Idaho Genealogy

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Idaho Genealogy Research Guide

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Idaho Genealogy Research Guide

Quick Facts

Idaho was among the last of the western territories to be organized, and its records reflect a young, federally settled state. Carved from a succession of vast territories and opened largely through mining rushes and federal homestead land, it keeps most of its genealogical records at the county level, while its statewide vital registration begins only in the twentieth century. Knowing which county held jurisdiction — and when that county was created from its parent — is the key to tracing an Idaho family.

• Capital: Boise. The territorial capital was first at Lewiston and moved to Boise in 1865.
• Statehood: July 3, 1890, the forty-third state, formed from Idaho Territory, which had been organized in 1863.
• Counties: 44. The first, Owyhee County, was created on December 31, 1863; the last, Caribou County, in 1919, with most of the state's counties formed between 1911 and 1919.
• Land type: Idaho is a federal (public-domain) land state, not a state-land state. Original title passed from the United States through the General Land Office, so the earliest land records are federal homestead, cash-sale, and desert-land entries and patents; later transfers between individuals are recorded as deeds at the county level.
• Nickname and motto: the Gem State; the state motto is Esto Perpetua ("Let it be perpetual").
• Where records live: most genealogical records — deeds, probate, court, and naturalization — are kept at the county level, and Idaho has no separate-city vital-records system: births and deaths were centralized at the state from 1911, and marriages and divorces from 1947.

Libraries and Archives

Idaho's principal collections cluster in Boise, where the state archives and historical society hold state-government records, while county courthouses, public libraries, and local historical societies hold material for their own areas; a handful of specialty repositories serve the state's Basque, Native American, and Latter-day Saint communities. The leading Idaho repositories include:

• Idaho State Archives (Idaho State Historical Society) (Boise) — state-government records, including naturalization, probate, and court microfilm; adjutant-general military records; the penitentiary inmate catalog; non-population census schedules; a reconstructed 1890 census; Episcopal and Catholic record indexes; and the Idaho Biographical Index.
• Idaho State Library (Idaho Commission for Libraries) — statewide library services, published genealogies, and local histories.
• Idaho Genealogical Society — the statewide society, publisher of a quarterly journal, offering pioneer and early-settler lineage certificates.
• Boise Public Library — local histories, city directories, and newspapers for the capital region.
• National Archives at Seattle — the branch holding Idaho's federal court, land-office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Chinese Exclusion, and War Relocation Authority records.
• Basque Museum & Cultural Center (Boise) — the only Basque museum in the United States, with a genealogy service, the Eiguren library, and oral-history collections documenting Idaho's large Basque community.
• University of Idaho Library Special Collections (Moscow), together with the special collections at Boise State University and Idaho State University — manuscripts, photographs, and regional collections, including materials on the Minidoka incarceration site.
• BYU-Idaho Special Collections and Family History (Rexburg) — Upper Snake River Valley histories and the free Western States Marriage Index.
• The FamilySearch Library and its worldwide FamilySearch Centers hold extensive Idaho microfilm and digital collections, and county courthouses (County Clerk, County Recorder, and the district and probate courts) and county historical societies hold records for their own areas.

Major Websites

These sites host digitized Idaho records and indexes. Subscription sites are marked ($).

• FamilySearch — free; the backbone finding aid, with the FamilySearch Wiki, catalog, and large digitized collections of Idaho vital, land, probate, court, and church records.
• Ancestry ($) — extensive Idaho vital, census, naturalization, military, land, and probate collections.
• MyHeritage ($) — Idaho vital records, censuses, and immigration collections.
• Findmypast ($) — Idaho marriage and other collections.
• Idaho State Historical Society Searchable Indexes — free; index databases to naturalizations, the state penitentiary, mothers' and old-age pensions, the reconstructed 1890 census, and more, drawn from the Idaho State Archives.
• Western States Marriage Record Index (BYU-Idaho) — free; the essential index to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Idaho marriages.
• Chronicling America — free; the Library of Congress newspaper archive, including dozens of digitized Idaho titles from the territorial and early statehood eras.
• Internet Archive and HathiTrust — free; digitized Idaho histories, published record abstracts, and territorial and state law books.
• Find a Grave and BillionGraves — free; cemetery listings, photographs, and transcriptions.

