Montana Archives and Libraries

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

Archives West
Formerly Northwest Digital Archives. Contains listings of archives in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Utah. Website

Montana Historical Society
P.O. Box 210201 225 North Roberts Street Helena, MT 59620-1201 Telephone: 406-444-2694 Fax: 406-444-2696 Website [mailto:mhslibrary@mt.gov/ Email] 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.

Montana State Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 5313 120 South Last Chance Gulch Helena, MT 59604 Telephone 406-447-1690 Ext9 Website

The Genealogical Society Library''' is part of the online Montana Shared Library.

Montana Memory Project Find names in newspapers, yearbooks, prison records, photographs, and more.

National Archives at Denver
National Archives at Denver 17101 Huron Street Broomfield, CO 80023 Telephone: 303-604-4740 Fax: 303-407-5707 Website [mailto:archives@nara.gov/ Email] The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.

Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you.

University of Montana
Mansfield Library 32 Campus Drive Missoula, MT 59812-9936 Telephone: 406-243-6866 Fax: 406-243-4067 Website The Mansfield Library, the premier research library in Montana, facilitates the intellectual and creative pursuits of all members of the University of Montana community and supports their information, education and cultural development as global citizens.

Montana State University
Renne Library P.O. Box 173320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 Telephone: 406-994-3119 Fax: 406-994-2851 Website 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 FamilySearch Library has copies of most of these inventories.

Montana Online Records
Montana Online Genealogy Records

Websites
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. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:


 * USGenWeb Website
 * 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 Website)


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


 * FamilySearch™ Website


 * 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.