Wisconsin Genealogy Records Online

The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society can be of tremendous help to you if you wish to study some state related history or create or research a family history of your own. You can find Wisconsin genealogy records online at the Wisconsin Historical Society website. They have a Wisconsin Genealogy Index and a vital records section as well as a name index. Copies of state vital records are now available online, as before they were on microfiche.

Included in the Wisconsin genealogy records collection are thousands of documents containing historical and family information. There are 30,000 obituaries and 27,000 newly added names from delayed birth records. There are over a million names on file under the Pre-1907 Vital Records Index. You can search for names on the index and you can order copies of the records that contain information about your ancestors through the website.

If you wish to join the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society, membership costs $10-$30 depending on whether or not you are under 25 years of age or if you are joining with a family or independently.

Searching Wisconsin genealogy records can be a great pastime to share with your family. Learning about your family history and teaching it to your children can be a rich and rewarding experience.

Some of the records that you may be interested in searching are vital records, old family Bibles, birth/death certificates, journals, diplomas, wills and deeds. Marriage records are also a great resource because they typically contain the birth parents for both the bride and the groom and sometimes note where they were born as well. You may also want to check cemetery records, immigration records, passenger lists, church records, fraternities or sororities, and educational institutions.

You may also be able to find helpful information in previously documented family histories that were done by someone in a generation prior to yours. Local histories and old newspaper archives might also shed some light on your family's past.

You should not ignore court records, either. They are an excellent resource for some vital information such as the date of birth or death. Other data that may be available on court record is land ownership, taxes, marriage records, wills and testaments, and probate. Naturally, if there is a jailbird in the family, you can get the conviction information on their case and some other related facts by investigating court records. In the case of a criminal situation, it is helpful if you know which court handles the type of crime that was committed.

It is possible that you were adopted or one of your ancestors were adopted. If this is true, you should definitely investigate adoption records as part of your family tree research. Adoption records are usually available to the general public and you can find your biological parents (or the biological parents of your ancestor if they were the one adopted). After locating this data, you can check their vital records for parents, marriages, divorces, and other clues to that family history as well as the adopted family.