Law and Government

Idaho's territorial and state laws help explain the jurisdictions and record-keeping practices that produced genealogical records, and many of the foundational volumes have been digitized and are free to read.

• Laws of the Territory of Idaho (first sessions, 1863–1864) — the organic act, early statutes, and the acts of the first territorial legislatures; free on the Internet Archive.
• The General Laws of the Territory of Idaho (session laws, 1863–1889) are digitized on HathiTrust.
• Additional Idaho session laws, gathered through the Library of Congress Early State Records project, are free on the Internet Archive.
• The General Laws of the State of Idaho (session laws from 1890 onward) and the compiled and revised statutes of the territorial and early state periods are digitized on HathiTrust.
• The Idaho State Constitution of 1889, the compiled laws of the 1870s, and later revised codes are digitized on the Internet Archive and HathiTrust.
• The Idaho State Archives holds the territorial and state legislative records, and the journals of the territorial legislature and early state assembly are digitized on the Internet Archive and HathiTrust.

Vital Records (Birth, Marriage, Death)

Statewide civil registration of births and deaths began in 1911, administered by the state and by local registrars; compliance was uneven at first, so many earlier events were never recorded. A few counties kept birth and death registers for a few years before 1911, and marriages were recorded at the county from the county's creation. Idaho has no separate-city vital-records system; instead, all vital records were gradually centralized at the state level.

Births and deaths from 1911 are held by the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (Idaho Department of Health and Welfare); statewide marriage and divorce records begin in 1947, while earlier marriages are found with the county recorder. Access follows confidentiality rules rather than fixed fees — birth records are restricted for about one hundred years and death, marriage, and divorce records for about fifty years, with earlier access for the person or close relatives. Use these online indexes to identify a record, then order it from the state or the county:

• Idaho Birth Index, 1861–1911 — free on FamilySearch; Idaho births are also searchable on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).
• Idaho, County Birth and Death Records, 1883–1929 — free on FamilySearch; also on Ancestry ($).
• Idaho, Death Certificates, 1911–1937 — free on FamilySearch; the Idaho death index and later death records are on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).
• Western States Marriage Record Index — free at BYU-Idaho; the standard finding aid to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Idaho marriages, also on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).
• Idaho, County Marriages, 1864–1962 — free on FamilySearch; county marriage records are also on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).
• Idaho Marriage Index, 1947–1961 — free on FamilySearch, covering the statewide records that begin in 1947.

History and Timeline of Major Events

Key dates that shaped Idaho's jurisdictions and records:

• 1805 — The Lewis and Clark expedition crosses the future Idaho on its way to the Pacific.
• 1809–1840s — Fur traders and trappers work the region, and the Oregon Trail later carries emigrants through southern Idaho.
• 1836 — Presbyterian missionaries Henry and Eliza Spalding establish a mission among the Nez Perce at Lapwai.
• 1846 — The Oregon Treaty fixes the boundary with British territory at the forty-ninth parallel.
• 1848 and 1853 — The region becomes part of Oregon Territory, and in 1853 the northern panhandle is placed in Washington Territory.
• 1860–1862 — Gold strikes on the Clearwater (1860), the Salmon River, and in the Boise Basin (1862) set off rushes that bring the first large non-Native population.
• March 4, 1863 — Idaho Territory is created, at first stretching over present-day Montana and most of Wyoming, with its capital at Lewiston.
• 1863 — The first and only territorial census is taken.
• 1864 and 1868 — Montana Territory is split off in 1864, and by 1868 the Wyoming country is removed, fixing Idaho's modern boundaries.
• 1865 — The territorial capital moves from Lewiston to Boise.
• 1869 — The Fort Hall Reservation is established for the Shoshone and Bannock.
• 1877–1879 — The Nez Perce War (1877), Bannock War (1878), and Sheepeater War (1879) mark the last major conflicts with Idaho's tribes.
• 1874–1884 — Railroads reach Idaho (the Utah & Northern and the Oregon Short Line), opening the territory to settlement, especially by Latter-day Saint families in the east and south.
• 1880s — Silver and lead discoveries create the Coeur d'Alene mining district in the panhandle.
• July 3, 1890 — Idaho is admitted as the forty-third state.
• 1894 — The Carey Act launches the large private irrigation projects that reclaim much of the arid Snake River Plain.
• 1902–1905 — The federal Reclamation Act (1902) and the completion of Milner Dam (1905) open vast new farmland to homestead and desert-land entry.
• 1911 — Statewide registration of births and deaths begins.
• 1919 — Caribou County, the last of Idaho's 44 counties, is created.
• 1942–1945 — The Minidoka War Relocation Center near Hunt confines thousands of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

