Montana map

Your Guide to Researching
Montana Ancestors

 

 
* General Guides * Maps * Statewide Genealogy Websites *
* Societies, Libraries and Archives +
* Finding and Using Records * Queries & Help * More Links *

General Guides to Montana Research

Books you might purchase or use in a library include:

Atlases, Maps & Gazateers

For more information on finding and using maps,
see Your Guide to Atlases, Maps and Gazateers.

  • Bookmark or print out this county map of Montana
  • Good state maps are available in the Handybook or Redbook mentioned above. The Redbook Montana map is also available online.
  • A Montana county outline map (.pdf) may be useful, especially if you want to annotate the map.
  • 1895 Atlas - Montana has a state map, map for each hcounty and index of towns and cities.
  • This map shows some of the larger cities and towns in Montana.
  • Atlas of Historical County Bondaries: Montana
  • Perry Costenada maps for Montana
  • U Alabama website of Historical Maps for Montana

Statewide Genealogy Websites

Next, see what is available for your counties of interest at at one of these statewide sites. For each, use the county selection list to find out what is available for the various counties. Content will vary, but in usually you wil find the GenWeb site to be the most robust. All are volunteer driven sites; all data free, but as time goes by, the upkeep of many of these sites seems to be falling by the wayside.

Societies, Libraries and Archives

For more information on using libraries and archives,
see the genealogy guides on this site to Libraries and Archives

Finding and Using Records: cemetery, census, church, city directories, countyl histories, court & legal, military, land and property, naturalizations, newspapers, probate, vital.

Use the catalog at the place name box in the Family History Library catalog to find out what has been filmed covering the state of Montana, the counties of Montana and the cities, villages or townships within the counties.

  • As you type MONTANA in the place box, you will see an alphabetical listing of counties in the dropdown;
    • once in a county, you can click in the place box on the left to see an alphabetical list of the towns, cities and villages within that county.
    • You will only see localities for which material has been filmed.
  • An item will likely be in one of the three, perhaps two of the three and almost never in all three of these searchs --you need to check each.

Cemetery: For general informaton, see Guide to Cemetery Records, this website

  • Overviews
  • Search transcriptions at these online sites.
    • Search Montana cemetery records at Find-A-Grave -- it is not complete, but what is there may include a digital image of the tombstone and other family information
    • Cemetery Junction: search or browse to find cemeteries in Montana, with links to some that have been transcribed online
    • Interment.net: to search some Montana online cemetery transcriptions.
    • Cemetery Lookup forum -- there are a few Montana volunteers
    • U.S. Gen Web Tombstone Transcription Project for Montana

Census: For general inforamtion, see guide to census records, this website.

Church: For general information, see guide to church records, this website.

City and County Directories: For general information, see guide to city and county directories, this website.

  • Check the Montana City Directories site to see if one exists for a city you are interested in -- but don't rely on this. It is neither a comprehensive list of what exists nor a complete record of where it is held.

County and Local Histories: For general informaton, see guide to county histories, this website

Court & Legal; For general information, see guide to law libraries, this website

Land & Property: For general information, see guide to land records, this website.

Military; For general inforamtion, see guide to military records, this website

Naturalizations; For general informaton, see guide to naturalizations, this website

Newspapers: For general information, see guide to newspapers, this website+

  • The Montana Historical Society has a large collection of microfilmed newspapers, which are available on interlibrary loan.
  • Montana Obituary Lookup
  • Chronicling America list of newspapers published in Montana -- click a title to get more information

Probate: For general inforamtion, see guide to probate records, this website

Probate records 1864-1889 are in the county probate courts; subsequently in the district courts.

Tax Records

Vital: For general inforamtion, see guide to vital records, this website.

Queries & Help

More Links

 

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This page last updated June 13, 2011