Record Atlas
5 eras · 1762–2026 · 66 places

North and South Dakota

Fargo, Bismarck, Yankton, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Deadwood. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1762–1803 Louisiana - Spanish from 1762, French again from 1800 no registers survive

France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762 and Spain returned it to France in 1800; the United States bought it in 1803. Large portions of both Dakotas lay in the Purchase.
1803–1861 Louisiana Purchase lands - successive territories FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Eastern Dakota ground was in Wisconsin Territory (1836), Iowa Territory (1838) and Minnesota Territory (1849); Nebraska Territory (1854) took ground west of the Missouri. Land left over when Minnesota became a state in 1858 was unorganised until Dakota Territory.
1861–1889 Dakota Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Created on 2 March 1861 from Nebraska Territory and unorganised land, it first included much of Montana and Wyoming; Idaho Territory took part in 1863 and Wyoming Territory in 1868. The capital was Yankton (1861-1883), then Bismarck. The Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in 1868 and gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874.
1889–1905 North Dakota and South Dakota - states FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

An omnibus act signed on 22 February 1889 divided the territory, and North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted on 2 November 1889.
1905–2026 Dakotas - statewide registration FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

South Dakota's vital records law took effect in July 1905, with full compliance around 1932. North Dakota's statewide death registration is dated 1907 or 1908 depending on the source.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1762–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

66 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map