Utah
Utah
I found Utah's online archives a confusing cluster of collections, but then again, I once got lost in Zion National Park, so who's to say...?
Anyway, head to the Utah State Archives site, where you'll quickly notice a promising link to Digital Archives, or as Utah likes to refer to them, “Archives without walls”...a nice sentiment, though somewhat marred by that awful software that limits user access to full, high quality images and by Utah's insistence on copyrighting historical materials that probably aren't copyrightable. OK, done whining!
There is some excellent material here. In addition to birth and death certificates, there are legislative records, government files, court cases and some unusual records, such as the Prisoners' pardon application case files (1892-1949) and the Indian War Service Affidavits (1909-1919).
The Name Index provides easy and in-depth searching for many thousands of individual name records that originate in numerous family history/genealogy records, including:
- Birth Records
- Marriage Records
- Death Records
- Cemetery and Burial Records
- Utah Burials Database
- Criminal Records
- Probate Court Records
- Naturalization records
- Property Research
- City & Town Records
The Digital Collection doesn't include many of the more typical photos, such as old postcards, landscapes, historical images, magazines, travel brochures and the like. For that, you have to go to Utah State History site and visit their Online Sources,
which include Cemetery Records and Utah Markers and Monuments.
The most significant collection, though, looks to be the more than 65,000 Photographs with a number of donated personal collections from various periods and places, along with a few intriguing topical collections:
- KUED Topaz Residents
- City Engineers Photographic Collection
- Peoples of Utah
- Civilian Conservation Corps
- General Photographs
- Panoramas and Scenic Views
- Olympic Legacy (2002 Winter Olympics)
and my personal favorite,
More historical archives and research materials can be found at these excellent resources:
