Lake County, Minnesota Genealogy

United States

Minnesota

Lake County

Guide to Lake County, Minnesota ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Minnesota Online Genealogy Records

Lake County, Minnesota
Map
Location in the state of Minnesota, United States Genealogy
Location of Minnesota in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	February 20, 1855
County Seat	Two Harbors
Courthouse
Address	Lake County Courthouse 601 3rd Ave Two Harbors, MN 55616 Phone: 218.834.8347 Lake County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Lake Superior. The County is located in the northeast area of the state.

Lake County, Minnesota Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1898	1891	1891	1892	Unknown	1800s	1836
Statewide registration started for births in 1900 and deaths in 1908. General compliance by 1915.

County Courthouse

County Register has birth records from 1898, marriage and death from 1891, divorce and court records from 1892. Probate Judge has probate records. City Clerk has burial records.

History

Parent County

• 1855--Lake County was created 20 February 1855 from Itasca County. The names were changed in 1855 to Newton and St. Louis. Names were changed again in 1856 with St. Louis becoming Lake and Newton becoming St. Louis.

County seat: Two Harbors

• For a brief history of how Lake County was named, clickhere, then select Lake County.

Record Loss

1904 Courthouse destroyed by fire; however, most county records were rescued.

For suggestions about research in places that suffered historic record losses, see:

• Burned Counties. By Michael John Neill at 24-7 Family History Circle.
• When the Records are Gone. By Arlene Eakle at Arlene Eakle's Tennessee Blog.
• Burned Counties Research in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

Places/Localities

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Beaver Bay	Silver Bay	Two Harbors
Unincorporated communities
Alger Castle Danger Cramer East Beaver Bay Highland Illgen City Isabella	Knife River Larsmont Lax Lake Little Marais McNair Murphy City	Sawbill Landing Section Thirty Silver Creek Stewart Toimi Wales
Census-designated places
Finland
Townships
Beaver Bay Crystal Bay	Fall Lake Silver Creek	Stony River
Unorganized territories
Lake No. 1	Lake No. 2
Ghost towns
Avon Avoy Beaver Britton Buell Case Clark Crystal Darby Junction Drummond Eclfo Emetta Fernburg Tower Forest Center Freedom	Green Greenwood Junction Howlett Jordan Kent London Malmota Maple Marble Lake Moose Morris Murfin Nigadoo Norshore Junction North Branch	Riblet Scott Junction Silver Splitrock Stafford Summit Swift Thomas Waldo Wanless Westover Whyte Wolf York

Neighboring Counties

• Cook
• St. Louis

Resources

Cemeteries

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
Findagrave.com	Family History Library	Findagrave.com
MNGenWeb	WorldCat	Billion Graves
Tombstone Project		FamilySearch Places
Billion Graves
See Minnesota Cemeteries for more information.

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1860	248	—
1870	135	−45.6%
1880	106	−21.5%
1890	1,299	1125.5%
1900	4,654	258.3%
1910	8,011	72.1%
1920	8,251	3.0%
1930	7,068	−14.3%
1940	6,956	−1.6%
1950	7,781	11.9%
1960	13,702	76.1%
1970	13,351	−2.6%
1980	13,043	−2.3%
1990	10,415	−20.1%
2000	11,058	6.2%
2010	10,866	−1.7%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

State Census

• 1865 - Minnesota State Census, 1865 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1885 - Minnesota State Census, 1885 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1905 - Minnesota State Census, 1905 at FamilySearch — index and images

Church

Most church records are held by individual churches. Some denominations are gathering their records into a central repository. For more information, see Minnesota Church Records.

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Emigration and Immigration

• 1912 - 1956 - Minnesota Passenger and Crew Lists, 1912-1956 at FamilySearch — index and images

Land

The county register of deeds keeps land records once the land was transferred to private ownership. Abstracts and indexes for these records are generally available at the county courthouse.

Land records for Minnesota are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

MINNESOTA, Lake – LAND AND PROPERTY

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Lake County, Minnesota Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Minnesota Local Histories.

Maps

• FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

Military

World War II

• 1940-1945 - Minnesota, World War II Draft Registration Cards,1940-1947 at FamilySearch — index and images

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1872-1962 - Minnesota Naturalization Records and Indexes, 1872-1962 at FamilySearch — index

Newspapers

Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Lake County, Minnesota Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

• WorldCat
• FamilySearch. Do a Lake County, Minnesota Genealogy Place-name search for these and other records in the FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see, FamilySearch Catalog Places Search).

Obituaries

• 1865-2006 - Minnesota Obituaries 1865-2006 at FamilySearch— index and images

Probate

Probate records may include wills, bonds, petitions, accounts, inventories, administrations, orders, decrees, and distributions. They may include the decedent’s date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, etc. See Minnesota Probate Records for additional information. Online Probate Records

• 1801 - 1999 Minnesota Wills and Probate Records 1801-1999 at Ancestry.com — index and images $

Taxation

Since Minnesota tax records include only persons who owned taxable property, many residents were not included. Still they complement land records and can be used in place of missing censuses or the years between censuses. There may also be gaps. For more information, see the wiki page Minnesota Taxation.

Vital Records

Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents.

A copy or an extract of most original records can be purchased from the Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, or the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred. See also Minnesota Vital Records.

Birth

• 1900-1934 Minnesota, Birth Index, 1900-1934 at MyHeritage($) — index
• 1900-1934 Minnesota Births, 1900-1934 at Minnesota Historical Society - free index, images ($)

Marriage

• 1850-2019 WEB: Minnesota, Marriages from the Minnesota Official Marriage System, 1850-2019 at Ancestry($) — index
• 1860 - 1949 Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1976-2003 Minnesota, Marriages, 1976-2003 at MyHeritage($) — index

Death

• 1850-2001 - Minnesota, County Deaths, 1850-2001 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1887-2001 - Minnesota Deaths, 1887-2001 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1904-2001 Minnesota, Death Index, 1904-2001 at MyHeritage($) — index
• 1904-2001 Minnesota Deaths, 1904-2001 at Minnesota Historical Society - free index, images ($)

Societies and Libraries

Lake County Historical Society
PO Box 128
520 South Ave
Two Harbors MN,
Telephone: 218-834-4898
Website

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance, free access to center-only databases, and to premium genealogical websites.
FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have access to most center-only databases, but may not always have full services normally provided by a family history center.

• Family History Center and Affiliate Library Locator

Local Centers and Libraries

• Introduction to Family History Centers

Websites

• Lake County, MN Genealogy Forum (GenForum)
• FamilySearch Catalog

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.