Wisconsin Genealogy

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Wisconsin Genealogy Research Guide

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Wisconsin Genealogy Research Guide

Quick Facts

Wisconsin’s story runs from French fur-trade posts on the Great Lakes, through a lead-mining rush in its southwestern hills, to one of the heaviest waves of German and Scandinavian immigration in the country. It grew from part of the Northwest Territory into a territory of its own in 1836 and a state in 1848. As a public-domain state its land trail begins with the federal government, and its records are split between county offices and a statewide network run by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

• Capital: Madison, chosen as the seat of government when Wisconsin Territory was organized in 1836 and continued as the state capital.
• Statehood: May 29, 1848, the thirtieth state, formed from Wisconsin Territory.
• Counties: 72. The first two, Brown and Crawford, were organized in 1818 under Michigan Territory; the last, Menominee, was created in 1961 from the former Menominee reservation.
• Land type: Wisconsin is a federal (public-domain) state, not a state-land state. The federal government surveyed the land and sold it through district land offices, so the first title to most parcels is a federal patent documented by the General Land Office — records that have no equivalent in the original-colony states, where the states themselves granted the land.
• Nickname and motto: the Badger State, after the lead miners who burrowed shelters into the hillsides; the state motto is Forward.
• Where records live: most records — deeds, probate, and vital records from October 1907 — are kept at the county level, while the Wisconsin Historical Society holds the pre-1907 vital indexes and, through its Area Research Center network, the original county records for much of the state. No Wisconsin city keeps a separate vital-records system apart from the statewide one.

Libraries and Archives

Wisconsin’s collections center on Madison, where the Wisconsin Historical Society keeps the state’s archival records and one of the largest genealogical libraries in the country; the Society also runs a statewide network of Area Research Centers on University of Wisconsin campuses that hold the original county records for their regions. The leading repositories include:

• Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison) — the state archive and library: pre-1907 vital indexes, naturalization and tax records, census microfilm, land-survey records, Civil War rosters, county histories, and manuscripts. Its Area Research Centers, housed at University of Wisconsin campus libraries and partner libraries statewide, hold the original governmental records for each region.
• Wisconsin State Genealogical Society — the statewide society; it publishes journals and indexes and documents early settlers through its pioneer and century certificate programs.
• Milwaukee Public Library — a large genealogy collection strong in Milwaukee-area vital, church, cemetery, and newspaper records.
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries — the Milwaukee Area Research Center at the Golda Meir Library, with the Milwaukee Urban Archives and extensive church and vital microfilm for the southeastern counties.
• University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Archives — the Area Research Center for northeastern Wisconsin, home to the Belgian-American Research Collection.
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries — digital collections including the state’s public land-survey records and a large body of Wisconsin local and state history material.
• National Archives at Chicago — federal court, naturalization, census, and Bureau of Indian Affairs records for Wisconsin.
• Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies — research aids and collections for Wisconsin’s large German-speaking population.
• The FamilySearch Library and its worldwide FamilySearch Centers hold extensive Wisconsin microfilm and digital collections, and county Registers of Deeds, Clerks of Circuit Court, and Registers in Probate hold the original records for their own counties.

Major Websites

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

• FamilySearch — free; the backbone finding aid, with the FamilySearch Wiki, catalog, and large digitized collections of Wisconsin vital, naturalization, probate, land, and church records.
• Ancestry ($) — extensive Wisconsin vital, census, naturalization, land, military, and tax collections.
• MyHeritage ($) — Wisconsin vital records, censuses, and immigration collections.
• Findmypast ($) — Wisconsin marriage and other collections.
• Wisconsin Historical Society — free; digitized county histories, photographs, newspaper-article and name indexes, and the searchable pre-1907 birth, marriage, and death index.
• Recollection Wisconsin — free; a statewide gateway to digitized photographs, documents, and records from Wisconsin libraries, archives, and museums.
• Chronicling America — free; the Library of Congress newspaper archive, including many digitized Wisconsin titles.
• Internet Archive and HathiTrust — free; digitized Wisconsin county histories, published record abstracts, and law books.
• Find a Grave and BillionGraves — free; cemetery listings, photographs, and transcriptions.

Law and Government

Wisconsin’s territorial and state laws frame the jurisdictions and record-keeping that produced genealogical records, and many of the foundational volumes have been digitized and are free to read.

