Archives News

The most popular baby names that were given in 1911 according to Utah birth certificates.

Although tax records have a reputation of being boring, they are a super useful tool for finding people in a specific location and time! To prove residency, a patron needed to find a property record in the Piute County tax records. I searched these records on their behalf and found a familiar name instead: Lula Betenson! You might ask, who is

Black Americans were among the first pioneer settlers to arrive in Utah, coming to the Great Basin as enslaved people. Although many lived in Utah long enough to become free, their enslaved status and later position on the fringe of Utah society have left us with incomplete versions of their stories. Secondary sources are often the only available records that

Early Life On January 6, 1828, Green Flake was born into slavery on the William Jordan Flake Plantation in North Carolina. Green was “gifted” to James, William’s son, as a wedding present in the 1840’s when Green was in his early teens. Shortly after marrying, James Flake moved to Mississippi in hopes of claiming land. Green was taken with the

My macabre curiosity always gets the best of me, and I couldn’t help but thumb through the pages of the Huntington City Register of Deaths, a compilation of death certificates, local duplicates of the official records that get filed with the state.  They came to the State Archives during a transfer of records from Huntington City. I read each page,

This blog post was written by Sadie Webster, a fall 2022 intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Services. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Emporia State University. Drought is a common plague for the agriculture industry in the dry and torrid West, particularly in a place such as Utah where this industry is

We are excited to announce a new virtual volunteer opportunity to transcribe volumes from the Salt Lake City Tax Assessment Rolls! These volumes record the assessment of real and personal property and were used for taxing purposes. The Assessment Rolls from 1856 to 1892 are digitized and available online, but we would love to provide even more access to researchers

The most popular baby names that were given in 1909 according to Utah birth certificates.

A copy of a black and white photo of the Saltair sits above my Grandma’s desk. I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a kid. Her father claimed to be one of the bathers featured in the center of the picture perched upon a floating tub. He’s surrounded by a group of men and women, frolicking in their old-timey

This blog post was written by Ethan Weinschenk, a summer 2022 intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Services. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and wishes to start a career as a librarian or an archivist at either a library or a cultural heritage center. One of