Browse through and search within a  specific collection for local names and people from your community. The collections listed below are good places to start. You should also check out collections from your local library, museum, or archive for more possibilities.  

Review the Searching in the Montana History Portal article first. 

• Yearbooks - look for your local school yearbooks - we do not have them all, but we have many. 

• Montana State Prison Records 

• Military Enlistment Cards 
  • Military Enlistments (Montana), 1890-1918 
  • Military Enlistments (Montana), World War I 
  • Military Enlistments (Montana), World War II 

• Oral History collections - there lots of oral histories on the portal and some interview people from all over the state, while others focus on local community members 

• Livestock Brand Registrations for Montana  
  • Be sure to familiarize yourself with the Livestock Brands Searching Guide 

• Local Histories of Montana 

Hint 

The best way to search within a collection is to copy the title of the collection exactly - The easiest way to do this is with copy and paste.

Paste the title in search box on the home page. From the dropdown menu titled "Search For" select Exact Phrase Match. Then hit the search button. This should bring up all the items in the collection. Next use the Refine Search Terms button to add or restrict keywords to search the items in the original search list.  

Review the Searching for an Item within a Collection