South Dakota Archives and Libraries

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



South Dakota State Archives 900 Governors Drive Pierre, SD 57501 Telephone: 605-773-3804 Fax: 605-773-6041 E-mail: archref@state.sd.us Internet: http://www.sdhistory.org/arc/archives.htm

 

South Dakota State Historical Society 900 Governors Drive Pierre, SD 57501-2294 Telephone: 605-773-3458 Fax: 605-773-6041 Internet: http://www.sdhistory.org/

Three divisions of the South Dakota Historical Society include materials of interest to genealogists. The Historical Society Library houses printed materials, while the Archives Division maintains original records of South Dakota government jurisdictions and other historical documents. The Manuscript Division preserves unpublished materials.

National Archives—Rocky Mountain Region (Denver) Denver Federal Center Building 48 P.O. Box 25307 Denver, CO 80225-0307 Telephone: 303-407-5700 Fax: 303-407-5707 http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/

National Archives—Central Plains Region (Kansas City) 400 West Pershing Road Kansas City, MO 64108 Telephone: 816-268-8000 Internet: http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/

South Dakota Genealogical Society P.O. Box 1101 Pierre, SD 57501 Telephone: 605-224-3670 Internet: http://sdgenweb.com

I.D. Weeks Library University of South Dakota 414 E. Clark Street Vermillion, SD 57069 Telephone: 605-677-5371 Fax: 605-677-5488 E-mail: [mailto:weeksref@usd.edu weeksref@usd.edu] Internet: http://www.usd.edu/library/idweeks.cfm

Center for Western Studies P.O. Box 727 Augustana College Sioux Falls, SD 57197 Telephone: 605-336-4921 Fax: 605-336-5447 Internet: http://www.augie.edu/CWS/

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

Computer Networks and Bulletin Boards
Computers with modems can be useful tools for obtaining information from selected archives and libraries. In a way, computer networks themselves serve as a library. The Internet, certain computer bulletin boards, and commercial on-line services help family history researchers:


 * Locate other researchers
 * Post queries
 * Send and receive e-mail
 * Search large databases
 * Search computer libraries
 * Join in computer chat and lecture sessions

You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from South Dakota 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. As of April 1997, the following sites are important gateways linking you to many more network and bulletin board 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/sd.html

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

FamilySearch™
www.familysearch.org

The Family History Library and some Family History Centers have computers with FamilySearch™. 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.