• The Laws of Wisconsin Territory — the session laws of the territorial legislature from 1836 to 1848, including the acts that organized the early counties; free on HathiTrust.
• The Revised Statutes of Wisconsin, 1849 — the first code of the new state, prefaced by its founding documents; free on HathiTrust. The later revisions of 1858 and 1878 are digitized as well.
• The annual Laws of Wisconsin (session laws) from statehood onward are digitized as a free HathiTrust collection.
• Moses M. Strong’s History of the Territory of Wisconsin, from 1836 to 1848 traces the colonial, territorial, and early statehood government, useful for understanding how the jurisdictions took shape; free on HathiTrust.

Vital Records (Birth, Marriage, Death)

Wisconsin directed its counties to register births, marriages, and deaths beginning in 1852, but the law was widely ignored; a stronger law in 1878 improved matters, and compliance became general only around 1880. Statewide registration through a central state office began on October 1, 1907. Because of this late and uneven start, many nineteenth-century events were never recorded civilly, and the church records described below are often the best substitute.

The Wisconsin Historical Society holds the records made before October 1907 — births and deaths from 1852 and marriages from 1836 — and maintains the statewide index to them; because the counties reported to the state, some events survive only in the county registers. Records from October 1, 1907 onward are held by the Wisconsin Vital Records Office and by the Register of Deeds in the county where the event occurred. Genealogical (uncertified) copies of older records are available, while certified copies and recent records are restricted to eligible applicants, and a fee applies. Use these indexes to find a record, then order a copy:

• The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Wisconsin Genealogy Index is the free master index to pre-1907 births, marriages, and deaths.
• Births: Wisconsin, U.S., Birth Records, 1812–1924 ($), also on MyHeritage ($). A few counties registered births in the 1850s, but most begin in the 1870s or 1880s.
• Marriages: Wisconsin, U.S., Marriage Records, 1820–2015 ($), also on MyHeritage ($). Many counties issued marriage licenses from the time they were organized, and those files are held by the county and indexed on FamilySearch.
• Deaths: Wisconsin, U.S., Death Records, 1872–2004 ($), also on MyHeritage ($).

Records created since October 1, 1907 are obtained from the Wisconsin Vital Records Office or the county Register of Deeds; the Register of Deeds in Milwaukee County, and the Milwaukee and West Allis city health offices, also issue records for their areas.

History and Timeline of Major Events

Key dates that shaped Wisconsin’s jurisdictions and records:

• 1634 — Jean Nicolet, sent by New France, lands near Green Bay, opening the region to French fur traders and missionaries.
• 1660s–1680s — French posts and missions spread; Green Bay and, later, Prairie du Chien become fur-trade centers.
• 1763 — Britain takes control of the region after the French and Indian War.
• 1783 — The region passes to the United States and becomes part of the Northwest Territory, organized in 1787.
• 1800–1818 — Wisconsin lies successively within Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan Territories.
• 1818 — Brown and Crawford, the first counties, are organized under Michigan Territory.
• 1820s–1840s — A lead-mining rush fills the southwestern counties; federal land offices open at Mineral Point (1834) and Green Bay (1835).
• 1832 — The Black Hawk War ends organized Native armed resistance in the region.
• 1836 — Wisconsin Territory is organized, and Madison is chosen as its capital.
• May 29, 1848 — Wisconsin is admitted as the thirtieth state.
• 1840s–1860s — Heavy immigration, especially German, Irish, and Norwegian, flows through the Great Lakes to Milwaukee and up the Mississippi.
• 1850s–1900s — Railroads open the northern counties to logging and settlement.
• 1871 — A catastrophic firestorm destroys Peshtigo and communities across northeastern Wisconsin, taking many local records with it.
• 1907 — Statewide civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths begins on October 1.
• 1961 — Menominee County, the last of the state’s 72 counties, is created.

Census Records and Substitutes

Federal censuses were taken every ten years and reach back into Wisconsin’s territorial period — the 1820 and 1830 counts fell under Michigan Territory and the 1840 count under Wisconsin Territory — and run through 1950; the 1890 federal population schedules were destroyed. They are free on FamilySearch and the National Archives and are searchable on Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).

