There are numerous places in Michigan to help with your research. Whether it is at the Archives of Michigan, or one of the many public libraries in the state, your research will be helped by the resources available here.
SeekingMichigan.org-a wonderful Michigan research website. One can find death records, civil war manuscripts and records, state census, early records, oral histories, and more. New content is added periodically, so keep checking.
Archives and Libraries
Archives of Michigan-the genealogy collection is known as the Abrams Collection, which use to be at the Library of Michigan, is now housed at the Archives. The Archives of Michigan is the repository of many records beneficial to genealogists. Researchers need a photo ID in order to research here. There are many
online guides available to help with the record collections found at the Archives.
Library of Michigan-the Library of Michigan holds the newspaper collection and law library. Use the
Answer Catalog to search for resources. If an item is held at the Archives, it will tell you that in your search.
Note: Please check the website for hours and location. The Archives and the Library have different operating hours. They are both located in the Michigan Library and Historical Center, Lansing, Michigan.
Bentley Historical Library at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-the Michigan Historical Collection has manuscripts, maps, and resource for all of Michigan counties.
Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan-this closed stacks library holds resources for northern half of Lower Peninsula. Some American Indians references can be found here.
Escanaba Public Library, Escanaba, Michigan-this library is the repository for the Delta County Genealogical Society Collection.
Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, Michigan-newspapers, census, card file, and much more is here. Grand Rapids, Kent County and other West Michigan counties is the main focus of their collection.
Van Raalte Institute, Hope College, Holland, Michigan-Dutch and Dutch American resources and history are available.
Hoyt Library, Saginaw, Michigan-Resources pertaining to the Saginaw area.
Mount Clemens Public Library, Mount Clemens, Michigan-Macomb County resources and digital archive collection are a couple of their highlights.
Interactive Library Directory-a search engine that has all the libraries in Michigan on it. You can narrow your search by county. Check
here for contact information for local libraries in your area of research. Many libraries have local history resources. Once you find a library in your area, google the library and check out their website. They might have online resources.
Organizations and Societies
These are a few of the resources available for researching in Michigan, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, or leave a comment.
Pure Michigan Genealogy is a series of posts on researching in Michigan. Archives, Libraries, Organizations and Societies is number five in the series. The red websites are new or have been updated. Other posts in this series includes: