Minnesota City and Township Birth Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
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.”

Record Content
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 to Use the Record
To begin your search, it is helpful to know the following:


 * Name of the child
 * Approximate birth date
 * Parents' names
 * Birth place

Search the Collection
To search the collection: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "County" ⇒Select the appropriate "Record Type, Date Range and Volume" which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

Using the Information
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. For example:


 * 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.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * 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.
 * The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

For a summary of this information see the wiki article: United States, How to Use the Records Summary (FamilySearch Historical Records).

Related Websites

 * Minnesota Vital Records Indexes &amp; People Finding Aids
 * Minnesota Department of Health

Related Wiki Articles

 * Minnesota County Births (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Minnesota Births and Christenings (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Minnesota Vital Records

Citations for This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation