Montana Historical Societies

This directory lists 5 historical societies, museums, and archives in Montana, among them Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site at Deer Lodge, which preserves a 19th-century cattle ranch, and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near Crow Agency. Use the cards below to reach each organization's page, address, and website.

Montana Territory was created in 1864 out of Idaho Territory after the gold strikes at Bannack and Virginia City, and statehood came on November 8, 1889. Before 1870 the few settlers were counted in the Washington Territory (west) and Nebraska Territory (east) censuses; Montana has never taken a state census of its own, and counties kept dividing until 1925, when the homestead boom pushed the total to 56. A record stays with the county that existed when it was made, so check county formation dates before you write to a courthouse.

Featured Historical Societies

The Montana Historical Society and other repositories

The Montana Historical Society Research Center at 225 North Roberts in Helena, across from the Capitol, combines the state archives, a library of Montana history, and the state photograph archive in one building. Its Larry Len and LeAnne Peterson Library & Archives holds manuscript collections, state government records, the photograph archives, and an extensive run of Montana newspapers on microfilm. The collection does not circulate, so plan to use the Reference Room, and the Society asks visitors to book an appointment. Staff also handle written research requests and reproductions, and the catalog and finding aids are online. Montana Historical Society Research Center

• The Montana History Portal (mtmemory.org), run by the Montana State Library through the Montana Memory Project, is a free hub where libraries, museums, and county societies share scans: more than 107,000 items, including about 51,000 images, 2,600 yearbooks, 1,500 maps, oral histories, and place-name files.
• The Montana State Library, 1201 11th Avenue, Helena, manages the portal and the state's geographic data.
• University collections: the University of Montana's Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections in Missoula and the Montana State University Library in Bozeman, which provides the digital Sanborn maps of Montana.
• Local records that were never transferred stay with the county Clerk and Recorder (land) and the clerk of the district court (marriages, divorces, probate, naturalization).

Vital records: 1907 statewide, earlier by county

Montana did not require registration of births and deaths until 1907, so the state Office of Vital Records (Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, 111 N Sanders, Helena) holds certificates from late 1907 forward. A birth or death certificate costs $16, and you must send a readable copy of both sides of a government photo ID with your request. A few counties recorded events earlier on their own initiative, Silver Bow County births from 1878 and Yellowstone County deaths from 1884 for example, and those early registers remain at the county. Montana Office of Vital Records

Marriage and divorce were never centralized. Each county began recording marriages soon after it was organized, and both marriage and divorce records are held by the clerk of the district court in that county. The state office keeps only an index that starts in July 1943; it will search the index ($10 for a five-year span, plus $1 for each additional year) to tell you which county to contact, but it does not issue copies. For anything before 1943 you need to know the county, which is where newspapers and the Montana History Portal come in. The FamilySearch wiki page on Montana Vital Records lists the early county registers.

Land: homesteads, mining claims, and the Clerk and Recorder

Almost every Montana title begins with a federal patent, because Montana is a public-land state. Search the BLM General Land Office Records by name to find the patent, land office, and legal description for a homestead, desert-land entry, timber claim, or mineral patent. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 and the three-year homestead law of 1912 drove the biggest wave of settlement, which is why so many patents in eastern Montana date from the 1910s and early 1920s.

• The land entry case file (application, final proof, and witness testimony) is a National Archives record; request it using the details from the GLO patent.
• Once land was in private hands, deeds, mortgages, mining location notices, and water right filings were recorded by the county Clerk and Recorder. Early mining camps recorded claims in mining district books that later passed to the county.
• Ranch families often assembled a dozen separate patents, including ones taken out by adult children and hired hands, so search the GLO site by township and range as well as by surname. Our how to trace a property's deed history explains how to run the chain of title forward from the patent.

Newspapers, the public access portal, and city directories

Montana's digitized newspapers moved in early 2024 from the old Montana Newspapers site to a free Newspapers.com Public Access Portal maintained by the Montana Historical Society. The portal holds nearly 2.5 million pages from a project that scanned more than 5,000 reels of microfilm covering more than 200 Montana cities and towns, plus the titles that had been on the old site and most of the Montana content from Chronicling America. Separately, the Montana titles digitized under the National Digital Newspaper Program, more than 400,000 pages, remain on Chronicling America at the Library of Congress. The old address, montananewspapers.org, now simply points you to the Society's Digitized Montana Newspapers page.

