County histories, like this one of Newaygo County, include biographical text of prominent citizens.
County atlases, like this one of Delta County, notes the owner of rural properties.
Access the Michigan County Histories site. This site is freely available to the general public, no login or password is needed.
The Michigan County Histories and Atlases Digitization Project is comprised of 428 digitized titles (many composed of multiple volumes) published before 1923. The collection offers all members of the community free keyword searching and page-by-page access to digitized reproductions of Michigan county histories and atlases as a resource for historical and genealogical research.
The collection is made possible, in part, through a generous Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. Additional funding was provided by Michigan Council of Library Directors institutions and a Michigan Digitization and Preservation for Access grant. Titles were selected from Frances Loomis's Michigan Biography Index (Detroit: Detroit Public Library, 1946), William Miles' Michigan Atlases and Plat Books (Lansing: State Library Services, 1975), Bentley Historical Library holdings, and the Research Publications microfilm publication County and Regional Histories of the Old Northwest.
The collection is a collaborative effort of Michigan's Council of Library Directors, composed of the directors of the following institutions, all of
whom have contributed time and funds:
The collection contents are fully searchable and are freely available to the public.
Adapted from Michigan County Histories: More about the project.
