Ramsey County, Minnesota Genealogy

United States

Minnesota

Ramsey County

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

Minnesota Online Genealogy Records

Ramsey County, Minnesota
Map
Location in the state of Minnesota, United States Genealogy
Location of Minnesota in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	October 27, 1849
County Seat	St. Paul
Courthouse
Address	Ramsey County Courthouse 15 Kellogg Blvd W St. Paul, MN 55102 Phone: 651.266.4444 Ramsey County Website

County Information

Description

The County was named for Alexander Ramsey (W), the first governor of the Minnesota Territory. The County is located in the east-central area of the state.

Ramsey County, Minnesota Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1870	1850	1870	1900	1844	1849	1836
Statewide registration started for births in 1900 and deaths in 1908. General compliance by 1915.

County Courthouse

Clerk District Court has birth and death records from 1870,
marriage records from 1850,
divorce and court records from 1900
and probate records from 1849.
Historical Society has court records
1858-1899 and land records.

History

Parent County

1849--Ramsey County was created 27 October 1849 from old St. Croix County in  Wisconsin Territory.
County seat: St. Paul

• For a brief history of how Ramsey County was named, click here, then select Ramsey County.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

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
Arden Hills Blaine Falcon Heights Gem Lake Lauderdale Little Canada	Maplewood Mounds View New Brighton North Oaks North St. Paul Roseville	Shoreview St. Anthony Saint Paul Spring Lake Park Vadnais Heights White Bear Lake
Unincorporated communities
Bald Eagle	Bellaire
Townships
White Bear

Neighboring Counties

• Anoka
• Dakota
• Hennepin
• Washington

Resources

Cemeteries

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

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1850	2,227	—
1860	12,150	445.6%
1870	23,085	90.0%
1880	45,890	98.8%
1890	139,796	204.6%
1900	170,554	22.0%
1910	223,675	31.1%
1920	244,554	9.3%
1930	286,721	17.2%
1940	309,935	8.1%
1950	355,332	14.6%
1960	422,525	18.9%
1970	476,255	12.7%
1980	459,784	−3.5%
1990	485,765	5.7%
2000	511,035	5.2%
2010	508,640	−0.5%
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.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Ward and Branch Records

• St. Paul

Lutheran

Ramsey County

• Records of the American Lutheran Church, St. Paul, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

St. Mathew's Lutheran Church

• Records of the St. Mathew's Lutheran Church, Ramsey County, in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America database at Archives.com ($).

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

Directories

• Fold3.com ($) has St. Paul City Directories 1863-1924 (4 yrs. missing) available online.
• St. Paul City Directories 1856 - 1922 Free

Genealogy From Periodicals

• Jones, Andrew Forsyth. The French Family of Sunderland and the USA. History of the family of Joseph and Mary Ann French with description of their son Joseph French born 1847, Gateshead, and his wife Frances Ann Samuel, born Sunderland, July 1846. Photo included on their golden wedding. The family of Joseph and Frances and all but one of their children emigrate to USA in 1887, and settle in St Paul, Minnesota, and after 5 years move onto San Francisco. Photo of Andrew Forsyth, and Elizabeth nee French in 1903. Other surnames mentioned: Bennett, Forsyth, Douce, Winks, Lundgren. Article dated 1846-1954, and is found in the Northumberland & Durham Family History Society Journal. vol. 32,no.2pages 48-49. Family History Library Ref. 942.8 B2jo vol. 32.no.2.(summer 2007)
  

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, Ramsey – LAND AND PROPERTY

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Ramsey 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

Civil War

Civil War service men from Ramsey County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are many companies or regiments that were formed from men of Ramsey County.

- 1st Regiment, Minnesota Cavalry (Mounted Rangers), Company G.

- 1st Battalion, Minnesota Infantry Volunteers, Company A.

- 1st Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies A and F.

- 1st Regiment, Minnesota Heavy Artillery, Companies G and H.

- 2nd Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies B, D, F, G, H, I and K.

- 2nd Regiment, Minnesota Cavalry, Company A.

- 3rd Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Company B.

- 4th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies E, G, and K.

- 5th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies D, E, F, and I.

- 6th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies A and G.

- 7th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Company H.

- 8th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies H and K.

- 10th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, Companies H and K.

- Brackett's Battalion, Minnesota Cavalry, Companies A and C.

- Hatch's Independent Battalion, Minnesota Cavalry, Companies A and D.

- 2nd Minnesota Company Sharpshooters, Second Company only.

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 Ramsey County, Minnesota Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

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

• Daily Globe (Saint Paul, Minn.) – 1880-1884
• St. Paul Daily Globe (Saint Paul, Minn.) – 1884-1896
• The Saint Paul Globe (Saint Paul, Minn.) – 1896-1905
• The appeal . : (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19?? African-American newspaper. More than 1,500 issues between 1889 and 1922 have been digitized and are fully searchable on-line at the Library of Congress, Chronicling America website.

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

Ramsey County
1485 E 7th Street
St. Paul 55106

Ramsey County Historical Society
323 Landmark Center
75 West Fifth Street
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102
Telephone: 651-222-0701
Website

Little Canada Historical Society
515 Little Canada Rd E
Little Canada MN 55117-1633
Telephone: 651-766-4044
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

St Paul Minnesota Family History Center

FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries

Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd West
St Paul, MN 55102

Websites

• Ramsey County, MN Genealogy Forum (GenForum)
• FamilySearch Catalog
• Ramsey County Genealogy (Minnesota Genealogy)

This website requires a paid subscription for full access.