Minnesota City and Township Birth Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
The collection consists of digital images of city and township birth records from various county courthouses for the years 1871 to 1947. This collection includes townships in the following counties:
 * Anoka
 * Blue Earth
 * Cottonwood
 * Freeborn
 * Hennepin
 * Lyon
 * Ramsey
 * Renville
 * Washington
 * Yellow Medicine

Notes about this collection:


 * The year range will vary by county.
 * Confidential information (illegitimate births and adoptions) has been masked from this collection.
 * Some of the records in this collection may be duplicated in the collection “Minnesota County Births 1863-1983.”

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Birth records usually include the following genealogical information:
 * Date of birth
 * City, county, and state of birth
 * State or country and sometimes town and county of birth for the parents (usually included)
 * Parents’ names (usually includes the mother’s maiden name)
 * Gender
 * Residence or address of parents
 * Name of person attending the birth such as a midwife or doctor.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the child
 * The approximate birth date
 * The birth place of the child
 * The names of the parents

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment records or military records.
 * The parents’ birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for a different index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby localities.

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in the state of Minnesota.
 * Minnesota Guided Research
 * Minnesota Record Finder
 * Minnesota Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Minnesota Research, 1880-Present

Citing this Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.