Census Records and Substitutes

Federal censuses were taken every ten years, and Idaho appears in them from 1870 through 1950 as a territory and then a state, though the 1890 federal census was almost entirely destroyed nationwide. They are free on FamilySearch and on the National Archives 1950 census site, and are also searchable on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).

Because Idaho was settled late and organized only in 1863, it never took the regular state censuses found in some eastern states; the enumerations that exist are these:

• 1860: before Idaho Territory existed, the panhandle was enumerated with Spokane County, Washington Territory, and a few Bear Lake–area families with Cache County, Utah Territory.
• 1863: the Idaho Territorial Census — the first and only census the territory or state ever took — recording voters, non-voters, women, and children by county and district.
• 1870: the first complete federal enumeration of Idaho, surviving for every county; some Bear Lake and Franklin residents were counted with Cache County, Utah.
• 1870 and 1880 non-population schedules: the agricultural, industrial, mortality, and social-statistics schedules survive, and the Idaho State Archives holds the only original copies and has indexed them.
• 1890: for the destroyed federal census, the Idaho State Historical Society has compiled a reconstructed index drawn from other records of the period, and the surviving Union veterans' schedules cover Idaho; a reconstructed 1890 census is also on MyHeritage ($).

Because Idaho has no colonial-era enumerations, where census coverage is thin the best substitutes are city directories, tax and assessment rolls, voter and poll lists, the Idaho Biographical Index, and the state penitentiary inmate catalog, all of which help place a family in a given town and year.

Church Records

Because civil registration is late, church records are among the most important substitutes for vital records before 1911. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints predominates in eastern and southern Idaho, where Latter-day Saint families settled heavily from the 1860s; the Roman Catholic Church, whose Jesuit missionaries were among the first Europeans in the region, is strong in the north, alongside Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Lutheran congregations.

• Latter-day Saint (LDS) records: baptisms, endowments, and membership records are a major holding of the FamilySearch Library and the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, with Upper Snake River Valley collections at BYU-Idaho; these are indispensable for eastern and southern Idaho families.
• Roman Catholic records: parish and sacramental registers are held by the parishes and the Diocese of Boise; the Sacred Heart (Cataldo) Mission among the Coeur d'Alene, completed in 1853 and the oldest standing building in the state, marks the beginning of Catholic record-keeping in Idaho, and the Idaho State Archives maintains a Catholic records index.
• Episcopal records: the Idaho State Archives holds a significant collection of Episcopal Church registers for the missionary district of Idaho.
• Protestant registers: Methodist, Presbyterian, and other congregational records can be located through the FamilySearch Catalog by county and town.

