While other collections at the Center of Southwest Studies may also contain
documents that are useful, the following are likely to be the richest source for
information about persons who have lived in the Four Corners region. The
arrangement of this list is alphabetical by collection title.
Collection I 002:
U.S.
census records on microfilm for the Four Corners States, 1850-1930, and
Indian census rolls, 1832-1940. The
Indian census records are for the entire U.S.
More specifically:
Indian
census rolls, 1884-1940 (M595, 692 r.)
Parsons & Abbott census of Creek Indians, 1832 (T275, 1 r.)
census of Cherokee Indians east of Mississippi R.+ index, 1835 (T496, 1 r.)
census of Old Settler Cherokee, 1895, & index, 1896 (T985, 2 r.)
Eastern Cherokee enrollment records by Guion Miller (M685, 12 r.)
USING MICROFILM JUST BECAME MORE FUN! Researchers using microfilm at the Delaney Southwest Research
L
ibrary: now you may save digitally scanned images from microfilm for use
electronically. Copy straight from the roll of microfilm on the reader to
your computer file! The thumbnail image on the right is a Fourth of July
illustration from The Creede Candle (Creede, Colo.), July 1, 1892. Click
on the image for a larger view. Fair use provisions apply. You,
the researcher, can only create these images for personal use.
The remainder of the most significant genealogical resources
at the Center of Southwest Studies are listed here alphabetically by collection
title:
In
Collection M 027, Series 6.6:
Durango (Colo.) City police arrest records online: 1881-1885
~
1929-1939 ~
1940-1949
Collection M
064:
Durango
(Colo.) personages collection (1.5 document cases)
Collection M 065:
Durango
(Colo.) naturalization records, 1882-1921 (1 document case).
Documents and certifications regarding persons born outside the United
States who were petitioning for U.S. citizenship through the La Plata County
District Court in Durango, Colorado, during the first four decades of Durango's
history as a city. Note: There
is no central location for - or index of - naturalization records prior to
September 1906. Federal district court records are generally held in a National
Archives regional branch.
Collection M 093:
First
National Bank of Durango (Colo.) collection, 1881-1886
(27 document cases)
Collection M 001:
Fort
Lewis College archives
(Restriction
note: these are only accessible to the person they describe.)
Series 14.2: Faculty and exempt staff employment records
in Archives
Series
20.C.2: Classified staff personnel records
in Archives
Series
20.C.9:
Hourly/temporary contract staff personnel records in Archives
Collection M 118:
Fort
Lewis Military Post federal records
In Collection M 211:
Fort Lewis
Indian School (Colo.) employees, 1892-1913
Collection
M 053-049: Kenneth Logan papers: Durango (Colo.) burial
permits, 1903-1906
Collection
M 028:
La
Plata County (Colo.) government records at the Center of Southwest Studies
Series 3.2:
La Plata
County (Colorado) marriages records, 1876-1959 (6,298 records online)
Series 3.2:
Marriage licenses and certificates, 1876-1908, 1915-1919, 1921-1959
June (in 6
records boxes and 4 flat boxes) (this and series 3.3 comprise 5,000 La Plata
County marriages records that are available for researchers' use in the Delaney
Southwest Research Library at the Center of Southwest Studies)
Series 3.3:
Marriage license
applications, 1881-1919 (in 2 records
boxes and 1 document case)
Series
4.1:
Assessor's tax lists and assessor's
rolls, 1879-1948 (151 volumes)
Series 14.10.1:
La
Plata County (Colorado) Register of the Poor, 1891-1942 (573 records online)
Series 17.1:
La Plata
County (Colorado) Justice of the Peace case files, 1880-1954 (1,640 records
online)
Series 18.1:
County Court
civil case records, 1925-1939 (in 8 document cases)
Series 18.2:
County Court criminal case records, 1930-1937 (in 2 document cases)
La
Plata County (etc.) genealogical books at the Southwest Research Library:
La
Plata County, Colorado mortuary index: La Plata County,
Colorado mortuary index: contains mortuary original-data file location,
date-of-birth, date-of-death, and place of burial / furnished by the
Genealogical Research Society of the Four Corners (formerly the Genealogical
Research Society of Durango), through the courtesy of Hood Mortuary,
Durango, Colorado, 1990. 2 volumes. Call number
F782.L18 L3 1901-88
Pioneers
of southwest La Plata County, Colorado/ prepared by the
History Committee of the Fort Lewis Mesa Reunion. Family History Publishers
(Bountiful, Utah), 1994. Call number
F782.L18 P56 1994
The
War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the official records of the Union
and Confederate armies. Published under the direction of the ... Secretary of War.
