About the MTGenWeb Project

 

In the Spring of 1996, Corky Knebel developed an interest in providing access to free genealogy resources on the internet. She developed a Montana Genealogy Research Site and in late 1996, decided to affiliate with the USGenWeb. Corky continued as State Coordinator for MTGenWeb for 4 1/2 years. The last few years of her service she was greatly assisted by her co-coordinator, Vicki Lindsay Thauvin. On March 1, 2001, Corky submitted her resignation and Vicki became the new MTGenWeb Project State Coordinator.

In October 2005, Vicki resigned as the State Coordinator.  Nathan Zipfel was elected in November 2005 as the new State Coordinator and he appointed Vikki Gray his ASC.

In December 2007, Kevin Haddenham was elected as the new State Coordinator,  He appointed Karen De Groote-Johnson as Assistant State Coordinator.  It is the desire of the new Coordinator and Assistant to update the Montana Gen Web pages and recruit new volunteers.

As of November 2008, Kevin Haddenham needed to resign.  We thank Kevin for his wonderful service and wish him a speedy recovery.  We are currently represented by Interim State Coordinator, Karen De Groote-Johnson and new Interim Assistant State Coordinator, Nancy Thornton. 

In December 2008 Karen De Groote-Johnson was elected State Coordinator and appointed Nancy Thornton as Assistant State coordinator.

In February 2012 Karen needed to resign and as her term and Nancy's term had expired a new election was held.

In February 2012 the MTGenWeb project elected Shirley Cullum as State Coordinator and Shirley appointed Judy Wallis White as Assistant State Coordinator.

The goal for the MTGenWeb Project is to recruit more volunteers and, together with them, continually develop the site into an outstanding, free genealogy research site.

People all over the US have volunteered to help us out. Would you like to join our great group by helping as a volunteer?

How can you help?

If your ancestral county has a page on our MTGenWeb site at this time, post a query and your surnames there.

ADOPT A COUNTY

If the county does not have a coordinator, can you adopt and maintain it? Perhaps you didn't realize that counties have been adopted across the nation by both individuals and by genealogical societies. See our Policies Page for more information on requirements and links to helping you create and develop a site.

TYPE, TYPE, TYPE!

If you don't care to adopt a county, or if the county in which you are most interested is already adopted, you can still help! We need people to transcribe any of the following public or private records or an index to them and submit the document to the USGenWeb Project Archives or the appropriate Montana county coordinator:

Records you could transcribe for the Project would include:

• Federal Census (free, slave, mortality, agriculture, veteran's...) or census indexes
• State Census or census indexes
• Vital Records, (marriage, birth, death...)
• Court records, (county, federal, civil, circuit, probate, divorce....)
• Church records, (baptisms, member lists....
• Family Bible records
• Newspapers*, (obits, marriages, birth announcements....)
• Prison Records
• Military Records & information, (rosters, muster rolls, service records, pension applications, recorded discharge papers, family military data....)
• Land Records
• Native American records, biographical information, census, genealogies, and resources.
• Tax Records
• Local Histories*
• Local Directories*
• Occupational Records, (Union files, mining files, railroad retirement records, company newsletters....)
• Educational Records (Montana school records, newsletters, yearbook indexes....)
• Physician Licenses (some county courthouses have a book that records licenses recorded in the county from the very early years.

*Make sure that if any of the records you wish to transcribe are from published material that is not still under copyright. If it is, you will be asked to post a written letter of permission from the author before it can be placed on our site.