Court Records

Idaho's courts reach well beyond lawsuits into estates, guardianships, naturalizations, and divorces, and their structure changed at statehood. The main courts a researcher encounters are:

• Territorial district courts, 1863–1890 — courts of general jurisdiction that heard civil, criminal, and naturalization matters across large districts.
• District courts, since statehood — the principal trial courts, organized by judicial district and sitting in each county; the clerk of the district court holds civil case files, divorce decrees, and often naturalizations.
• Probate courts, at the county level — long responsible for probate, guardianships, and the petitions for mothers' and old-age pensions, before probate jurisdiction was absorbed into the district courts.
• Federal court records for Idaho are held by the National Archives at Seattle.

County "miscellaneous records" volumes often gather citizenship papers, estate matters, and other filings together and are a useful substitute where individual case files are lost; many county court records are on FamilySearch microfilm and at the Idaho State Archives.

Ethnic/Minority Records

Idaho's population has been varied since the mining era, and knowing where a group settled points to the records most likely to document a family.

• Indigenous peoples. The Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) of north-central Idaho, the Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai of the panhandle, the Shoshone and Bannock of the Fort Hall Reservation, and the Shoshone-Paiute of Duck Valley are the principal tribes. Bureau of Indian Affairs agency records — census rolls, allotments, annuities, and school records — are held by the National Archives at Seattle, and tribal enrollment offices hold their own records.
• Basque. Idaho has one of the largest Basque populations in the country, concentrated in and around Boise. The Basque Museum & Cultural Center, the only Basque museum in the United States, offers genealogical help and holds library, immigration, and oral-history collections.
• Chinese. Chinese miners and merchants were a very large share of the territory's population in the 1860s and 1870s, especially in the Boise Basin and the northern mining camps; Chinese Exclusion Act case files (from 1882) are held by the National Archives at Seattle.
• Latter-day Saints. The Mormon settlers of eastern and southern Idaho are documented through the FamilySearch Library, the Church History Library, and BYU-Idaho (see Church Records).
• Japanese Americans. The Minidoka War Relocation Center near Hunt confined thousands of Japanese Americans during the Second World War; War Relocation Authority records are held by the National Archives, the final accountability roster and other records are online, and the Densho project documents the community.
• Scandinavian and other European settlers arrived with the Latter-day Saint migration and the reclamation-era farm boom and are best traced through church, naturalization, and land records.

Immigration and Naturalization

Idaho has no seaport, so its immigrants arrived overland — through other American ports and then by rail or wagon, or across the Canadian border to the north. Naturalizations were therefore handled by the courts: before 1906 any court of record, territorial, county, or district, could naturalize, so the records are scattered; after 1906 the process was standardized under federal supervision.

• Idaho, County Naturalizations, 1861–1974 — free on FamilySearch, gathering declarations, petitions, and certificates from the county and district courts.
• The Idaho State Archives holds and indexes original naturalization records for many counties and the territorial and state supreme courts; its searchable index is free.
• Idaho naturalization records are also searchable on Ancestry ($).
• Federal-court naturalizations for Idaho are held by the National Archives at Seattle, and duplicate certificate files created after 1906 can be requested through the federal immigration genealogy program.
• Border crossings from Canada, with records from 1895, are indexed on Ancestry ($) and free on FamilySearch.

Land Records

As a federal (public-domain) land state, Idaho's land was originally owned by the United States and passed to settlers through the General Land Office, so its earliest land records are federal. Original title flowed from the United States by patent — through homestead, cash-sale, desert-land, and timber entries — and later transfers between individuals are recorded as deeds at the county level. This makes federal land records the starting point for Idaho land research.

Where the records are kept.

• Federal patents and surveys: the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records site provides land patents, tract books, and survey plats for Idaho.
• Federal land offices: Idaho's public land was administered from a series of district land offices — Boise (from the late 1860s), Lewiston, Oxford, Blackfoot, Coeur d'Alene, and Hailey — whose tract books and registers document who entered which land.
• Land-entry case files: the application file behind each homestead and other entry, with the settler's proofs and family details, is held by the National Archives; the Idaho files are at Washington and at the National Archives at Seattle.
• County level: subsequent deeds and mortgages are recorded by the County Recorder; many early records are on FamilySearch microfilm and at the Idaho State Archives.

