Dunn County Wisconsin Genealogy

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Welcome to Dunn County Genealogy!

Dunn County, Wisconsin was created out of a portion of Chippewa County in 1854, with the first county seat at Dunnville (earlier called Colburn's Landing). The county was named for Charles Dunn, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin Territory. Dunn had been appointed by Pres. Andrew Jackson in 1835.

Lumbering was an important industry in the development of Dunn County. The earliest lumbering operations were started in 1822 by fur traders Lockwood and Rollette who erected a mill at the confluence of Wilson Creek and the Red Cedar River, at what is the present site of Menomonie. A second mill was built in Menomonie in 1830 and another at Gilbert Creek in 1831. A settlement was established on the river near Dunnville about 1829-30.

According to H.C. Cooper, Jr., "Most of the pioneer settlers in Dunn County were attracted to this region by the opportunities for steady employment in the lumber industry, though there were a few, even in the early (18)60's, who took homesteads and began to build up farms."

This web site is here to assist you in researching your Dunn County ancestors. If you would like to contribute your information to this web site, or have books, cemetery surveys, vital records, census records or any other genealogical information for Dunn County, WI, please e-mail the coordinator. We can also use volunteers who are willing to look up information in Dunn County or Dunn County resources. Thanks!

County Coordinator since 1997: Linda K. Schwartz

"Dunn County Genealogy" is part of the WIGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects

Area Genealogy News . . .

Dunn County Genealogical Society Meetings:

Meets the third Saturday of the month, usually at the Dunn County Historical Museum in Wakanda Park, Menomonie. Please contact the organization for specific details about their meeting topics.

Gene-A-Rama 2013, a Wisconsin State Genealogical Society event, will take place in Wausau, Wisconsin, at The Plaza Hotel & Suites on April 5th-6th, 2013. The Plaza Hotel & Suites is located at 201 N. 17th Avenue. The theme is: "Putting it all together: Methodology and Resources!" The primary speaker will be Paula Stuart-Warren. Registration forms and information is available on the WSGS website. There is a discount for registering before March 15, 2013. Make hotel reservations by March 4.

Also from the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society . . . Tuesday, Feb. 19 - 7:00 pm - a Webinar entitled: "The Winter of Our Discontent: 3 Months to Better Organization" presented by DearMYRTLE. This free webinar will give us tips for organizing our precious genealogy records during these cold and snowy months when we can't get in the cemeteries or drive distances to do research. Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7582699825196533760

Genealogy at the Wisconsin Historical Society . . .

The Wisconsin Historical Society is now hosting webinars.

Webinar: Genealogy, Where Do I Go Next? There are various layers of genealogical research. If you've used the censuses, vital records and newspapers, this webinar will show you how to research advanced records for immigration, military, land and other aspects of our ancestors' stories. This is a great class if you have brick walls in your research. Start Date: 3/11/2013 End Date: 3/11/2013 Event Times: 6–8 pm

Instructor: Lori Bessler, reference librarian
To Register: Contact Lori Bessler at 608-264-6519, via email at AskLibrary@wisconsinhistory.org or download a printable registration form (PDF 136 KB).
Ticket Info: $25 for Wisconsin Historical Society or Wisconsin State Genealogical Society members, $30 for non-members
Venue: Online Webinar

Webinar: Organizing Family History Projects and Event If you have done a lot of research, you will need to figure out how to share that information with family and friends. This class will identify a wide variety of projects as well as help you to organize family history events. March 23 - 10 am to noon. Learn more

ALSO:
Descendants of Wisconsin residents now have the power to look up their ancestors online: The state historical society has launched a free online index of pre-1907 births, deaths and marriages at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/vitalrecords. The database, built with a 1970s-era microfiche index and tens of thousands of delayed birth, death and marriage records, catalogs more than a million Wisconsin births from the 1840s through 1907.

Search the index by just a last name, or add a first name, county, birth date or birth year. If you know the birth date, you can search on it plus a first name. Or, when information is really sparse, browse by a county and a birth year. Once you find your ancestor, a quick click lets you order a $15 copy of the record.

Wisconsin Genealogy Websites:

Available online from the UW Stout-Research Center Archives or State of Wisconsin:

The digitized version of the History of Dunn County (published in 1925) is now available online as part of The State of Wisconsin Collection. Click on Contents at the top of the page to see a list of the sections of the book. All pages have been scanned.
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.IHDunnCounty
Dunn County Cemetery Index [Tip: Wait for the page to fully load before you click on it.]
County Court Records Index

New web site for genealogists:

FamilySearch.org - Free family history, family tree, and genealogy records and resources from around the world. Includes online birth, marriage, death, census, church and other indexes. From the LDS Family History Library.

Do you have a family history website? Let us know and we'll add it to our "Family Pages". Who knows ... you might even find a new cousin by posting your site there. Email the County Coordinator (Remove the words NOSPAM from the end of the address).

QUERIES, BIOS, OLD OBITS, Etc.

Post your queries, obituaries, biographies, birth, death, immigration information, etc. to the Dunn County Message board. Choose an appropriate Classification as part of your message. Note: All messages posted to the board are also automatically posted to the Dunn County Mail List.

Neighboring Counties

If you are interested in hosting a Wisconsin County website, please contact Tina Vickery, the WIGenWeb Project State Coordinator, for the list of counties currently available for adoption.

Copyright Notice: All files on this site are copyrighted by their creator and/or contributor. They may be linked to but may not be reproduced on another site without specific permission from Linda Schwartz and/or their contributor. Although public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in which they are presented, the notes and comments, etc., are. It is however, quite permissible to print or save the files to a personal computer for personal use ONLY.

WIGenWeb Project logo was created by Debbie Barrett
The USGenWeb Project logo is the property of The USGenWeb Project

This page last updated: 11 Mar 2013 03:05 PM -0500

Visitors since Sept. 1997

In Memory of my Sister

Carol Tremble Barresi

Dec. 20, 1951 - Feb. 7, 2002