Wisconsin Fast Facts and Key Resources

Wisconsin Fast Facts and Key Resources

Statehood: 1848

US territory status: part of Northwest Territory (1788), Indiana Territory (1800), Illinois Territory (1809), Michigan Territory (1818) and Wisconsin Territory (1836)

First federal census: 1820

Statewide birth, marriage and death records begin: 1907

Public-land state

Counties: four in 1836 (Crawford, Iowa, Brown and Milwaukee); 72 since 1961

RESOURCES

The Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists edited by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Erin Nevius (Family Tree Books)

Germans in Wisconsin by Richard H. Zeitlin (University of Wisconsin Press)

Heritage Books Archives: Wisconsin Volume 1 CD (Heritage Books)

Marriage Index: Michigan and Wisconsin, 1830-1900 CD (Genealogy.com)

Wisconsin’s German Element: J.H.A. Lacher’s Introductory History edited by Don Heinrich Tolzmann (Clearfield Co., $13.50)

ORGANIZATIONS AND ARCHIVES

Milwaukee Public Library

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Library

UWM Libraries, Archives, Box 604, Milwaukee, WI 53201, <www.uwm.edu/library/arch/genie.htm>

Vesterheim Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library

415 W. Main St., Madison, WI 53703, (608) 255-2224, <www.vesterheim.org/genealogy.html>

Wisconsin Historical Society

816 State St., Madison, WI 53706, (608) 261-2460, <www.wisconsinhistory.org>

Wisconsin State Genealogical Society

Box 5106, Madison, WI 53705, <www.wsgs.org>

From the April 2005 Family Tree Magazine