Step-by-Step South Dakota Research, 1880-Present

South Dakota ''Step-by-Step South Dakota Research, 1850-1905

Step 1. Find out everything possible from living relatives and their family records.
Every good genealogy project starts with finding all the clues that can be gathered from living relatives — both from their memories and from documents or memorabilia in their homes.

What information can relatives help with??
In order to extend research on ancestors, look for names, dates, and places. Any information about when and where a relative lived is a clue to a new record search. Be sure to ask questions that lead to that information, including about their occupations, military service, or associations with others, such as fraternal organizations. See also:


 * 50 Questions to Ask Relatives About Family History
 * Creating Oral Histories

Using the clues to lead to census record searches.

 * A census is a count and description of the population for a given date. A census took a "snapshot" of a family on a certain day.
 * For each person living in a household (depending on the year), their name, age, birthplace, relationship to head of household, place of birth for father and mother, citizenship status, year of immigration, mother of how many children and number of children living, native language, and whether they were a veteran of the military can be listed.
 * Searching for a family in census records every ten years can identify all the children in a family.
 * Searching in earlier census records to find someone as a child can identify parents.



Step 3: Find birth, marriage, and death certificates for your ancestors and their children.
States, counties, or (even towns in some states) recorded births, marriages, and deaths.
 * In addition to the child's name, birth date, and place of birth, a birth certificate may give the birthplaces of the parents, their ages, and occupations.
 * A marriage certificate might list the parents of the bride and groom.
 * A death certificate may give the person's birth date and place, parents' names and birthplaces, and spouse's name.

Using the census clues to lead to a birth certificate.
Census information gives approximate birth years and probable birth places, and that information leads to finding important birth records. In addition to basic birth date and place, a birth certificate can give age, birthplace, occupation, etc. about the parents.

Using the census clues to lead to a marriage certificate.
Finding marriage records can:
 * establish the full identity of the wife, with her maiden name and possible birth details.
 * find the names of the parents of the bride and groom.

Using census clues to lead to a death certificate.
Moving forward in time, older generations stop showing up in the census. That is a clue that they probably died in the last 10 years. The death certificate is important because of all the possible secondary data beyond just the date and place of death:
 * birth date and place of the deceased
 * maiden name of the wife
 * names of the deceased's parents
 * birth places of the deceased's parents.

Online Databases
Births: Marriages: Deaths:
 * 1856-1917 South Dakota, U.S., Birth Index, 1856-1917 at Ancestry - index ($)
 * 1843-1914 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index
 * 1905-2017 South Dakota, U.S., Marriages, 1905-2017 at Ancestry - index ($)
 * 1843-1914 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index
 * 1879-1955 South Dakota, Death Index, 1879-1955 at Ancestry ($)

For Native American ancestors
If your ancestor was Native American, there are Indian Agency Microfilm numbers lead to digitized online records.
 * birth records
 * marriage records
 * death records.

Obituaries

 * South Dakota Obituaries Help. Click here to see an example. In this site, you will select a newspaper, then select the "Obituaries" link at that newspaper. Sometimes there is a required subscription fee.
 * ObituaryLinks South Dakota, index. This site gives lots of death record "how-to" advice before you come to obituary links. Scroll down quite a way to find the obituary links. 'Click [Step-by-Step South Dakota Research, 1905-Present here] to see at example.

Cemeteries

 * South Dakota, Deaths and Burials at MyHeritage — index ($)
 * Findagrave.com
 * at FamilySearch - How to Use This Collection
 * U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current at Ancestry
 * Billion Graves
 * at FamilySearch - How to Use This Collection
 * BillionGraves Index at Findmypast ($)
 * at FamilySearch - How to Use This Collection
 * South Dakota, Cemetery Index, 1831-2008 at Ancestry
 * South Dakota Cemetery Records at AccessGenealogy
 * South Dakota Cemetery Records at Interment
 * South Dakota Tombstone Transcription Project at USGenWeb Transcription Project
 * Online South Dakota Obituary and Cemetery Indexes at DeathIndexes

Step 8: If your ancestor was an immigrant, search immigration and naturalization records online.
gration Online Genealogy Records]] for the time period when your ancestors arrived.

The United States kept copies of passenger lists starting in 1820 (except for Philadelphia which start in 1800). Passenger lists before this date are taken from shipping companies or extracted from newspapers or other records and are not complete for the time period.

In this example of a passenger list, you see at #22, the family of Eduard Hepper of Gross Liebenthal travelling to Java, South Daokta.

Naturalization (Citizenship) Records
Naturalization is the process of becoming a citizen. Records can include the immigrant's declaration of intent to become a citizen, petitions for citizenship, and final certificate of naturalization. Naturalization records after 1906 can show birth date and place, spouse's name, marriage date and place, and lists of children with their birth dates. Click here to view examples of declaration of intent records and the information they give.

South Dakota naturalization records could be recorded at the county court or the Federal District or Circuit Court. You must look for them in both locations. Try searching first in any county where the person lived, unless the census tells you the year they were naturalized, and you have evidence of where they lived that year. If you cannot locate them in the county records, try searching for them in the Federal courts.

Step 9: For German ancestors, search Germans from Russia collections online.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a mass migration from German colonies in Russia to North and South Dakota.
 * Birth, marriage, and death records for them in Russia are collected at the Odessa3 website
 * Collections pertaining to them are also found at the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at North Dakota State University.