Seeking Michigan - a Treasure Trove of Resources for Your Michigan-based Ancestors

Family historians with Michigan-based ancestors have something to cheer about... it's called, Seeking Michigan.org.

Seeking Michigan is run by the Michigan Historical Center and it includes Archives of Michigan research guides, indexes, a blog, and other resources all from the Michigan Historical Center and Archives of Michigan staff.

As a genealogist I use this phenomenal website for two main reasons.

MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS 1897-1920

First, Seeking Michigan's most popular online collection is its Michigan Death Records, 1897-1920. With more than a million records, and with new material being added on a regular basis, this database allows the download of death records for your ancestors if they occurred in Michigan AND if that death took place in the time frame given.

There are some records post-1920.

And this is FREE. There is no cost to you. What a wonderful tool! I have personally downloaded hundreds of death records from this Seeking Michigan database. The records for download are high-resolution scans of the actual death certificate, not a transcription.

You can search using an advanced tool that allows you to refine the results by County. If you don't find your ancestor at first, try entering name variations. Here is what I do:

1a) search by known last name
1b) search by known last name and county
2a) search by first name
2b) search by first name and county

I had a recent client who hired me to find her Great Aunt who was rumored to have come to Grand Rapids, Michigan around the early 1900s. No trace could be found of her.

Without much to go on I decided to search Seeking Michigan's Death Record database. Perhaps she died early. It was worth a shot.

I entered her known last name. Nothing.

I then entered her first name which was in Dutch. A few results, but no matches.

I then reran the search but used English variations of her given Dutch name. This time I was successful in finding her. Though there were numerous matches, one stood out from all the others because, fortunately, her maiden name was also inserted on the death certificate.

MICHIGAN 1884 AND 1894 CENSUSES

Another important database that I use frequently is the Seeking Michigan 1884 and 1894 Census.

While the 1890 Federal Census was destroyed leaving a large gap between the Census years of 1880 and 1900, this gap can be overcome with the Michigan 1884 and 1894 Censuses if available: some of the 1894 Michigan Censuses are missing (destroyed).

This database can help the family researcher determine children born and/or deaths during this 20 year gap (1880-1900). I have found so many important clues using this database that I might otherwise never have found.

There are several other databases found on Seeking Michigan but the two mentioned in this article are the two I utilize the most, both for myself and for my clients.

So bookmark SeekingMichigan.org and browse the numerous resources to be found there.