Recent memorial gifts have been received in memory of Edna Kvien, Oline Erickson, and Harriet L. Olson. The Roseau County Historical Society is very appreciative of these memorials. Memorials gifts go into the Roseau County Historical Society Endowment fund with the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. One may donate to this fund at any time, not just with memorials. Consider a gift that will be long lasting by giving to our endowment fund.

RCHS Focus of the Week

The Roseau County Historical Society has a wealth of information for anyone doing genealogy. When one has exhausted the research at a county historical society, the next place to go to find information is the internet.

Many of you have found the internet to be a wonderful source for doing genealogical research.  To assist you in your home research we would like to introduce you a few of the websites we find helpful or just appealing. To find these websites without having to key in the long addresses, visit our website’ click on “Links” or go to our website at http://www.roseaucohistoricalsociety.org/Links.html , and click the link.

Many of our patrons are seeking family information within Minnesota or North Dakota but they are not sure which county the person was living in when they passed away. The Minnesota Death Certificate Index located at  http://people.mnhs.org/dci/ and the North Dakota Death Certificate Index found at https://secure.apps.state.nd.us/doh/certificates/deathCertSearch.htm  are both excellent sites for verifying the place and time of death of a former relative within these two states. The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) index contains the death information for those who died during the period from 1905 to 1996. The North Dakota death index records an online search from 1900 to the present. Although, one can purchase a copy of the death certificate through these sites, the Roseau County Historical Society Research Center has copies of many Roseau County death certificates. These may be purchased at the historical society at a fraction of the MNHS cost. These certificates are now in storage but will be available when the new research center is open. We also have copies of some birth certificates also. MNHS also has a birth certificate index website. Periodically one is unable to locate an individual on the MNHS indexes. There may be several reasons. Not all deaths and births were recorded in early 1900s. Or perhaps the individual moved to another state to live with a family member. In that case, if you know the person lived in Roseau County, you may still find information on there through the local newspapers.

Obituaries are a much better source of family information as they list family members, often telling where they live at the time of the family member’s death. The Roseau County Historical Society research center has an index file of births, marriages, and deaths recorded in the local newspapers.

For those of Norwegian heritage, the Norwegian National Archives has collected and created a searchable online database of census, immigration, church, and vital records. One may search the 1801 and 1865 censuses for the entire country. Emigration register are available for the major Norwegian ports. Many county and parish records are also available. These can be found on the DigitalArkivet at http://digitalarkivet.uib.no  from the University of Bergen. Click on English at the bottom of the page.

A very comprehensive Canadian site http://www.telusplanet.net/public/mtoll/  (a link is also available for this site at our website). The site titled Mary’s Genealogy Treasures links to several countries, including Canada and the United States. One will find censuses, passenger lists, pioneer histories, plus much more.

Although these website are a wonderful tool, the County Historical Societies are the first place to approach when doing research, if you know where the family lived. A county historical society can often supply obituaries, family histories, photographs, and often, a personal contact to a living relative.