Welcome to the Ward County, North Dakota genealogy page. Historic trails which crisscross Ward County in all directions played a signficiant role in the opening of the West and the settlement of the state. It was the railroads that made the biggest impact on Ward County's settlements and growth. The railroad located towns along its tracks and sold lots and farmsites from its land grant to settlers to fund the extension of its rails westward. This sale of large tracts of land gave rise to bonanza wheat farms which are still in operation today in the county. By 1890 over two thousand miles of track crisscrossed the state. Nearly half of North Dakota's population in 1890 was foreign-born with large settlements of Swedish, Norwegian, German, and Russian emmigrants scattered throughout the state. Minot is the countyseat of Ward County. Today people from all over the world travel to Minot each fall to take part in the Norst Hostfest (the largest Scandinavian festival in North America). The local genealogy society for Ward County is Mouse River Link Genealogy Society which meets the first Saturday of every month in the Minot Public Library. Today the traditions and values of these early settlers still remain strong in the people of Ward County. There is also a mailing list for Ward County, ND. To subscribe to this list, simply send the message "subscribe" in the message part of an e-mail to NDWARD-L-request@rootsweb.com Please take a few minutes to explore this page and discover the heritage of Ward County.
Where
to write for vital records 
Patrice Hartman Patrice Hartman does private reserach on North Dakota census records and North Dakota Archives
John Mogren Seeking your roots in the Kenmare area? I have considerable genealogical/holdings for this area and am willing to do limited research for you. Contact John Mogren.
Recently an article appeared in the "Minot Daily News" which might be of some interest to genealogists of North Dakota:
People who know the locations of wrought iron cross cemeteries in 10 counties west of the Missouri River (DOES NOT INCLUDE WARD COUNTY) are asked to contact the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
The ten counties are Billings, Dunn, Golden Valley, Grant, Hettinger, Mercer, Morton, Olivier, Sioux and Stark. These counties have the highest concentration of wrought iron cross cemeteries in the state.
Wrought iron is a commerical form of iron that is especially sturdy, malleable and relatively soft.
The State Historical Society is requesting the information to complete a survey of German-Russian wrought iron cross cemeteries in North Dakota begun in 1987-88.
Timothy Kloberdanz, associate professor of anthropology at North Dakota State University, Fargo, conducted the survey in south central North Dakota. From research, Kloberdanz complied a document, "German-Russina Wrought Iron Crosses in Central North Dakota," and wrote National Register nominations for 23 cemeteries.
Anyone with information about the location of the wrought iron cross cemeteries should contact Rolene Schliesman, architectural historian with the State Historical Society of North Dakota at the North Dakota Heritage Center, 612 E. Boulevard Ave., Bismarck, ND 58505 or call (701)328-2033 or e-mail her at ccmail.rschlies@ranch.state.nd.us
NORTH DAKOTA HERITAGE CENTER HAS MORE RESEARCH TOOLS AVAILABLE: Here are some of the materials recently added to the research colections: (1) A complete microfilm roll set of the "Harper's Weekly" published from 1857 through 1900, (2) The index to the Congressional Serial Set provides documents generated by the first through the 95th Congress, covering the years 1789 to 1969, (3) A complete microfilm set of muster rolls for the Seventh U. S. Calvary from Aug. 31, 1886 to Dec. 31, 1884, (4) A complete set of the "Journal of the United States Calvary Association" from 1888 through 1906, (5) A complete set of the "Army and Navy Journal" from 1863 through 1902, (6) An index listing all soldiers from Dakota Territory who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, (7) A recent publication of a manuscript by renowned American artist, George Catlin, titled "Catlin's O-kee-pa: Mandan Culture and Ceremonial," (8) A set of microfilmed copies of the "Vessel Documentation Records from the Port of Pembina, ND," covering the years 1885 through 1959, and (9) An expansion of the State Historical Society's collection of known fire insurance maps by the Sanborn Map Co. of cities and towns in North Dakota, to include the microfilmed set from the Library of Congress. This expansion doubles the number of city and town maps available for researchers at the State Historical Society.
This page is always under construction. Please return often to see what improvements and new links have been added.
If you have comments
or suggestions, email me with Ward County in the subject line at, ahrendtd@minot.ndak.net
You are visitor number . This page was last updated Dec. 27, 2002.
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