Nancy Hendrickson's Clips

"Every time I read a Jane Austen novel, I feel like a bartender at the gates of heaven." Mark Twain

Home On The Range (Excerpt, Family Tree Magazine)
Although the term "Manifest Destiny" wasn't coined until the mid-19th century, the philosophy itself was embraced decades earlier.  In its simplest form, Manifest Destiny justified, by divine right, the expansion of the nation from sea to shining sea.  In practical terms, it enabled Americans--including perhaps your ancestors--to settle where they pleased, from Mexico's California to the Black Hills of the Lakota.

At the conclusion of a two year exploration of the new territory by Lewis and Clark,  Americans headed  west.  At first, fur trappers and mountain men drifted across the plains into the Rockies.  Then, by the 1840s,  thousands of pioneers  trekked along the Platte River on their way to Oregon and California.  However, it took the Homestead Act of 1862 to transform the Wild West to today’s Farm and Beef Belts.     

The Civil War slowed migration west, but at its conclusion, homesteaders poured into the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains—the promise of free public land drawing settlers from across the globe.   By the time North Dakota became a state in 1889, nearly 70-percent of the population was foreign-born, or the children of foreign-born.

Unfortunately, the “public land” made available to homesteaders was the same land the tribes of the Great Plains considered home.  Once gold seekers and settlers traveled west of the Mississippi River, the stage was set for conflict. 
Beginning roughly with the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862, and ending at Wounded Knee in 1890, the United States Army waged war against the Plains Indians.  The goal—ostensibly—was to protect settlers.  However, Phil Sheridan’s policy of surprise attacks against winter camps, and the wholesale slaughter of buffalo guaranteed the taming—and settlement—of the Wild West.

Start at Home
If your ancestor was among the tens of thousands who populated the Great Plains and Rockies in the last half of the 19th Century, you are certainly descended from hardy stock.  So how do you go about tracing your frontier ancestor?
As with all genealogical research, start at home.  Look for birth, death and marriage records, obituaries, funeral cards, and military records—anything that details names, dates and places.  

Next, interview your relatives, asking not only for names and dates, but for any stories they remember about the family.   Oftentimes, your oldest living relatives will be the source of long-forgotten tales.  And, although family lore can become convoluted over time, it frequently contains a grain of truth.

Historical Societies
The holdings of State historical societies are mind-boggling.  There, you can find state census records, city directories, yearbooks, county histories, biographical sketches and family histories—some of which exist in no other facility. 
The South Dakota State Historical Society, for example, owns the largest known collection of South Dakota newspapers, consisting of 1000 titles preserved on approximately 12,000 microfilm reels.  For genealogical researchers who love delving back into newspaper records, the Colorado Historical Society has copies of the Rocky Mountain Times dating back to 1859.

According to Ruth Bauer Anderson, archivist at the Minnesota State Historical Society, her library’s holdings contain a treasure trove of material for genealogists.  These include state and federal census records, naturalization papers, information on patriotic, fraternal and veteran’s organizations, township histories, cemetery records, and city directories.  

In addition, the library holds the findings of an unusual group of reports done in one year only, 1918.  The reports detail information on non-U.S. citizens living in the state, a farm crop and labor report, and data on the working women of Ramsey County.  Holdings also include records of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads.  In some cases, only an index of railroad workers exists; in others there are actual payroll records.  

As evidence of the popularity of genealogical research in Minnesota, once the Society placed a death record index online, they received over 5,000 requests for death records in just one month.

Ellie Arguimbau, archivist at the Montana State Historical Society, says one of the most under-utilized sources in their holdings are the papers of the Society of Montana Pioneers.  These include a survey done in 1907, which people sent in telling what route they took to reach Montana.  The Society also owns original homesteading diaries.

All of the State Historical Society libraries are open to the public.  However, if you can’t do onsite research, societies will perform research for you for a minimal fee.  Unfortunately, in most cases, research is limited to one-half to one hour.  A pleasant exception is the Minnesota Historical Society—they will perform as much research as you are willing to pay for.  Fees are low, and generally include the price of copies.  

Some of the Historical Society libraries participate in interlibrary loans.  Check with the individual society for more information on obtaining books or microfilms using the interlibrary loan system.

Even though you’ll have to contact historical societies directly for specific research requests, don’t ignore their online resources.  Some state historical societies provide Internet access to card catalogues, newspaper indexes and historical data.  The Web site of the Kansas State Historical Society, for example, has a “History in a Nutshell”, “This Day in Kansas History”, and a Guide to Kansas Research Resources.  The State Historical Society of North Dakota lists North Dakota newspaper, grouped by county.