The Traveling Genealogist

Colorado State Archives - Denver, Colorado

Colorado State Archives

1313 Sherman Street

Room 1B-20

Denver CO 80203

(303)866-2358

A trip to the Colorado State Archives is recommended if you are coming to Denver and researching your ancestors who lived, worked and played in Colorado.

The State Archives is in downtown Denver about a block from the State Capital building. If you are planning a sight seeing trip to the Capital, be sure to check the State Archives to research your ancestors.

The Archives'  holdings...

"consist of the official public records of territorial, state, county, and local governments and such state treasures as the proclamation of Ulysses S. Grant, creating the state of Colorado, and the original state constitution.”

Federal General Population Schedules 1850-1920, the Colorado School censuses and the state census schedule prepared in 1885 are also available. Court records: criminal cases, such civil cases as naturalization, water rights, divorce, and probate. Military service records for Civil, Spanish-American and World wars. Colorado Territory’s First Militia and much more.

 Marriage and divorce indexes spanning the years 1900-1939 and 1975 – to current.

 Early birth and death records are housed in the Archives. Others remain at the county level. The Archives Staff will search records over 100 years old. Requests for more recent records must be made with the Colorado Department of Health

Agricultural records documenting the history of land use in Colorado are in the Archives.

There are no manuscripts, journals, diaries, newspapers.

The staff is quite helpful, especially Paul, whom we visited with about the holdings and procedures at the Archives.

For all you, new to genealogy research (a.k.a “newbies”), there is, at the desk a 3 ring binder, cleverly labeled “The Whadda’ Ya’ Got Guide to the State Archives”.  

 

 

This book contains holdings of the Archives that would be of interest to Genealogists’ family research.

 

 

 

 

Rules are rules and we understand the need to protect old original documents.  They don’t require the use of “white gloves”, but do expect you to respect the fragility of the items you are viewing. No photographing inside the Archives room. There are “free” locker storages right outside the door to the records room…all very convenient.

 The staff is very accommodating and will go to the basement to search for the records you need. “Searching for a needle in a haystack” style of genealogy research probably isn’t the best way to do research in this facility. The more you know about your ancestor and the documents you are looking for will give you more results in the end.

A big surprise had to do with the number of items you can request to view at one time.  The Colorado State Archives allows TEN… that’s right! No kidding!  The staff will bring up 10 documents/items at a single request for you to review.  If you would like to look at several marriage records to compare dates, names, etc. you can do that.  No waiting an hour between request times for each document retrieved. So have your names, dates and record requests in mind before you go.

 To the left of the door, there are 2 pamphlets that give information on Researching The State Archives. Be sure to take a look at these. There are charges for making copies of documents and such. This is posted near the front desk on the wall to the right.

Here is a link to the RTD website (bus service)RTD - Denverwhich is probably a good way to get to the Colorado State Archives. However, there is street parking with meters that take credit cards. There are also two pay parking lots a block or two away.

Much of their holdings are on microfilm. There are not many readers, but enough to serve the purpose without a long wait. As I said,  the staff is very good and well  informed.  P aul, whom I spoke with was very helpful, congenial and unhurried. I think anyone researching in this facility will have a good experience.

Do take a look at the Colorado State Archives website. They have a number of databases online for you to search. 

The Traveling Genealogist^TM

If you would like to share your genealogical research travel tips with other researchers and help them get a leg up on their trip, please email me at psb43@earthlink.net.  As we all know, "Time is of the essence" when researching away from home.  You  just know that "brick wall" could be knocked down if you only had  one more day.

Massachusetts State Archives

Here is the web address for the Massachusetts State Archives

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/  (just copy and paste in your browser)

Check it out now if you have ancestors that were there.

