Montana Archives and Libraries

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

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.

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 to:


 * 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 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. 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/

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

For further details about using computer networks, bulletin boards, and news groups for family history research, see the United States Research Outline (30972), 2nd ed., "Archives and Libraries" section.

FamilySearch™
http://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.