North Dakota Archives and Libraries

North Dakota

The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful for genealogical research in North Dakota.

State Historical Society of North Dakota
North Dakota Heritage Center 612 E. Boulevard Avenue Bismarck, ND 58505 Telephone: 701-328-2668 Web Site: http://www.nd.gov/hist/

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/

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/

Institute for Regional Studies &amp; University Archives
North Dakota State University Libraries PO Box 5599 Fargo, ND 58105-5599 Telephone: 701-231-8914 Web Site: http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndirs/

Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Chester Fritz Library University of North Dakota 3051 University Avenue Stop 9000 Grand Forks, ND 58202-9000 Telephone: 701-777-4625 Web Site: http://www.library.und.edu/Collections/

Germans from Russia Heritage Society
1125 West Turnpike Avenue Bismarck, ND 58501 Web Site: http://www.grhs.com/

A helpful guide to several important North Dakota collections is John B. Davenport (v. 1), Colleen A. Oihus (v. 2), and Sandra J. Beidler (v. 3), Guide to the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection and Related Research Collections,, Three Volumes. (Grand Forks, North Dakota: Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, 1975, 1983, 1985).

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of North Dakota counties, use the inventories of the Mercer, Golden Valley, and Williams Counties' archives published by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. The Family History Library has copies of these inventories.

Web Sites
You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from North 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. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:

USGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ndgenweb/

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 for North Dakota.

Cyndi's List

http://www.cyndislist.com/nd.htm#Libraries

Contains links to many North Dakota sources including Libraries and Archives.

FamilySearch™ 

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

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.