Library

We emphasize collecting materials about the north central Iowa counties of Cerro Gordo, Winnebago, Hancock, Wright, Worth, Franklin, Mitchell, Floyd, and Butler Counties, although we will usually have some material on all Iowa counties.  For our nine counties, we have gathered census records, vital records, military records, naturalizations, directories, local histories, passenger lists, periodicals, church histories, biographies, obituaries, cemeteries, as well as other topics.

We collect information on the American migration routes used by the settlers to these nine counties.  These migration routes include New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana.  Items about other areas of the U.S. may also be found in the collection.

Because we have many British, Irish, Scandinavian and German ancestors, we emphasize these European areas when adding to the collection.  Other countries/nationalities may also be represented in our collection but with less emphasis.

We collect “how to books”, family histories, passenger and immigration information, general genealogical materials and a limited amount of history and other materials that add to our researchers ability to write family histories.

We have a separate historical map collection which encompasses plat maps, atlases, rolled, folded and folio maps.  Coverage includes both Europe and the US.

Within our library are held the original naturalizations records for Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, ca. 1850s-1960s.  A variety of indexes have been prepared for this material.

All members of NCIGS are requested to submit at least a 4-generational ancestor chart.  A card index has been created for this Surname Index.

The society has received and processed many research requests.  Copies of the research results have been retained and indexed.