Montana Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have major collections or services helpful to Montana genealogical researchers.

Montana Historical Society
P.O. Box 210201 225 North Roberts Street Helena, MT 59620-1201 Telephone: 406-444-2694 Fax: 406-444-2696 Email: [mailto:mhslibrary@mt.gov mhslibrary@mt.gov] website: http://www.his.state.mt.us/

The Montana Historical Society houses both the Montana Historical Society Library and the Montana State Archives. The library collects printed and manuscript sources, including histories and reference materials. The archives primarily collects government documents.

Montana Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 5313 120 South Last Chance Gulch Helena, MT 59604 Telephone 406-447-1690 Ext9

The Montana Genealogical Society Library is part of the online Montana Shared Library.

National Archives Records Administration—Rocky Mountain Region (Denver)
Building 48, Denver Federal Center P.O. Box 25307 Denver, CO 80225 Telephone: 303-236-0817 Fax: (303) 407-5753 http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/

University of Montana
Mansfield Library 32 Campus Drive Missoula, MT 59812-9936 Telephone: 406-243-6866 Fax: 406-243-4067 http://www.lib.umt.edu/

Montana State University
Renne Library P.O. Box 173320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 Telephone: 406-994-3119 Fax: 406-994-2851 http://www.lib.montana.edu/

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of Montana counties, use the 16 inventories of county archives produced by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. The Family History Library has copies of most of these inventories.

Web Sites
You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from Montana in a variety of sources at local, state, national, and international levels. The list of sources is growing rapidly. Most of the information is available at no cost.

Addresses on the Internet change frequently. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:

USGenWeb

http://www.usgenweb.com/

A cooperative effort by many volunteers to list genealogical databases, libraries, bulletin boards, and other resources available on the Internet for each county, state, and country.

Roots-L

http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/usa/

A useful list of sites and resources. Includes a large, regularly-updated research coordination list.

FamilySearch™

http://www.familysearch.org

FamilySearch is a collection of computer files containing several million names. FamilySearch is a good place to begin your research. Some of the records come from compiled sources; some have been automated from original sources.