South Dakota, School Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States South Dakota

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of school records located at the South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre, for the years 1879 to 1970. The records include:


 * Teacher's term reports
 * School census
 * Attendance

The records are generally arranged by county, year, and school district number. This collection is being published as images become available.

The listing of school-aged children is a common practice throughout the United States. The records are usually compiled on a yearly basis. School records helped local governments determine funding needs for individual schools. The information is usually reliable although the ages are sometimes off by a year and legal guardians may be confused with parents.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
School Census Records may include any of the following information:


 * Name of town and county
 * School District Number
 * Names of pupils
 * Ages of pupils
 * Gender of pupils
 * Beginning and ending dates of grading period
 * Beginning and ending dates for school year

How Do I Search the Collection?
School records can be very helpful as they can often be used as a reliable substitute for birth records or they can lead you to birth records. To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the child.
 * The approximate age or birth date of the child.
 * The years the child attended school.
 * The place where the child attended school
 * The names of the child's parents.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in your ancestor’s name in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about those in the list to what you already know about your own ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person.

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.

With either search 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.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor in the school records, 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 ancestor.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the age or birth date along with the parents’ names and residence to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * 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 the 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 other relatives such as cousins who attended the same school or other nearby schools.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after 1885.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the surnames. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for an index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby districts.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 * A boundary change could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring locality.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation: Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image citation: