Colorado Archives and Libraries

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

Colorado Division of State Archives and Public Records 1313 Sherman Street Floor 1B, Room 20 Denver, CO 80203 Telephone: 303-866-2358 or 303-866-2390 Fax: 303-866-2257 http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/

National Archives and Records Administration—Rocky Mountain Region (Denver) Denver Federal Center Building 48 P.O. Box 25307 Denver, CO 80225-0307 Telephone: 303-407-5740 Fax: 303-236-9354 http://www.archives.gov/rocky-mountain/

Colorado Genealogical Society P.O. Box 9218 Denver, CO 80209-0218 Telephone: 303-571-1535 [mailto:info@cogensoc.us info@cogensoc.us] http://www.rootsweb.com/~cocgs/

Colorado Historical Society Colorado Heritage Center 1300 Broadway Denver, CO 80203 Telephone: 303-866-3682 Fax: 303-866-4464 http://www.coloradohistory.org/

Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Department 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway Denver, CO 80204 Telephone: 720-865-1111 http://www.denverlibrary.org/

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of Colorado counties, use the 16 inventories of county archives published by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. Copies of these inventories are at the Family History Library, and most are on microfilm.

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:

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 Colorado 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 2007, the following sites are important gateways linking you to many more network and bulletin board sites:

The USGenWeb Project
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, 2nd ed., "Archives and Libraries" section.

FamilySearch™
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.