Canyon. Brigham Young, their leader, declared "This is the right place" after seeing the valley, which was at the time arid, dry, and unpromising. However, they soon developed a flourishing, self-sufficient city, Great Salt Lake City, through extensive irrigation techniques. Thousands of Mormons from around the world followed in the next several decades. The county was officially formed on January 31, 1850, with just over 11,000 residents recorded.

Parent County
1849--Salt Lake County was created as an original county. County seat: Salt Lake City

Populated Places

 * Cities: Alta | Bluffdale | Cottonwood Heights | Draper | Herriman |Holladay | Midvale | Murray |Riverton |Salt Lake City | Sandy | South Jordan | South Salt Lake |Taylorsville | West Jordan


 * Unincorporated Communities: Avenues | Bennion | Bingham | Bonneville | Butler | Copperton | Crescent City | Daybreak | Garden View | Garfield | Granger | Grant | Granite | Hercules | Highland Park | Hunter | Kearns | Lark | Magna | Mill Creek | Pleasant Green | Spencer | Sugarhouse | Union

Neighboring Counties
Davis(North) | Morgan(Northeast) | Summit(East) | Tooele (West) | Utah (South)

Cemeteries
The Salt Lake City Cemetery is located at 200 "N" Street.

Local Histories
The History of Salt Lake City and its Founders, By Edward William Tullidge 1886

Newspapers

 * One major resouce for newspapers throughout Utah is the University of Utah's Utah Digital Newspapers project "with more than 600,000 pages of digitized Utah historical newspapers." Ten newspapers from Salt Lake County are included in this digital project, the Valley Tan, Union Vedette, Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News (Weekly Edition), Deseret Evening News (Daily Edition), Salt Lake Herald, American Eagle, Salt Lake Mining Review, Murray Eagle, and the Broad Ax. Read more... about using Utah newspapers for your family history research.

Vital Records
Websites for death records in the state of Utah and specifically for Salt Lake County include:


 * Utah Death Certificates 1904-1956
 * Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1908-1949

Societies and Libraries
The Family History Library is located in Salt Lake County and is the largest repository of family history records in the world.

The Salt Lake County Library system offers free access to Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.

Web Sites

 * The Salt Lake County UT GenWeb Project, a member of The UTGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project


 * Family History Library Catalog