Territorial and state censuses add years between the federal counts. Territorial enumerations in 1836, 1838, 1842, 1846, and 1847 name the head of each household with tallies of the rest and survive unevenly. The state then took its own census every ten years, and together with the federal count these can place a family about every five years. What each state census records varies by year:

• 1855: names the head of household and counts the others by sex, race, and a few other categories; the first state census after statehood.
• 1865: taken in the same form, but most of the returns were lost, and only a handful of counties survive.
• 1875: again lists only the head of household.
• 1885: adds counts of foreign-born residents and includes a separate enumeration of Civil War soldiers and sailors.
• 1895: repeats the 1885 form, including the veterans’ schedule.
• 1905: the only Wisconsin state census to name every person, giving each one’s relationship to the head of household, age, sex, race, marital status, birthplace and parents’ birthplaces, and occupation; indexed by county.

The 1855 through 1905 state censuses are indexed on Wisconsin, U.S., State Censuses, 1855–1905 ($) and are available on FamilySearch and on microfilm through the Wisconsin Historical Society and its Area Research Centers. Where censuses are thin, city directories and the tax rolls described below are the best substitutes for placing a family in a given year.

Church Records

Because civil registration came late, church registers are the most important substitute for vital records before 1907. Two denominations dominated nineteenth-century Wisconsin — Roman Catholic and Lutheran — reflecting the state’s German, Irish, Polish, and Scandinavian settlement, with Methodists, Baptists, and others present in smaller numbers. Baptism, marriage, and burial registers held by the parishes and diocesan archives are often the only record of an event before civil registration.

• Archdiocese of Milwaukee — the ten southeastern counties (Dodge, Fond du Lac, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, and Waukesha); sacramental records before 1921 are available for genealogical research.
• Diocese of Green Bay — the northeastern counties; its pre-1920 sacramental records are open to researchers on microfiche.
• Diocese of La Crosse — the western counties, with pre-1960 parish registers filmed and pre-1926 records available for genealogy.
• Diocese of Madison — the south-central counties, where the diocese is digitizing its parish sacramental registers. The Diocese of Superior serves the far northwestern counties, with genealogical requests handled through its chancery.
• Lutheran, Reformed, and other Protestant registers are held by synod and regional archives; the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Milwaukee Urban Archives holds church microfilm for the southeastern counties, and many congregational registers can be found through the FamilySearch Catalog by county and town.

Court Records

Wisconsin’s courts reach well beyond lawsuits into estates, guardianships, naturalizations, and name changes, and their records are among the most useful a researcher will meet. The main courts are:

• Circuit Court — the state’s general trial court in each county, handling civil, criminal, equity, and divorce matters, and, before 1906, most naturalizations; the Clerk of Circuit Court is its record custodian.
• County Court — historically the probate court in each county, proving wills and appointing guardians and administrators; its work later passed to the Circuit Court.
• Register in Probate — the officer who keeps the probate and guardianship files, now under the Circuit Court.
• Federal courts — the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, whose case and naturalization files are held by the National Archives at Chicago.

The original county court, probate, and naturalization records for most counties are distributed among the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Area Research Centers.

Ethnic/Minority Records

Few states drew a more varied immigrant population than Wisconsin, and knowing where a group settled points to the records most likely to document a family.

• Germans. The largest group by far, from both Catholic and Protestant regions, settling Milwaukee and the eastern and central counties. The Max Kade Institute and German-language church and newspaper records are key starting points.
• Norwegians and other Scandinavians. Concentrated in the southern and western farming counties, where Lutheran parish registers are the core source.
• Poles. Heavily Catholic, with the largest community in Milwaukee and another around Stevens Point; the ethnic parishes kept the vital records.
• Belgians. A large Walloon settlement in Brown, Door, and Kewaunee counties — the biggest rural Belgian community in the country. The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay holds the Belgian-American Research Collection.
• Swiss. The colony at New Glarus in Green County, founded in 1845 by emigrants from the Canton of Glarus.
• Cornish. Miners who settled the lead district around Mineral Point and Dodgeville in the 1830s and 1840s.
• Native nations. The Menominee, the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), several Ojibwe (Chippewa) bands, the Oneida, the Forest County Potawatomi, and the Stockbridge-Munsee. Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs records — agency census rolls and annuity and allotment records for the Great Lakes agencies — are held by the National Archives at Chicago.
• African Americans. A small presence before the Civil War that grew substantially in Milwaukee during the twentieth-century Great Migration; Milwaukee church, newspaper, and city-directory records supplement the standard vital and census sources.

