On the Trail of Territorial Records

The early U.S. Territorial Period was 1821-1845, but the eventual Territorial Period lasted until 1912, when Arizona and New Mexico were admitted as states.

Where can you find territorial records?

I would suggest searching the online catalogs for these types of repositories, using the search term “territorial papers.”

  1. State archives and libraries 
  2. National Archives Regional Branches
  3. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  Do a “keyword” search for “territorial papers” in the FamilySearch online catalog.
  4. State level genealogical and historical societies
  5. University Special Collections in the state you are researching
  6. Territorial records can also be found on the county level sometimes

Here is a quick guide and links to the territorial papers available at the Family History Library:

  • State Department territorial papers, Arizona, 1864-1872, FHL film 1580035
  • State Department territorial papers: Colorado series, FHL film 1464017
  • Territorial papers, Idaho, 1863-1872 FHL film 1580038
  • Territorial papers of Montana, 1864-1872, FHL films 1602228 -9
  • State department territorial papers, Nevada, 1861-1864 FHL film 1491200
  • State department territorial papers: New Mexico, 1851-1972, FHL films 1580030-33
  • State Department territorial papers, Utah series, FHL film 491567
  • Interior Department territorial papers, Utah, 1850-1902, FHL films 1602234 -9
  • Territorial papers of Wyoming, 1868-1873, FHL film 1602230

Here are some published finding aids for territorial records:

Kvasnicka, Robert M. The Trans-Mississippi West, 1804-1912: A Guide to Federal Records for the Territorial Period, pts. I-IV (Washington, District of Columbia : National Archives and Records Administration, c1993-1996).

Chiorazzi, Michael.  Pre-Statehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, including New York City and the District of Columbia,  2 volumes (New York : The Haworth Information Press, 2005).

Some other good resources are:

United States, The public statutes at large of the United States of America / by authority of Congress (Boston : Little, Brown, n.d.)

United States. Congress. House and Senate Documents and Reports, United States Congressional Serial Set  (Washington : U.S. G.P.O., n.d.).

United States. Congress, American State Papers, 38 vol (Buffalo, N. Y. : W.S. Hein, 1998)

How I digitized my research and gave it all to you

Free yourself from the shackles of your file cabinet! Be gone, piles of paper!

Dayna Jacobs - "On Granny's Trail"'s avatarOn Granny's Trail

Last week I reached a milestone.  For the past year I have been scanning 27 years worth of research, which amounted to 4 gigantic/stuffed drawers in a file cabinet.  Last week I scanned my last file folder. *happy dance*  In this post I’d like to share my reasons, method and tools. I also have a class handout posted you are welcome to print out.

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Historical Map Archive: How come I didn’t know about you sooner??

Check out this amazing map resource…

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How come I didn’t know about the Historical Map Archive sooner? It is a collection of online maps from various Alabama repositories which is simple to use, and has a wide variety of historical maps for the whole world. It is found at the University of Alabama website at http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/.

Maybe word got around about the awesome University of Texas map site and a rivalry was born. You know there is more to these Southern rivalries than football.

I was interested to see what it offered in the Western States region, and was happy to see it is possible to search by individual state or individual region.  

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Friday Finds: NEHGR, NYGBR and other journals online

Learn to use Google Books to find the NEHGR and NYGBR genealogy journals online, as well as using Internet Archive and Family Tree Podcasts as resources.

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Google books

So I was listening to the January podcast from Family Tree Magazine on a recent roadtrip, and was interested to hear that Google Books has digitized the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (published since 1847),

NEHGR

and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (published quarterly since 1870).

NYGBR

Cool!  These are both genealogical journals that could help you once you follow your granny’s trail back in time, before she moved out west.  There are probably other journals of interest to you in your research that have been digitized, especially if they are out of copyright.  This includes publication before 1923.

By the way, Family Tree Magazine website has a lot of free resources, even if you don’t have a subscription to their magazine.  The podcasts are one of them.  I always learn something new when I listen to them, and it’s a good use of time when I in the…

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Google Earth and time travel

Here is a way to view historical county boundaries in Google Earth…

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Pick a date.  Now pick a state. Pick a date and a state and I will show you the state and county boundaries on that exact date using Google Earth.   I know you’ve heard of Google Earth and have probably used it.  You may have heard of the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (AHCB) and, if so, have probably used it.  Have you used them both TOGETHER?  Until today I didn’t know it was possible.  Very cool!

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