Collections Of The State Historical Society Of Wisconsin

You will often find me writing that genealogy is by its nature, more then just facts. Its the history surrounding our ancestors lives that brings their character back to life. When you begin to find out not just when, where and why, but also the what and how of your ancestors' lives you will then truly understand what drove their passions, sorrows, and true grit.

The Historical Society of Wisconsin begun to publish in 1855 a series of volumes providing an eclectic look into the early history of Wisconsin. They originally titled these volumes as Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, however, they were later reprinted and called Collections Of The State Historical Society Of Wisconsin, which better reflects the majority of the content of each volume. While most of the data is historical in nature, some of the specific articles are large sources of genealogical content. At this time, only a few of the volumes have been reprinted online digitally. Some through WorldVitalRecords (listed as $ WVR) as part of their reference material, while others are available for free through Library of Congress and Google Books. We place links to the free content first, if its not available for free, then we search for an alternative paid resource. The links below for each volume reflect that, and clearly indicate when you are going to a paid subscription site. Feel free to use our 14 day free trial below.

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The manuscripts listed above concentrate on a series of events in the early heritage of Wisconsin:
  1. Native American Heritage of Wisconsin
  2. French Occupation of Wisconsin
  3. Early Missionaries in Wisconsin
  4. British Occupation of Wisconsin
  5. American Occupation of Wisconsin
  6. Indian Trade in Wisconsin
  7. Fur Trade in Wisconsin
  8. Immigration to Wisconsin

For the historian the early documents may shed light on what would otherwise be a difficult to find ancestor, since little written record is left for this era. I repeatedly found references from early inhabitants of resident lists for the communities early established around trading posts and missionaries.