Utah Archives, Societies & Publications

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

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

Utah 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.

Table of Contents hide
List of Utah Archives
List of Utah Libraries & Museums
List of Utah Historical & Genealogical Societies
Regional and State Societies
County, Township and City Societies
Religious and Ethnic Societies
Utah Newspapers & Publications
Newspapers
Periodicals
Books

List of Utah Archives

  • National Archives-Rocky Mountain Region, Denver Federal Center, Building 48, West 6th Avenue and Kipling Street, Denver, Colorado 80225-0307. States covered are Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming; Mailing Address: P.O. Box 25307, Denver, Colorado 80225-0307; Tel: 303-236-0817, E-mail: denver.archives@nara.gov, Fax: 303-236-9297
  • Salt Lake County Archives, 2001 S. State St., Ste. 4400, Salt Lake City, UT 84190-1020; The Salt Lake County Archives was established in 1986 as a unit of the Records Management and Archives program. It preserves the historical records of Salt Lake County, provides access to researchers, and ensures that historical evidence and governmental accountability is maintained. Significant holdings include Property Appraisal Cards (1936–87) and Photographs of Historic Buildings of Salt Lake City (1936–75).
  • Southern Utah University, Sherratt Library–Special Collections, 351 W. Center St., Cedar City, UT 84720; The Special Collections is a regional history collection of the southwestern Utah area. “SUUper” Search is a full-search tool for information available in manuscript and photographic collections. Many photographs have also been digitized and are available online.
  • Utah State Archives and Records Service, 346 South Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, UT 84101; Mailing Address: P.O. Box 141021, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-1021; The Utah State Archives permanently preserves and provides access to the records of enduring value created by Utah state, county, and municipal governments. Public records and documents may be used at the Research Room. Various finding aids including online research guides, catalogs, inventories, and indexes assist researchers. There is no fee for reference service; however, photocopying and mailing costs are charged. In 1999, the state archives initiated a cooperative ongoing program to microfilm historical records in Utah’s cities and towns, school districts, and selected county and court records. This microfilm is available at the Utah State Archives and designated regional centers (Utah State University and Southern Utah University). New rolls of microfilm are added weekly. The state archives and state historical society will share a reading room after December 2004.
    • Utah, State Archives Records, 1848-2001 (familysearch.org) Images of various record types held by the Utah State Archives. Record types include civil and criminal case files, divorce records, probate case files and naturalization records for Beaver, Box Elder, Carbon, Davis, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Piute, Salt Lake, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Wasatch, and Weber counties. Coverage of record type and date range varies by county. This collection will also include cemetery records for Beaver, Charleston, Fillmore, Garland, Glenwood, Grantsville, Hyrum, Junction, Kaysville, Marysville, Midvale, Murray, Paragonah, Salt Lake City, Scipio, and Spring City. This collection is being published as images become available.
  • University of Utah, Special Collections, Marriott Library, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; The Special Collections acquires and makes available books, periodicals, oral histories, photographs, films, and original materials documenting Utah history, Mormon history, Native Americans, and the West. Its holdings are listed on the library’s online catalog at <www.lib.utah.edu/information/unis>. Significant collections include the records of local churches (e.g., Episcopal Church Archives) and Sanborn maps. These largescale maps (1867–1969) were created for fire insurance agents and depict the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of various Utah (and other western states) cities. The Sanborn Digitization Project makes some of these maps available online at <www.lib.utah.edu/digital/Sanborn/browse.html>.
  • Utah State University, Special Collections and Archives, Merrill Library, Logan, UT 84322; The Special Collections focuses on Mormon history and the Cache Valley (Utah-Idaho) region. Two notable collections include the extensive Leonard J. Arrington Collection and the Cache County Archives (1860–1939). Cache County records include probate court and property tax records. Many of these records have been microfilmed and are also available at the Utah State Archives. The Special Collections website contains a guide for genealogists and family historians.
  • LDS Church Historical Department, Church Office Building, 50 E. North Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150; In addition to the Church’s library, there is a large church archives department containing many records not at the FHL. Among them are diaries of early Utah settlers and an extensive collection of official church records. For a clear discussion of the department’s holdings, see Glenn N. Rowe, “The Historical Department and the LDS Church,” in David J. Whittaker, Mormon Americana: A Guide to Sources and Collections in the United States (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 1995).

