State Archives Online – Texas to Utah

Texas – The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has their search labeled ‘Trail’ and it searches through 180 state agencies for information on Texas records and documents. Some of the topics include Military and Ranger Service records from 1836 to 1935 (with a few items covering Confederate Soldiers of Texas, Texas State Police, Spanish-American Texas soldiers, Railroad Rangers) There are also Confederate Pensions 1899-1975, Map collection, Republic of Texas Claims 1835-1846, Texas Treasure (with some images), Texas prisons, Indian Relations in Texas, Pioneer architects of Texas and Texas Women Getting the Vote. Comment: Overall, a good online site for family history searching of information. It does lack photos, postcards and other images.

Vermont – The Vermont State Archives has a searchable database under ‘Research’ tab with the Index to Manuscript Vermont State Papers (called Nye Index). This Index has 53,000 cards with 18th century records. Also there is the Series Database Search available with documents. Included is a small Maps / Plans database plus a smaller Photograph Collections. An interesting collection on online photographs, images, oral histories is with the Vermont Historical Society site (http://www.freedomandunity.org/index.html). Comment: Some Vermont materials online, but additional resources are really needed for genealogists.

Washington – For those searching ancestors in the State of Washington by this online site by the Washington State Digital Archives they are very fortunate. With some 26 million records the Washington Archives they offer a great deal for the researcher. The materials include maps, land records, Marriage records (various counties and years), Naturalization records, Plat surveys, Birth records, census (federal, state and county for numerous years), Prison records from 1877 to 1945, Death records from 1890 to 1907, Cemetery records, Photograph collections from 1850s to 1990s, along with several select divorce, birth, death, city directories, land claims and burial permits at different times. The Washington State Library (http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/digcolls.aspx) has photos, maps and newspapers. Comment: The State of Washington Archives can serve as as model for other states in how to make digital documents, records and images well organized for online research. An excellent site.

West Virginia – The West Virginia Archives have their digital archives in a section titled ‘Explore Archives and History’. There are births, marriage and deaths database, military records, A West Virginia Time line, photographic database with over 100,000 images, periodicals and state documents. Comment: A huge collection of vital records and especially material covering West Virginia’s history. An outstanding site to investigate.

Utah – The Division of Archives and Records Service for Utah has birth certificates for 1905 and death certificates from 1904 to 1958 online. There are military death certificates, Indian Wars Records 1909 to 1919, and pardon applications for prisoners from 1892 to 1949. For Utah’s newspapers, investigate the Utah Digital Newspapers with images from newspapers across Utah, small towns to large cities, some dating back to the 1870s. At the Pioneer: Utah’s Online Library there is the Mountain West Digital Library with a large assortment of images and documents available. Comment: A very good online series of sources for Utah researchers.