Montana Archives, Societies & Publications

It is a good idea to familiarize personally with just about any repository in Montana that you simply might travel to by communicating with to the best suited archive or library in advance.

Most, if not all, Montana repositories have written and published content that present its collections as well as research policy.

Montana archives and historical organizations usually have On-line sites that provide equivalent details. Several also contain down loadable data for some or parts of their collections.

List of Montana Archives

List of Montana Libraries & Museums

List of Montana Historical & Genealogical Societies

For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both.

In addition to their own work, Montana groups many times help coordinate the efforts of local societies throughout the Montana.

Their unique publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those created through the area societies.

Regional and State Societies

  • Montana Historical Society, 225 N. Roberts, P.O. Box 201201; Helena, MT 59601-1201; The Montana Historical Society has served as the official archives for the records of the state of Montana since 1969. In that capacity, it has obtained state and territorial records from 1864 to the present. Box and folder-level inventories are available for processed manuscripts and state records through a keyword searchable database.
  • Montana State Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 555, Chester, MT 59522; The society’s website also has valuable links to local societies statewide.
  • Central Montana Genealogy Society, 701 W. Main Lewistown, Montana 59457-2501; (406) 538-5212

County, Township and City Societies

Religious and Ethnic Societies

Montana Newspapers & Publications

Montana Genealogical publications (magazines, newsletters, periodicals, books, etc.) contain all types of invaluable information about specific ancestors, whole lineages and families, places in time, and about all sorts of genealogical records and repositories.

The largest collection of Montana newspapers is located at the Montana Historical Society.

A Union List of Montana Newspapers in Montana Repositories includes guides to that collection, as well as other collections of newspapers in libraries across Montana.

The University of Montana and Montana State University each have large microfilmed newspaper collections. The Montana GenWeb Project website also has a list of newspapers.

An in-depth index of Montana newspaper obituaries from the years of 1864 to 1900 can be found at the Montana Historical Society.

There is no such complete index available for years after 1900.

Newspapers

Periodicals

Genealogical journals provide you with plenty of sources of information and facts, they are generally overlooked by genealogy and family history researchers and genealogist in looking around for family history.

Many regional and county genealogical and/or historical societies produce periodicals which have records relating to the region or vicinity they operate.

Frequently these publications have articles involving records that are not obtainable somewhere else.

  • Montana: The Magazine of Western History is published quarterly by the Montana Historical Society. Available through the society are two published volumes of indexes to their magazine, one covering 1951 to 1990 and the other 1991 to 2000.
  • The Montana Historical and Genealogical Data Index, compiled by Paulette Parpart and Donald Spritzer. An excellent source for information on newspapers, city and county records, cemetery records, church records, military records, and indexes to local histories and other books, magazines, and newsletters.
  • Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana with its Transactions, published irregularly between 1876 and 1940. Copies are available at the Montana Historical Society. It is an excellent source of history and genealogy.

Books