Denver, Colorado – Digital

As the Denver Public Library puts it: “It isn’t just history anymore – it is America’s quintessential
region and culture right at your fingertips.”

Having access to documents, records and photos, all in digital format has really assisted the family researcher. The material in this Denver Library Digital Collection covers more than just Colorado. If you are searching for relatives from that region or neighboring locations, this is a site to review.

They have it broken down to search by subjects, such as biographies, photographs, Denver neighborhoods-businesses, mining in the West lands, the military in the West, genealogy and Colorado as a territory. You can also search by different formats with topics such as maps, drawings, art and photographs. The search box at the top will assist to narrow a topic or name.

Just under certain topics there are sub-categories. With ‘Photographs’ there are subdivisions of buildings, African-Americans, Native Indians, mining fields, the railroads, Hispanics, and the American Wild West shows. With each thumbnail of a specific image there is additional information about the photograph along with a date. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

The drawings of buildings, especially done in Denver is fascinating. They show such detail. The maps cover Denver, Central City, Colorado Springs and a variety of other towns. Some maps show the lay out of the streets.

Using the biography category and doing a search will offer any listing of possible ancestors having been written up in magazine or newspaper articles, those 1400 pioneer families in Colorado, along with special biographies and obituaries of the ‘Sons of Colorado’ – pioneer families.

With the genealogy section there are obituaries such as statewide index of approximately 50,000 non-Denver obituaries mostly from the 1970s through 1990, plus those obituaries in the Denver Post or Rocky Mountain News in 1900, 1918 – 1919, and 1928 through 2010. The naturalization records would be a good resource also to investigate. The Colorado Federal District Courts have Declaration of Intentions, covering 1877 – 1952. There are census indexes and military documents also to check.

This is a good database of information to locate any additional vital records, photos or information needed on your family from Colorado and the western region.

Photo: John Young Nelson, a member of the cast of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, poses for a group portrait with his Sioux wife and their five children. Taken in the 1890s.