Montana Emigration and Immigration
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How to Find the Records
Online Records
- 1500s-1900s All U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s at Ancestry; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Montana; Also at MyHeritage; index only ($)
- 1862-1867 Index of Wagon Train Emigrants From Minnesota to Montana; index only
- 1865-2009 Montana, Granite County Records, 1865-2009 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
- 1880-2009 Montana, Cascade County Records, 1880-2009 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
- 1894-1954 - United States, Border Crossings from Canada to United States, 1894-1954 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
- 1895-1954 Border Crossings:From Canada to U.S., 1895-1954 at Ancestry; index & images ($)
- 1895-1956 United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 at MyHeritge; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
- 1895-1964 All U.S., Border Crossings from Mexico to U.S., 1895-1964 at Ancestry; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
- 1897-1903 Klondike Pioneers From Montana; index only
- 1923-1956 Montana, Manifests of Immigrant Arrivals and Departures, 1923-1956 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
- Society of Montana Pioneers; constitution, members and officers, with portraits and maps.
Cultural Groups
- 1920-1939 Germany, Bremen Emigration Lists, 1920-1939 at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
- Germans Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
- Italians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritge; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
- Russians Immigrating to the United States at MyHeritage; index only ($); includes those with Destination of Montana
Background
- Pre-statehood settlers of Montana were trappers, missionaries, miners, cattlemen, farmers, and lumbermen. They came primarily from the mid-western states, although refugees from Confederate states came to the early mining camps.
- Some immigrants from Europe came to work in the mines, and others joined mid-westerners in homesteading parts of eastern Montana.
- Between 1910 and 1920 a homestead boom brought thousands of settlers, but years of drought in the 1920s caused many of them to leave the state.
- In 1920 nearly half the Montana population was foreign-born. Most immigrants were from Germany, Canada, Ireland, Norway, England, Sweden, or Austria.
- Many overseas immigrants to Montana came through the port of New York or other East Coast ports.
In-Country Migration
- In the 1860s, many gold seekers took steamboats from Saint Louis to Fort Benton, Montana, where they joined the Mullan Wagon Road leading to the camps.
- Other settlers traveled from the east by way of the Northern Overland Road, or the Bozeman Cutoff and other branches of the Oregon Trail.
- From the west, some took the Mullan Road at its terminus in Walla Walla.
- Others took an older route from Salt Lake City.
- The era of steamboats and trails finally came to an end in the 1880s when transcontinental railroads from Utah and Minnesota reached Montana.
- In the 1890s and 1900s, the building of branch railroad lines encouraged new mining and homesteading.
References
- Montana Research Outline. Salt Lake City, Utah: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., Family History Department, 1998, 2001. (NOTE: All of the information from the original research outline has been imported into the FamilySearch Wiki and is being updated as time permits.)