Immigration and Naturalization

Wisconsin was an inland destination, reached by most immigrants through the eastern ports and the Erie Canal and Great Lakes to Milwaukee, or south from Canada; passenger records therefore belong to the ports of arrival, while the records created in Wisconsin are naturalizations. Before September 1906 an immigrant could be naturalized in almost any court — most often the county Circuit Court — filing a declaration of intention (“first papers”) and later a petition (“second papers”); because a declaration alone conferred the vote in Wisconsin, many immigrants never completed the process. After 1906 naturalization was standardized under the federal government.

• The Wisconsin Historical Society holds the original naturalization records for 70 of the 72 counties — all but Milwaukee and Menominee — distributed among its Area Research Centers.
• Wisconsin, County Naturalization Records, 1807–1992 — free on FamilySearch; browsable images of the county court records.
• Wisconsin, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1848–1992 ($) — index and images of the federal-court naturalizations, whose originals are held by the National Archives at Chicago.
• Passenger-arrival records for the ports through which Wisconsin’s immigrants came are free on FamilySearch and searchable on Ancestry.

Land Records

As a public-domain state, Wisconsin was surveyed and sold by the federal government, so — unlike a state-land state — the first title to most land is a federal patent, and the General Land Office records survive. The federal survey laid the township-range-section grid between 1832 and 1866, and land was sold through district land offices, the earliest at Mineral Point and Green Bay. Later transfers between individuals are recorded as deeds by the county Register of Deeds.

• Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records — free; searchable images of the original federal land patents, together with survey plats and field notes, for patented parcels across Wisconsin.
• Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records — the original field notes and plat maps of the 1832–1866 survey, searchable by township, range, and section; the records passed to the state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands after the survey, and the digitized images are hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The plats note early cabins, mills, trails, and villages as well as boundaries.
• The county Register of Deeds holds the deeds and mortgages recorded after the original patent.
• The Wisconsin Historical Society holds microfilm of the complete survey field notes and plat-map volumes.

The southwestern lead district — Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette counties and their neighbors — was opened by federal mineral leasing and mining permits in the 1820s and 1830s, before and alongside ordinary land sales, and drew the Cornish and other miners who gave the state its “badger” nickname. Elsewhere, large blocks of the public domain passed not to settlers directly but as railroad, canal, swamp-land, and school-land grants, so a parcel missing from the ordinary patent records may have been conveyed through one of these programs.

Military Records

Wisconsin took part in the nation’s wars from its territorial days, and the state kept unusually full Civil War records.

• Black Hawk War (1832): fought partly on Wisconsin soil; service records are limited, but published rosters and the Wisconsin Historical Society’s holdings document participants.
• Civil War: Wisconsin’s regiments included the celebrated Iron Brigade — the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Infantry. The published Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 lists soldiers regiment by regiment and is free online; the handwritten muster rolls (the “Red” and “Blue” books) are at the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the 1885 and 1895 state censuses record Civil War service. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison keeps an index to Wisconsin Civil War enlistments and extensive veterans’ collections.
• Spanish-American War and World War I: the Wisconsin Historical Society and the State Archives hold muster and service-record abstracts, World War I draft registration cards, and National Guard records; veterans’ discharge records are also filed with the county Register of Deeds.

Probate Records

Probate — wills, administrations of intestate estates, and guardianships of minors — is among the richest sources for family relationships, often naming a spouse, children, and other kin.

• Historically the County Court proved wills and granted administrations and guardianships in each county, with the Register in Probate keeping the files; that jurisdiction later moved to the Circuit Court, whose Clerk and Register in Probate now hold the records.
• The original probate files for most counties are distributed among the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Area Research Centers.

Online, Wisconsin, Probate Estate Files, 1848–1948 is free on FamilySearch as browsable images of estate files from counties across the state, and Wisconsin, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1800–1987 ($) is name-searchable across most counties. FamilySearch Full-Text Search also 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 where censuses or deeds are missing; several consecutive years can show when a young man came of age, moved, or died and left heirs. Because only property owners appear, not everyone is listed.

• U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862–1918 ($) — the Civil War–era and later federal income, license, and luxury taxes; Wisconsin’s earliest lists were not part of the microfilmed set, so coverage of the 1860s is limited.
• State and local property and assessment rolls, some reaching back to the territorial period, are held by the Wisconsin Historical Society and distributed among its Area Research Centers; county treasurers and town clerks hold the later rolls.