Record Atlas
6 eras · 1634–2026 · 71 places

Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Mineral Point, La Crosse. 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
1634–1763 New France - Green Bay and Prairie du Chien no registers survive

Jean Nicolet landed at Green Bay in 1634, and Nicolas Perrot established Fort St. Nicholas at Prairie du Chien in 1685. The British took control of Green Bay in 1761 and of all Wisconsin in 1763.
1763–1783 Britain - Province of Quebec from 1774 no registers survive

Wisconsin was annexed to the Province of Quebec in 1774, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 gave it to the United States.
1783–1836 United States - Northwest Territory (1787), Indiana Territory (1800), then Michigan Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

The British won the Siege of Prairie du Chien in July 1814, and the Treaty of Ghent in 1815 reaffirmed American jurisdiction. The first federal land offices opened at Green Bay and Mineral Point in 1834.
1836–1848 Wisconsin Territory FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Congress created the territory on 20 April 1836 and it was organised on 3 July 1836. It first covered Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and part of the Dakotas, until Iowa Territory was created in 1838; the capitals were Belmont (1836), Burlington (1837) and Madison (1838-1848), so Burlington, in present Iowa, held 1837 territorial records.
1848–1907 State of Wisconsin - county registers of deeds record births and deaths FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Wisconsin became the 30th state on 29 May 1848. Before 1852 births, marriages and deaths were reported to county clerks and after 1852 to the county register of deeds; the law was not strictly enforced until roughly 1880. The Wisconsin Historical Society holds a statewide index to pre-1907 records that has gaps.
1907–2026 Wisconsin - statewide registration FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Statewide registration began on 1 October 1907, and the State Vital Records Office holds births from that date. One county source gives 1 June 1907 as the date the law took effect.

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, 1634–2026, 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.

71 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