This guide supports work in HIST 489, the Senior Seminar in History at NDSU. Students build the content, listing sources, telling where to find them, giving tips on how to use them.

Source: Ancestry Library - provides online access to manuscript federal census returns, as well as other grassroots sources

Location: NDSU Libraries database, access from an NDSU computer

Tips on Use: Search for listings of individuals who figure in the story of your monument, also study the listings for the community to get a sense of the cultural base of your memory group. Use the initial interface, "Historical Records," to search broadly about an individual. Use the federal census links to call up actual manuscript pages dealing with your community of study.

Source: Local histories at the Institute for Regional Studies

Location: Institute for Regional Studies & NDSU Archives, N of 19th Avenue - local histories shelved in reading room for user access

Tips on Use: All local histories are cataloged into ODIN, so search via the online library catalog. Consider county histories, community (town) histories, church histories, school histories, and any other local histories that you can think of. Besides using the online catalog, also browse the shelves. Local histories are shelved by county and community, and so you can find the area for you locality and browse through it. Look not only for information specific to your monument but also for the general historical and cultural context of the monument.

Source: North Dakota Fire Insurance Maps, 1921-1965, by the Fire Underwriters' Inspection Bureau - for detailed maps of small-town locations of monuments

Location: Institute for Regional Studies & NDSU Archives, N of 19th Avenue

Tips on use: First, find this manuscript collection in ODIN and follow the link to the finding aid for the collection; there you can view the inventory and see if there is a map for your town. Study the map for the specific locational context of your monument as well as for what it can tell you of the general cultural context of the community.

Source: Sanborn fire insurance maps

Other Advice and Tips on Primary Research

Here write any advice or tips you see fit.