Record Atlas
5 eras · 1770–2026 · 17 places

Nevada — Great Basin to the Comstock

Reno, Carson City, Virginia City, Las Vegas, Elko. 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
1770–1821 Claimed as part of Spanish Alta California no registers survive

Before registers. Present-day Nevada lay within the territory of Alta California; the Franciscan Francisco Garcés was the first European to enter the area, in the 1770s.
1821–1848 Mexican Alta California no registers survive

Mexican Alta California included present-day Nevada. Jedediah Smith entered the Las Vegas Valley in 1827.
1848–1861 Utah Territory (organised 1850) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Utah Territory, organised on September 9, 1850, covered most of present-day Nevada. Mormon way stations from 1851 began a permanent American presence, and the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859.
1861–1864 Nevada Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Congress created Nevada Territory on March 2, 1861.
1864–2026 United States — State of Nevada FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Nevada was admitted on October 31, 1864; its eastern and southern boundaries were enlarged in 1866-67, so places in the east and south were earlier in other territories. The state holds birth and death records from July 1, 1911, and earlier records are generally with the county recorder.

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, 1770–2026, 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.

17 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.

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