Colorado State Archives
What's New

We would like to acknowledge the incredible indexing work of Gerald Sherard and Connie and Jesse Ryan. These volunteers have been tireless for us and have added most significantly to our Historical Records Database. Our database, at over 2,000,000 entries, would not be what it is without them! Thank you so much!

These web pages have been added to our site or significantly modified to improve public access to Colorado's archival records:

November 17, 2011.  We have added Weld County Probate Cases (1876 – 1981) to the Historical Records Database.

November 2, 2011.  We have added 230 records from Jefferson County Coroner Reports (1868-1930) to the Historical Records Database.

July 29, 2011.  We have added approximately 200 new entries from the Park County Will Record to Historical Records Database that span the years 1895 - 1926 and 1959-1976.

June 27, 2011. More than 12,000 names have been added to the Historical Records Database through the posting of the Arapahoe County Hospital index (1891-1899). These are slightly different than Arapahoe County Poor Hospital Index. They are a genealogy bonanza with name, age, nativity, marital status, relatives names and addresses, year of immigration to the U.S. and to Colorado, how long they had been in Arapahoe County and date of death if they died.

June 21, 2011. We have posted a Lincoln County Probate Index (1890-1981); a Custer County Probate Index (1879-1989), an index to the Prowers County Old Age Pension Register, an index to a Horticulture Award register (1894-1899) and a Huerfano County School Census index (1913-1915, 1919) on the Historical Records Database. The horticulture award index documents statewide entries to an annual horticulture fruit show in Denver and includes names, residences, kind of fruit entered and any awards given. Ever wondered why Grandpa is proudly holding that watermelon in an old picture? Now you'll know.

June 16, 2011. The Supreme Court case file index is complete through 1961 and posted on the Historical Records Database. We have also posted the Lincoln County probate case index that spans 1890-1981.

June 7, 2011. A Supreme Court water litigation index is posted on our  Digital Archives site. To this point we have these records indexed from 1863-1933.

June 3, 2011.  We have added approximately 40,000 entries to the Historical Records Database through the indexing of Colorado Supreme Court case files from 1898-1933. We will soon have cases indexed through 1960.

March 30, 2011. We have added 18 Larimer County Water Cases (1899-1926) to the Historical Records Database, as well as Las Animas County Naturalization records (1878-1906), Las Animas County Old Age Pensions (1933-1936) and Fremont County Old Age Pensions (1933-1936).

March 1, 2011. We have added Douglas County Probate cases (1865-1962) to the Historical Records Database.

February 4, 2011. For researchers interested in railroad history we have posted indexes to the Colorado State Supreme Court cases regarding railroads (1872-1898). We have also extracted the railroad incorporation records from our Incorporation Index (1861-1913). Railroad researchers can now find out when a railroad incorporated, sometimes when it went out of business, where it operated and the dates of other instruments that they filed with the Secretary of State's Office. They can also see what cases were filed with the Supreme Court concerning the railroads. Access to all of these records is possible through mail, email, walk-in or fax requests.

January 12, 2011. For water researchers, we have posted indexes to Supreme Court Water Cases from 1863-1898 and an index to water company incorporations from 1861-1914 on our Digital Archives page. The Colorado State Archives is the repository for Supreme Court cases up to nearly the present time as well as incorporation records for all Colorado corporations up to 1975.

January 7, 2011. We have posted more trademark filing indexes through 1903.

January 3, 2011. The foundations for Colorado law are found in the earliest Colorado State Supreme Court cases. We now have an index for the almost 10,000 cases from 1861-1900 in the Historical Records Database. These include precedence cases in water, mining, land,  civil and criminal cases. In the near future we will separate the water cases into an index that we will post on our regular web site. We will also separate the railroad litigation as these hold special interests for researchers.