List of Utah Libraries & Museums

  • The Church History Museum 50 E North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah – (801) 240-2729
  • Family History Library, Genealogical Society of Utah, 35 N. West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150; Every researcher should know of the Family History Library (FHL), operated under the auspices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and situated in Salt Lake City. The collection, owned and maintained by the Genealogical Society of Utah, is of unparalleled importance in the field of family history and is one of the foremost accumulations of records, books, microfilm, microfiche, maps, manuscript, biographies, etc., in the world. For anyone doing genealogical research, a trip to Salt Lake City can be extremely productive since so much is available in one place. If this is not feasible, there are numerous Family History Centers operated by local LDS branch libraries in towns
    and cities all over the world.
  • Public Pioneer—Utah State Library, 250 N. 1950 W., Ste A, Salt Lake City, UT 84116-7901; Public Pioneer is a virtual library created by the Utah State Library Division in cooperation with Utah’s libraries. It is one component of the statewide Pioneer Project, which serves Utah’s public schools and academic institutions, as well as patrons of public libraries. Public Pioneer offers a portal to carefully selected Internet sites and creates an information center for Utah researchers.
  • Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library, Provo, UT 84601; The university’s Special Collections houses rare and unique publications, manuscripts, and archival materials emphasizing Mormon and Western Americana. Its holdings are listed on the library’s online catalog.“Trail of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846–1869” is a significant digital collection of the original writings of forty-nine voyagers on Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote during their travels <http://overlandtrails.lib.byu.edu/>.

List of Utah 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, Utah groups many times help coordinate the efforts of local societies throughout the Utah.

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

Regional and State Societies

County, Township and City Societies

Religious and Ethnic Societies

Utah Newspapers & Publications

Utah 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.

Newspapers

The Deseret News was the first newspaper to be published in Utah. Its first issue came out in 1850 in Salt Lake City. Some other newspapers that came out in the 1800s were: Ogden Standard-Examiner, Odgen, 1870;
The Daily Herald, Provo, 1873;
The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, 1875;
The Washington County News, St. George, 1896;
Intermountain Catholic, 1899.

Many obscure newspaper records can be found on microfilm in the library of the university. The Public Pioneer is an excellent resource for newspaper indexes online.

There are many newspaper clippings on file at the Salt Lake City Public Library, as well as the Utah Historical Society. However, the “Journal History” at the LDS Church Historical Department is definitely the most extensive collection. It contains a chronology from 1830 onward and there is an extensive index of every article that it contains.

There are more than 100,000 pages of newspapers that have been computerized as part of a Utah program. That program is called “Utah Digital Newspapers: A Utah Academic Consortium Project.”

The FHL has microfilmed an obituary card index covering 12 newspapers from the Salt Lake City area. That information covers newspapers from 1850 through 1971.

  • Utah Newspapers Directory Listings (onlinenewspapers.com)
  • Historical Newspapers from Utah (1851–1922) (genealogybank.com) Quickly find names and keywords in over 450 million articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items published in over 2,800 historical U.S. newspapers. New content added monthly!
  • Utah Newspapers (newspaperarchives.com) Research Your Family Tree & Genealogy with over 5,000+ Titles, over 400 Years of news articles in all 50 States!
  • Daughters of Utah Pioneers Obituary Scrapbook  (search.ancestry.com) This database, extracted from newspaper clippings faithfully extracted from Utah publications by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, lists vital events from 1933 to 1939. Hundreds of individuals and their families are listed in connection with obituaries, marriage notices, etc.
  • Utah Newspaper List (usnpl.com)

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.

  • Utah Historical Quarterly – Utah Historical Society. Providing
    good historical context of Utah research, the publicationalso evaluates source material for genealogical and local
    history research. The society’s The Utah History Suite
    Edition 3 (1999), CD-ROM by Historical Views contains
    most issues of the Quarterly, plus all 29 centennial county
    histories.
  • Genealogical Journal – Utah Genealogical Association. Not
    restricted to articles on Utah genealogy, the publicationis of national interest including methodology and source
    material from all over the world.
  • Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine – Genealogical Society
    of Utah. Published between 1910 and 1940, its articles were
    not limited to Utah or Mormon genealogy.

Books