Call number
E464
.U6
(Index; 1 volume; 1,242 pages). Useful for Civil War research, due to
the exhaustive indexing of names.
Collection M 009:
Porter/
Hesperus/ Gifford collection
Series 2.1.8: Porter Fuel Company business records and
correspondence, 189- - 194- (31
document cases)
Collections I 047 and M 088:
Southwest
newspapers So
far as we are aware, this is the most
comprehensive collection of newspapers for the Four Corners region.
Microfilm is available for self-service use in the Southwest Research
Library; completion of special request form is needed for use of original
newspapers.
Collection M 025:
Southwest
telephone directories (8 linear shelf feet)
Collection M 002:
Western Colorado Power Company collection
Series 1.4:
Personnel records/ employee data, 1920-1978 (5+ document cases)
Links
to other resources for genealogical research in the southwest corner of
Colorado:
-
For
La Plata County (Colo.) birth certificates from 1920 (and some,
possibly earlier) to the present (and for the entire state of Colorado
from 1940 to the present), contact the San Juan Basin Health
Department (281 Sawyer Drive, PO Box 140, Durango, CO 81302; phone
970-247-5702; fax 970-247-9126). Birth certificates are available only to the individual
or to immediate family members (parents, siblings, and grandparents), at a
cost of $15 for the first certified copy (payment of the $15 is required,
whether or not the search is successful). Similar restrictions
pertain to the release of death certificates, which are held by each
county (San Juan Basin Health Department has the death certificates for
deaths that occurred in La Plata County). For other birth
certificates for births in Colorado (1910 to present) and for Colorado death
certificates (1900-present), contact the
State of Colorado Vital
Records (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Vital
Records Section, 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, HSVRD-VS-A1, Denver, CO
80246-1530; phone 303-692-2200; fax 800-423-1108), or contact the office of the county of
birth. Apparently, a number of the birth certificates for prior to
1920 were not preserved; in that case, it is possible to obtain a
"delayed birth certificate" from the Denver office. (The
Center of Southwest Studies itself has no birth certificate records.)
-
Durango Public Library
(1188 East Second Avenue, Durango, CO 81301;
Phone 970-375-3380; Fax 970-375-3398; Email
reference@ci.durango.co.us) maintains
a Southwest history collection, containing newspapers on microfilm dating
from the 1880s, cemetery and mortuary indexes, city directories, school
yearbooks, Sanborn fire insurance maps, a vertical file of newspaper
clippings, and histories about regional mining, railroads, and geological
studies. Of special note are the Durango Public Library’s subscription
databases, Heritage Quest and Olive Tree Genealogy, accessible via the
library’s home page, by selecting Information Databases at
http://www.durangopubliclibrary.org/
-
Silverton
(Colo.) Hillside
Cemetery
"Featured on this web site is a
complete
alphabetical index of more than 3,000 documented San Juan County
burials. The earliest known county burial was in 1872; the earliest known
cemetery burial was in 1875; the most recent burial was in 2000 …. all are
included in the index."
Names
from the Fort Lewis and Grand Junction Indian
Industrial Schools in the 1900 Federal Census, at http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/Indians/Indians.htm
Civilian
Conservation Corps: summary listing of the names of CCC workers enrolled in
La Plata County for the years 1934-1936, at http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/ccc/LaPlata_ccc.htm
La
Plata County Works Projects Administration (WPA) employment case files,
1935-1942, at
http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/wpa/laplata.html
Long-distance reference communications:
These
collections are located at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College. Interested researchers
should phone the archivist at 970/247-7126 or send electronic mail to the archivist
at: Ellison_T@fortlewis.edu
. Click here to use our E-mail Reference
Request Form. The Center does not have a budget for outgoing long-distance phone
calls to answer reference requests, so please leave an
email address if you wish to receive a response from us.
Doing your own research: This
description of a portion of the collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of
Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and
depth of the repository's collections. It cannot serve as a substitute for a
visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the
collections.
Researchers wanting more information about using
special collections materials that are located at the Center of Southwest
Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College may
email the archivist at
archives@fortlewis.edu or
click
here to use our E-mail Reference Request Form
(or phone the archivist at 970/247-7126). The Center does not have a budget for outgoing
long-distance phone calls to answer reference requests, so please email if you
wish to receive a response from the Center.
Guides
to the collections at the Center of Southwest Studies
Information for doing research at the Center
of Southwest Studies
Center of Southwest Studies
Page revised:
January 17, 2008
Pathfinder #7: