Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing
genealogical and historical data and placing it online for the free use of all researchers.
This website is available for adoption.
We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online and are interested in helping this project
be as successful as we can make it. If you are interested in joining our group by hosting one of the available
county websites, view our Volunteer
Page for further information about us and then contact Kim.
[A desire to transcribe data and knowledge of how to make a basic
webpage is required.]
All information you find on this site is submitted by people like you and me, searching for their family roots.
We welcome any information you may wish to provide for the free research of others. So, dust off those old scrapbooks
you have in your attic, dig out those old newspapers, or anything else you feel is of interest to this County,
and send them our way. We are looking for obituaries, newspaper stories, biographies, Birth, Death and Marriage
records, as well as interesting tidbits from years gone past - the items YOU used to put together your family trees.
If you have information that you'd like to share with us on the history of this county and its people, please send it to us and we'll make sure it gets posted online.
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The County is 587 square miles in area, originally vegetated with oak prairie
savannas. Dakota County lies within the confluence of three of the four major rivers draining from the State of
Minnesota -- the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers along the northern border and the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers
on the eastern border. The County's development and history have been greatly influenced by its proximity to these
rivers.
Previous to European settlement, Dakota County was part of an expansive territory of the Dakota tribe of American
Indians. In 1689, Nicholas Perrot, a fur trader, proclaimed possession of Dakota, Ojibwe (Chippewa), and other
American Indian lands for the nation of France, without the consent of the tribes. Lands west of the Mississippi
River were annexed from France to the United States in 1805 through the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1849, the Minnesota Territory legislature created nine original counties, including Dakota. The County's original
boundary extended only as far south as Hastings, but extended west several hundred miles to the Missouri River.
The County seat was first established in Kaposia in 1853, was moved to Mendota in 1854, and moved again to Hastings
in 1857, where it currently resides. Mendota, directly across the river from Fort Snelling, became the first European
settlement in Minnesota. As American Indians were systematically removed from their lands and rebellions moved
further to the west, large numbers of European settlers began arriving to the region in the mid-1850s. With increased
population, Minnesota became a state in May 1858, nine years after the inception of Dakota County.
Source: Dakota County Government.
Submitted by John Bauer
Online Data
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BIRTHS
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OBITS
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MARRIAGES
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CEMETERIES
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CENSUS
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BIOGRAPHIES
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DEATHS
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CHURCHES
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NEWS & GOSSIP
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HISTORY
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MILITARY
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Website updates:
May 2009: BERRY suicide
Nov 2008: County History; Township/City History; Civil War Enlistees, 1868 Hastings Business directory; WW II Casualties;
Bio for CROWLEY |
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