Montana Biography

Online Resources
Biographies provide useful genealogical information such as a person’s birth date and place; names of family members, including maiden names; education; occupation; and social, political, and religious affiliation. They may also contain a physical description of the person, previous residences, and immigration information. Biographies are the product of family knowledge or previous research about early settlers and prominent citizens of a state, county, or town. Local histories may contain biographical sketches of lesser-known people.
 * 1899 Index for the 1899 "Society of Montana Pioneers" Volume 1
 * County and Town Histories, includes biographies
 * Montana, History and Biography($), index
 * Montana, its story and biography : a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood($), index
 * Montana: the land and the people($), index
 * County Histories of Montana.
 * Online Books - Montana
 * The Montana blue book, e-book

Biographies in Local Histories

 * Biographical information is often found in state, county, and town histories.
 * Towards the end of the 19th century, began publishers soliciting short biographical/family histories from local founding families, offering to publish them in an upcoming local history. This then became an incentive for family members to buy a copy of the book.
 * Families represented were not necessarily prominent. Practically everyone living there, especially in the Midwest, counted as an early settler.
 * These biographies often start with the first member of the family to settle in the area, and detail their descendants at the time of publishing. They may tell where the family moved in from. Children's marriages often are given, with maiden names included.

Finding Biographies
The Montana Historical Society has an extensive collection of biographical materials. There is no statewide biographical index or major manuscript collection. You may find information in the biographical sections of state, regional, and county histories.
 * The county Wiki page lists several county histories. It also lists local libraries, and societies which probably have copies of local histories.
 * Many histories are no longer under copyright and can be found in the following online, digitized book collections. Search with keywords "History" and "the name of your locality" (state, county, or town).
 * FamilySearch Books
 * Google Books
 * World Cat
 * HathiTrust
 * Internet Archive
 * The FamilySearch library has extensive collections of these local histories. Many are digitized. Search the FamilySearch Catalog under your locality for the topics "Biography" and "History".

Biographical Encyclopedias
Representative biographical encyclopedias for Montana are:


 * Progressive Men of the State of Montana. Chicago, Illinois: A. W. Bowen and Company, 1901. . Digtial version at: Internet Archive


 * Stout, Tom. Montana, Its Story and Biography. . . . Three Volumes. Chicago, Illinois: American Historical Society, 1921. . An every-name index is available on . Digital version at Internet Archive: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2), (Vol. 3)


 * Note: Volumes 2 and 3 contain biographical sketches.


 * Sanders, James U. Society of Montana Pioneers: Constitution, Members and Officers, with Portraits and Maps. Volume 1. Akron, Ohio: Society of Montana Pioneers, 1899. . Digital version at: Ancestry ($).


 * Note: Contains brief biographies of settlers who arrived in Montana before the territory was established in 1864.