Key Features

Clay County Recorder
Search the Marriage Record Index or the Death Record Index.
Please read instructions for searching these indices very carefully. They are not quite as user-friendly as some other online databases, but incredibly helpful once you know how to use them.

Dalby Database
An online searchable database of over 2000 cemeteries throughout Minnesota.

Clay County Historical Society 
The CCHS Website has been updated.
NEW! A History of Clay and Norman Counties now online!
They've scanned and turned into PDF files this collection of biographical sketches of over 650 residents of Clay and Norman Counties. The sketches include quite a lot of helpful genealogical information and over 80 photographs, all available for downloading and printing.

1880 Census Index for Clay County, MN
Head of Household Index (A-Z)

Death Index (1904-2001)
Link to MNHS Death Certificate Index
Searchable by mother's maiden name.

Birth Index (1900-1922)
Link to MNHS Birth Certificate Index
Searchable by mother's maiden name.

History of Clay County, MN

The County was established in 1858 as Breckenridge County, named for John C. Breckenridge, Vice President of the United States from 1857-1861. After the Civil War started, Breckenridge joined the army of the south. Pressure by Minnesota residents resulted in the State Legislature of Minnesota passing a bill on March 6, 1862, rescinding the name of Breckenridge. The county was then renamed for Henry Clay (1777-1852). Clay was known as a statesman and orator, and called "The Great Pacificator". The city of Moorhead has been the county seat since 1872.

Neighboring counties include: Norman County to the north, Becker County to the east, Otter Tail and Wilkin counties to the south, and the North Dakota county of Cass to the west.

Volunteers wanted!If you have access to birth, marriage, and death information, cemetery listings, or census data for Clay County, please consider contributing it to this site for transcription or offering it as a lookup. Also consider becoming a census volunteer for the USGenWeb Census Project.

If you would like to subscribe to the Clay County Mailing List send an email message with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) as the only text in the body of a message to:
MNCLAY-L-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or 
MNCLAY-D-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).

I will be adding new links and information as I acquire them. Please contact me if you have any ideas about other links or material that you would like to see included in these pages. Thank you.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Cara Mumford