Wisconsin Historical Society

The WI Historical Society is my favorite Midwestern research facility! (I should add the note though, that I have yet to visit Fort Wayne for research and that could become my future favorite from what I have heard and read, but obviously, the traveling distance there is greater than Madison from Minneapolis.) Located at 816 State Street on the campus, there is no parking, so one must park and walk to the facility.

Key genealogical holdings are: birth, marriage and death records on microfilm pre-1907 for the state which have been indexed, three million items in open stacks of which about one-fifth are focused on family or local history, all U.S. censuses from 1790- 1920 with indexes, as well as Canadian censuses from 1666-1881, WI state censuses, passenger lists on microfilm, Wisconsin biographical indexes and microfilmed copies of many national newspapers, including colonial papers. It is easy to spend the day there and want to go stay past closing time! Copiers are readily available, which is alwaya helpful. I'm also happy to report that Jim Hansen, the Genealogy Reference Librarian still works there and he is WONDERFUL! The "Genealogy Tools" webpage at : http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/genealogy/