Pipestone County, Minnesota Genealogy

United States Minnesota  Pipestone County

Guide to Pipestone County Minnesota ancestry, family history, and genealogy research page. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
Clerk District Court has birth, marriage, divorce, probate and court records from 1877. County Recorder has land records.

Parent County

 * 1857--Pipestone County was created 23 May 1857 from Brown County. County seat: Pipestone
 * For a brief history of how Pipestone County was named, click here, then select Pipestone County.

Record Loss
1890 United States Census

The Eleventh United States Census was taken June 2, 1890. The data was tabulated by machine for the first time. The data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier. Most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in a 1921 fire.

Data availability

The original data for the 1890 Census is no longer available. Almost all the population schedules were damaged in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. in 1921. Some 25% of the materials were presumed destroyed and another 50% damaged by smoke and water (although the actual damage may have been closer to 15–25%). The damage to the records led to an outcry for a permanent National Archives.[8][9] In December 1932, following standard Federal record-keeping procedures, the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of the Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers to be destroyed, including the original 1890 census schedules. The Librarian was asked by the Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for historical purposes, but the Librarian did not accept the census records. Congress authorized destruction of that list of records on February 21, 1933, and the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935. The other censuses for which some information has been lost are the 1800 and 1810 enumerations.[citation needed]

No microdata from the 1890 census survive, but aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System.

Neighboring Counties

 * Brookings County, South Dakota
 * Lincoln
 * Lyon
 * Minnehaha County, South Dakota
 * Moody County, South Dakota
 * Murray
 * Nobles
 * Rock

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Pipestone Minnesota Family History Center

Web Sites

 * Pipestone County, MN Genealogy Forum (GenForum)