Records that survive
These are the record series from Beltrami County held by the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, taken from its finding aids for the county's offices, with the office that kept each and the earliest and latest years. A span can include gaps.
Marriages, births and deaths
- Cemetery clippings and legal papers · Poor Farm1979
Deeds and land
- U. S. land certificates · Auditor1904–1909
- Land reported for assessments · Auditor1920–1928
- Abstracts of votes · Auditor1924–1956
- Notices of hearings for surveys · Auditor1924–1960
- State rural credit lands papers · Auditor1928–1938
Military and pensions
- Lists on inmates dead and discharged · Poor Farm1920–1929
Tax records
- Bank assessments and abatements of property denied · Auditor1928–1948
- Statements of township officers elected and taxes voted · Auditor1940–1944
- Power and light companies tax list · Auditor1953–1966
Court records
- Jail registers · Sheriff1899–1998
- Miscellaneous district court papers regarding jurors, salaries and appointments · Auditor1913–1960
- Automobile owners in Beltrami County · Sheriff1918
- Criminal Dockets · County Attorney1931–1962
- Law enforcement center annual report · Sheriff1978
Schools
- Teacher examination records · Superintendent of Schools1897–1926
- School district files · Superintendent of Schools1898–1970
- School district record · Superintendent of Schools1898–1920
- Annual/quarterly reports · Superintendent of Schools1899–1938
- Petitions to consolidate or annex school districts · Auditor1899–1915
- Freeholders' petitions for change of school district · Auditor1901–1916
- Petitions to establish school districts · Auditor1901–1905
- Term record · Superintendent of Schools1904–1968
- Valuation of village, town, and school district lists · Auditor1910–1913
- Lists of teachers · Superintendent of Schools1914–1939
- Correspondence · Superintendent of Schools1918–1926
- Census · Superintendent of Schools1920–1969
- Reports of school nursing · Superintendent of Schools1920–1921
- Correspondence regarding Red Lake School · Superintendent of Schools1921–1952
- and 14 more series in the full listing
Elections and voters
- Certificates of election and oaths of office · Auditor1913–1970
- Petitions for county option elections · Auditor1916
Welfare and the poor
- Poor farm record · Poor Farm1901–1909
- Monthly reports of superintendent of poor farm · Poor Farm1904–1935
- Proposed physicians fees · Poor Farm1920–1937
- Inventory of furnishings · Poor Farm1924–1942
- Reports of receipts and expenditures · Poor Farm1925–1931
- Annual financial reports · Poor Farm1926–1939
- Photographs · Poor Farm1928–1930
- Report on medical services rendered to the county and poor farm · Poor Farm1930–1936
- Annual and monthly reports of the poor farm superintendent · Poor Farm1931–1937
County government
- Journals · Treasurer1881–1956
- Financial journal · Auditor1883–1897
- Financial ledger · Auditor1883–1897
- Miscellaneous records · Board of County Commissioners1894–2020
- Road petitions · Auditor1896–1920
- Lists of qualified electors · Auditor1902
- Annual financial statements · Auditor1905–1975
- Affidavits of candidates for nomination · Auditor1906–1942
- Trial Balances · Treasurer1906–1966
- Judicial roads' miscellaneous papers · Auditor1910–1957
- Appraiser's return, pages 102-110 · Auditor1914–1915
- County political parties conventions returns of delegates and affidavits · Auditor1922
- County fairgrounds and buildings, miscellaneous papers · Auditor1924–1946
- Minnesota general hospital levy papers · Auditor1926–1931
- and 13 more series in the full listing
Other records
- Community health services records1969–2005
Search the Historical Society's catalog for this county
Source: Minnesota Historical Society, government records finding aids. The Society holds only part of each county's records; most deeds and many court and vital records are still at the county. Minnesota began statewide registration of births in 1900 and of deaths in 1908.
Where to find the records
- Beltrami County official website
Hours, addresses and phone numbers for the county recorder, the district court and the Minnesota Historical Society, and any online record search the county offers.
- The county recorder
Deeds, mortgages and other land records from the county's beginning (the recorder was called the register of deeds until 1976). County birth and death records from 1870 on were first kept by the clerk of district court; in many counties they are now with the recorder, in others with the court administrator, and some recorders also have the marriage records.
- The district court
Civil and criminal cases, divorces and, in many counties, marriage licenses. Since Minnesota's courts were unified in the 1980s, probate (wills and estates) has been part of the district court as well.
- The Minnesota Historical Society
In St. Paul: many counties' older probate, tax, school and other records, the state censuses of 1865 to 1905, and statewide indexes to births (1900 to 1934) and deaths (1904 to 2001).
- Minnesota Historical Society catalog: Beltrami Countyfree
Everything the Society's library and archives hold for Beltrami County: county records, histories, directories, maps and more.
- Minnesota People Records Searchfree
The Historical Society's indexes to Minnesota birth records (1900–1934), death records (1904–2001) and the state censuses, with copies to order.
- Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS)free
A search of marriage records kept by the counties. Choose BELTRAMI under County; the years covered differ by county, and Scott and Washington counties don't take part.
- FamilySearch Catalogfree
Search by place for "Minnesota, Beltrami" to find filmed and digitized records, many viewable free online with a FamilySearch account.
Offices change their hours and access rules; call before you visit.
Boundaries and parent counties
Formed from: Itasca County, Pembina County (now Kittson), Polk County
Check the parent counties for earlier records: Itasca County, Kittson County, Polk County
Later formed partly from Beltrami County: Clearwater County, Lake of the Woods County
Records stay with the county that created them. If your ancestor lived here before 1866, search the parent county. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries shows each boundary change.
Research tip
Minnesota took its own census in 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895 and 1905. They are indexed in the Historical Society's People Records Search (not every county appears in every year), and the 1905 census, like the 1895 census for men over 21, says how long each person had lived in the state and in the district, a clue to when a family arrived.