WHERE CAN YOU FIND THE MYTHICAL HOME of Paul Bunyan, the world-famous Mayo Clinic, and the country’s largest shopping center? If you answered Minnesota, you’re right.
The state’s diverse regions range from the cosmopolitan Twin Cities (Minneapolis and the capital, Saint Paul) to the port of Duluth to the fertile farmland of the Red River Valley in the northwest and the Iron Range in the northeast. “The Land of 10,000 lakes” is a top destination for fishing, swimming and boating. Perhaps a legacy of its heavily Scandinavian and German heritage, its “Minnesota nice” culture denotes residents who are courteous and mild-mannered.
And, fortunately for genealogists, Minnesotans have been superb record-keepers. Here’s how to find your ancestors from the state.
A HISTORY OF MINNESOTA
Diverse Native American tribes settled in present-day Minnesota beginning thousands of years ago. The Dakota (Sioux) and Ojibwe (Chippewa) had well-established hunting and gathering societies by the