On-line databases:

Massachusetts Archives Collection (1629-1799)

Passenger Manifest

Vital Records

Not All State Archives are Created Equal

State Archives can be a wealth of resources for the genealogist. Making a State Archive a destination point in your genealogy traveling plans can yield information regarding your ancestor that you had never thought existed. If you happen to have an enthusiastic Archivist to help you, then you have reached the gold standard.

If you are researching online, many of the State Archives websites have digitized documents, indexed information and have databases to search. I did contact the Arizona State Archives and discovered Ancestry.com is digitizing their records and according to the Archivist, those records will not be online to search from your home computer for 5 years, but you would be able to search by purchasing Ancestry's subscription or from a facility that has a Library Edition of Ancestry. That is too bad, I believe. If this will be the case for ALL of the State Archives I don't know. My advice is that you find the State Archives website of your state of interest and check it out. Some states don't have much. Others have a wealth of information. One word of caution: there is a website that comes up when you Google State Archives and it leads you to another subscription portal.

Missouri State Archives has a great deal of information on their site. You can check it out by going to

http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/resources.asp

Census schedules for Missouri from 1830-1930

County and Municipal Records

Judicial Records

Land Records

Legislative Records

Manuscripts

Military Records of Missourians from the War of 1812 through World War 1, including more than 9 million pages related to the Civil War

Missouri's history under French & Spanish colonial rule, as a U.S. territory, and during early statehood

Penitentiary Records

Photographs and Digital Collections

Resources for Family & Community History

State agency records

State government publications

Many of these are searchable databases.

From time to time, I will post State Archives websites that I have visited and checked out.

If you take a trip to one of these State Archives, we at The Traveling Genealogist would love for you to submit your research experience.

Maryland Genealogy - Maryland State Archives

Maryland State Archives

Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse

State Archives Building

350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, MD 21401

Guest Submitter: Garth Coombs

The Public search room is open Tuesday through Friday and most Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Archives is closed on Sundays, Monday, the First Saturday of every month, and Saturdays of holiday weekends.  

Records are pulled every half hour starting at 8:45 with the last pull of the day at 3:45. On Saturdays, due to limited staffing, the search room and microfilm  rooms remain open to the public between 11:30 and 1:30, but record pulls are not performed at 11:45, 12:15, 12:45 and 1:15.   

The Maryland State Archives is not an easy place to use. Except for card files and computers, all records, books, etc. must be requested through the Archivist’s desk and are delivered one at a time by searchers who bring books to your desk on the half hour.  Therefore 3 books took hours to get.  You can use a digital camera, but may not take a camera bag into the library. 

I wanted 3 books from the St. John’s College collection and had to get the St. John’s Librarian’s permission to view the books. All-in-all a slow process for researching.

Genealogy Research In Delaware

Delaware Public Archives

121 Duke of York Street

Dover DE

Mabel Lloyd Ridgely Research Room

 

Guest Submitter: Garth Coombs

 August, 2010 – The Archives is a little hard to find. It is located at the end of Court Street, next to the Legislature Building.  You must fill out a form to get into the Research Room and sign in once you are in.  They do not allow pens… pencils only.

 

The Archives holds a great collection of Delaware state records.  By their statement, it has more records than the Wilmington Historical Society, which was my original destination.

 

There is a card file of everybody.  Separate notebooks with orphans court records, land records, probate records, marriage, death, birth, cemeteries, insurance files.  All supported by microfilms.  More importantly, the Archivists are extremely helpful.  They gave us a complete tour of the facility and made excellent suggestions on looking at probate, and insurance records.

 

Based on the Archivist’s suggestion we found the 1855 will and probate record of my great, great grandfather.  Upon reading the will I found his two children by a first marriage, along with his daughters’ husband’s name.  I had found no record of them anywhere else. 

 

Also based on her suggestion, we found his home insurance record which gave a complete house description, including dimensions, attached kitchen, smoke house, crib, granary, stable, carriage house, pump, ash house, cart house, plus names of adjoining houses and factory.

All in all, if you have anyone in Delaware, it is a good place to visit.