The large grants and reclamation tracts. Much of Idaho was opened through railroad grants and enormous private irrigation projects, and knowing which tract an ancestor's land fell in tells you where the settlement records survive.

• The Northern Pacific Railroad land grant crossed the northern part of the state, and the Oregon Short Line held granted and purchased land across the south; railroad land was sold to settlers on company terms rather than homesteaded.
• The Carey Act of 1894 made Idaho the leading desert-reclamation state in the nation, with private companies building irrigation works and selling the newly watered land in tracts. The flagship project was the Twin Falls tract on the south side of the Snake River, watered by Milner Dam (completed 1905) and developed by the Twin Falls Land and Water Company under I. B. Perrine with backers Frank Buhl and Peter Kimberly; the first Carey Act lands were distributed at Shoshone in 1903.
• The federal Reclamation Act of 1902 added the Minidoka Project and other government irrigation works, opening further land to entry, and Desert Land Act claims were filed across the Snake River Plain.

Online, the General Land Office Records site is the entry point for federal patents, and FamilySearch Full-Text Search makes many unindexed county deeds, patents, and related records searchable by every name they contain, including grantors, grantees, and witnesses; homestead records are also indexed on Ancestry ($).

Military Records

Idaho became a territory only in 1863, so it has no colonial, Revolutionary, War of 1812, or Civil War service of its own — though many Civil War veterans later settled here — and its military records begin with the frontier conflicts and the wars of the twentieth century. The Idaho State Archives holds the adjutant-general's records that document Idaho service.

• Frontier conflicts: the Nez Perce War (1877), Bannock War (1878), and Sheepeater War (1879) are documented in federal and territorial records; Civil War veterans who moved to Idaho appear in Grand Army of the Republic post records and an index at the Idaho State Historical Society.
• Spanish-American War: Idaho raised the First Idaho Volunteer Infantry, whose service is recorded in state and federal muster rolls.
• First World War: the Idaho State Archives holds the adjutant-general's discharge and Victory Medal records, especially valuable because many federal service files were lost in a 1973 fire; its index is free.
• Second World War and later: Idaho National Guard enlistment and service records are at the State Archives, and the Idaho Military History Museum holds unit histories and rosters.

Probate Records

Probate — wills, administrations of intestate estates, and guardianships of minors — is among the richest sources for family relationships, since an estate file typically names the surviving spouse, children, and other heirs. In Idaho these matters were handled by the county probate courts, whose jurisdiction was later absorbed into the district courts; the records remain filed at the county.

• The county probate and district courts prove wills, grant administrations, and appoint guardians; copies are obtained from the clerk of the court in the county courthouse. Petitions for mothers' and old-age pensions were also filed with the probate courts, and many have been transferred to and indexed by the Idaho State Archives.
• Idaho, Wills and Probate Records, 1857–1989 ($) — name-searchable across most counties on Ancestry.
• The FamilySearch Idaho Probate Records guide is browsable by county, and FamilySearch Full-Text Search makes many unindexed wills and estate files searchable by every name they contain.

Tax Records

Tax lists place a family in a specific town and year and are valuable substitutes where censuses or deeds are missing; several consecutive years can reveal when a young man came of age, acquired property, or died and left heirs.

• County assessment rolls: personal-property and real-property tax rolls, and delinquent-tax lists, were kept by the county from its creation; some early rolls (for example, Ada County from the 1860s) are on FamilySearch and at the Idaho State Archives.
• Territorial tax lists: the Idaho State Archives holds tax records from the territorial period along with later assessment rolls, and county assessors and treasurers hold the more recent rolls.
• Federal assessment lists: because Idaho Territory was created in 1863, coverage in the Civil War–era federal Internal Revenue assessment lists (1862–1874) is limited and fragmentary; surviving material can be checked through National Archives microfilm and FamilySearch.