Record Atlas
7 eras · 1701–2026 · 85 places

Michigan

Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette, Houghton. 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
1701–1763 New France - Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit no registers survive

Cadillac's expedition founded Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on 24 July 1701.
1763–1796 Britain - Detroit and the Great Lakes posts no registers survive

The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ceded Detroit to Britain and the 1783 treaty ceded it to the United States, but British forces stayed until they evacuated on 11 July 1796.
1796–1805 Northwest Territory, then Indiana Territory from 1800 FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Michigan ground was in the Northwest Territory and from 1800 in Indiana Territory, until Michigan Territory was created by an act of 11 January 1805, effective 30 June 1805.
1805–1837 Michigan Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Detroit was the capital, and the great fire of 1805 destroyed nearly all of its colonial buildings. The British held Detroit from its capture in August 1812 until September 1813. The territory's boundaries moved: remnants of Illinois Territory were added in 1818, land east of the Missouri River in 1834, and Wisconsin Territory was split off on 3 July 1836.
1837–1867 State of Michigan FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Michigan was admitted on 26 January 1837, after the Toledo War of 1835, by giving up the Toledo Strip to Ohio and accepting the western Upper Peninsula.
1867–1905 Michigan - state registration law of 1867, unevenly enforced FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

A law of 1867 required statewide registration of births and deaths, but it was not enforced early on. Pre-1897 death records and pre-1906 births are the most likely to be missing from state files.
1905–2026 Michigan - statewide registration FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

A law of 1905 was much more effective, and full death-record compliance was generally reached by 1915. The Archives of Michigan digitises certificates from 1897 on Michiganology; the state vital records office holds records from 1867.

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, 1701–2026, 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.

85 places on this ground

1856 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 1796 more.

All record regions · The map