Anyone researching their ancestors in Shoshone County should be aware of the important connection between Shoshone County, Bonner County, Kootenai County, Spokane, WA and Rossland & Trail, B.C., Canada. To not look at these connections could mean missing your ancestor completely.
The mining industry in Spokane, Rossland and Trail are all innerconnected to Shoshone County. Miners came to Shoshone County from Rossland and Trail after the mines dried up in British Columbia. To learn more read - St. Albans Manifest/Canadian Border Crossings
Talk to everyone in your family about what they know about the ancestors, keeping in mind that memories can fade and that some of their information is inaccurate. (Great Grandma was a full-blooded Indian or we came over on the Mayflower are two examples of information that is said over & over that is usually not true. You may also hear about the first three or brothers to come over from the old country, this is sometimes true.) Write down what you've found out.
Buy or download a free genealogy program to organize your information. RootsMagic has a free entry level software that can be downloaded. (If you have an older computer or want to try the older, faster, lighter, simpler version of RootsMagic's free software, contact us) This way all of your information is organized and can be emailed to someone easily.
Use the search engine on this website and others to locate surnames.
Use ALL types of spellings when you look for records. Many times the spelling changed (Hawley to Holley) or the person writing down the information had trouble deciphering the script. Sometimes names are spelled so "screwy" that your best bet is just to go through the pages. The "s" looks like "f" in some old script, so Smith could look like Fith to a beginning transcriber.
Check census records in the county and in surrounding counties. The 1850 census records begin listing all of the family members and where each was born.
Check the Cemetery records.
Check the funeral home listings. Many times people did not have money to buy a tombstone, but their remains were handled by an undertaker.
Check the County libraries and/or city libraries, historical societies and museums or local genealogy clubs to see if they have any biographical information on the family you are searching for. See our "Addresses" Page
Check the old newspapers in the library. You may also write one of the libraries or societies to see if your family member's name is listed in any index they may have of old newspapers. (Sometimes people have done abstracts of old newspapers and have made an index of the names they've found.)
Check the birth, death and marriage records. Those may list parents names, etc. Get copies of these records by ordering them from the appropriate source.
If the ancestor was in the Military during a war, see about ordering the records! They can be expensive but have a great deal of information in them!
Check the court records index. If you find something of interest, try to order the record from the County Clerk. They usually charge by the page to photocopy it. Also know that they are short-staffed and may not be able to fill your request. You may have to make a trip to the county or hire a researcher to
get the information for you.
Post a query on query boards. For more information, you can start on by looking at our Queries page.
Join email lists, either surname lists or lists for counties where they may have lived and ask questions about your ancestors there. Again you can start on by looking at our Queries page.
Explore our "Resources". In this section you will also find many links to great sites for beginners.
Page updated December 2022
Please, If you would like to add resources, if you know of something that should be linked here or if you have any problems using this website contact us.
Coordinator - Randy Cummings
State Coordinator - Kerry A Hairston