Because marriage and divorce records are county-held with no statewide index before 1943, a wedding notice or divorce-filing item in the local weekly is often the fastest way to learn which county to write to. The Research Center and the larger city libraries hold the Polk city directories for Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Missoula, and Billings; see our guide to old city directories for how to use them.

Census, military, and statewide indexes

• No state census exists. Federal censuses cover Montana Territory from 1870; for 1860 the western portion was enumerated in Washington Territory and the eastern portion in the unorganized part of Nebraska Territory.
• Naturalizations were handled by the district court in each county, so the clerk of district court is the first place to ask for declarations of intention and petitions.
• The state marriage and divorce index from July 1943 (searched by the Office of Vital Records for a fee) is the only statewide vital index; before that, use the Montana History Portal and the newspaper portal as your name indexes.
• The Historical Society's photograph archives and the portal's yearbooks and place-name files are useful for confirming a family's town when the county is uncertain.

Researching a house or ranch in Montana

The Montana State Historic Preservation Office is part of the Montana Historical Society in Helena and carries out both the National Historic Preservation Act and the Montana State Antiquities Act. It handles National Register nominations (and will order an interpretive sign for a listed property), maintains the statewide survey and cultural records database for historic and archaeological resources, advises on rehabilitation and tax incentives, and runs the Certified Local Government program with city and county preservation offices. Montana SHPO

Sanborn fire insurance maps for Montana towns (1867-1970 in the digital edition) are available on campus at Montana State University Library in Bozeman, and the Library of Congress's free online Sanborn collection includes many Montana towns; the Historical Society's map collection in Helena is the place for paper copies. For a ranch, start from the GLO patent and the Clerk and Recorder's deed index rather than a street address. Our when was my house built and researching an old building's history articles cover the method step by step.

Working with Montana's county societies and museums

Montana has 56 counties spread over 147,000 square miles, and most county museums outside Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, and Helena open only from Memorial Day to Labor Day, sometimes on a handful of afternoons a week. Email well ahead, give the township and range if you have it, and ask whether the society holds the county newspaper index or an obituary file. Many societies share space with the county library or courthouse, so one trip can cover the Clerk and Recorder, the clerk of district court, and the museum. The National Park Service sites listed here keep their own schedules and are interpretive, not archival, so send genealogy questions to the Historical Society in Helena. For graves, county societies and cemetery boards are the best sources; our how to find where someone is buried explains what to ask.

Additional Montana History Resources

• Montana Historical Society Research Center - State archives, library, and photograph archives; 225 N. Roberts, Helena
• Montana State Historic Preservation Office - National Register, cultural records database, preservation programs
• Montana Office of Vital Records (DPHHS) - Birth and death certificates from late 1907; marriage and divorce index from 1943
• Montana History Portal (Montana Memory Project) - Free scans from Montana libraries and museums: 107,000+ items
• Montana Newspapers (redirect to the new portal) - Points to the Historical Society's free Newspapers.com Public Access Portal
• BLM General Land Office Records - Federal homestead and mineral patents for Montana
• FamilySearch Wiki: Montana Vital Records - Start dates and locations of Montana vital records by county
• Chronicling America - Library of Congress newspaper archive with 400,000+ Montana pages

Frequently Asked Questions

When do Montana birth and death records start?

The state Office of Vital Records in Helena holds certificates from late 1907, when statewide registration began; copies cost $16. A few counties kept registers earlier (Silver Bow births from 1878, Yellowstone deaths from 1884), and those remain at the county.

Where do I find a Montana marriage record?

With the clerk of the district court in the county where the license was issued; Montana has no central marriage registry. The state keeps only an index from July 1943, which the Office of Vital Records will search for $10 per five-year span to identify the county.

Where did the Montana Newspapers website go?

Its content moved in 2024 to a free Newspapers.com Public Access Portal run by the Montana Historical Society, which now holds nearly 2.5 million pages from more than 200 Montana towns. More than 400,000 Montana pages are also on Chronicling America.

How do I find my family's Montana homestead?

Search the BLM General Land Office Records by surname for the patent, which gives the legal description and date. The land entry case file with the final-proof testimony is at the National Archives, and every later deed is with the county Clerk and Recorder.