Local history books for Iowa’s counties, cities, and towns contain biographical and historical information. Some have information on families back to the 1600s. The information about individuals may include age, birth date, birthplace, county origins and boundaries, death information, divorce, ethnicity, historical background, immigration date, names of living relatives, wife’s maiden name, marriage information, naturalization information, occupation, parents’ names, childrens’ names, names of other family members, place of previous residence, religion, and information about social activities.

The following important events in the history of Iowa affected political jurisdictions, record-keeping, and family movements.

1673	French explorers, Jolliet and Marquette, were in the region of Iowa.
1762	The land was ceded to Spain.
1788	The first white settlement (for lead mining) was established in Iowa, but it was abandoned in 1810.
1800	The land was returned to France.
1803	The United States acquired the area from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
1803–32	The Iowa area remained Indian land and was not open to legal settlement.
1808	Fort Madison was built by the United States Army. Iowa’s area was included in the Illinois Territory in 1808 and in the Missouri Territory in 1812 through 1821. It was not under any territorial government from 1821 to 1834.
1831	The Sauk and Fox Indian tribes moved to Iowa from Illinois.
1832	The Black Hawk War took place.
1833	The first permanent white settlements were made in eastern Iowa. Between 1833 and 1851 a series of treaties extinguished Indian claims to the land.
1834	Congress attached the area to the Michigan Territory.
1836	Iowa was transferred to the Wisconsin Territory.
1838	The Iowa Territory was established. It included all of present-day Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of North and South Dakota.
1846	Iowa, with its present boundaries, became a state.
1850–60	The population of Iowa nearly tripled as immigrants poured in from the older midwestern states and Europe.
1861–65	Over 75,000 Iowans served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.
1867	The first railroad was built from the Mississippi River to Council Bluffs.
1873	Iowa, known as the Hawkeye State and the Corn
1893–1930s	State, experienced financial depressions.