Record Atlas
5 eras · 1762–2026 · 39 places

Nebraska

Omaha, Lincoln, Nebraska City, Grand Island, North Platte, Scottsbluff. 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 Spanish Louisiana (France again from 1800) no registers survive

France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762, Spain returned it to France in 1800, and the United States bought it in 1803.
1803–1854 Louisiana Purchase lands - Missouri Territory, then unorganised FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Part of Missouri Territory from 1812, the area was unorganised federal land from 1821 to 1854. Fur-trading posts such as Fontenelle's Post and Fort Atkinson (founded 1819) preceded organised settlement.
1854–1867 Nebraska Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Created by the Kansas-Nebraska Act on 30 May 1854 with Omaha as capital, it ran from 40 degrees to 49 degrees north. Colorado Territory (28 February 1861), Dakota Territory (2 March 1861) and Idaho Territory (3 March 1863) took parts of it.
1867–1904 State of Nebraska FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Nebraska became a state on 1 March 1867; President Andrew Johnson's veto of the admission bill was overridden.
1904–2026 Nebraska - statewide registration FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Statewide death registration is dated late 1904 and birth registration 1905 depending on the source; full compliance took several more years.

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.

39 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