Subscription Databases

HeritageQuest

Genealogical resources including census data, family records, local histories, military records and an extensive index to genealogical & local history magazines. Library card required for use from home.

Ancestry Library Edition (In Library Use Only)

If you don't have a personal subscription to Ancestry.com, stop by the library to search this vast vast collection of Census records, birth, marriage & death records, immigration and military records, directories, passenger lists, and more!

Waupaca County Pioneer Gertificate

A qualified pioneer ancestor is a person who can be proven to have resided in any part of Waupaca
County, the present day state of Wisconsin, before 1 January 1870 but does not have to have been born
or died here. A qualified applicant must be a direct descendant of a qualified pioneer ancestor (male or female).
Applicant does not have to reside in Waupaca County nor have ever lived in the state of Wisconsin, but
must show prove of his/her direct line from the pioneer ancestor with documentation for each generation.

The certificate information and form is available here.

Information/Obituary & Genealogy Requests

Please use our online reference form to receive quick reference service from your home or office! We will email the answer back to you. Be sure to include your name and email address with your question.

There is a $15.00 charge for finding and copying each obituary regardless of weather or not we find one in the Waupaca County Post, or Waupaca County Republican which are the only newspapers that we have archived. Obituary/ Genealogy requests are by postal mail only so we have a hard copy of the request because more than one person may be searching for the information. Include as much information as possible, date, place, etc. with your request. Also include a self addressed and stamped envelope so we can mail the obituary back to you if there was one in the newspaper, along with a check or money order made out to the Waupaca Area Public Library.

Birth, Death, and Marriage certificates may be available through the Wisconsin Department of Vital Records.

Genealogy & Local History Web Sites

• RootsWeb: Waupaca
• Waupaca County Genealogy Homepage with cemetery records.
• Main Street Marketplace - historic photos of Waupaca
• Outagamie County GenWeb
• Waushara County GenWeb
• Portage County GenWeb
• Stevens Point Area Obituary Index
• LDS Family Search
• Wisconsin Historical Society
• Genealogy : Wisconsin
• Ellis Island Family History Center
• Ancestry.com
• Access Genealogy
• National Archives
• Native American Ancestry
• Local History @ Your Library

Wisconsin Vital Records Services - The Wisconsin Vital Records Office is responsible for filing, preserving, protecting, changing, and issuing copies of birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates for events that occur in Wisconsin. This Web site provides information on obtaining copies of vital records, searching our records in person, and other available resources.

Wisconsin Genealogy Index - Search for pre-1907 Vital Records (VR), including birth, death, and marriage records as well as for 150,000 Wisconsin Name Index (WNI) records, including biographical sketches, obituaries, and newspaper articles published before 2000.

Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 - Alphabetical and regimental lists of soldiers who served in Wisconsin units during the Civil War.

Wisconsin Historical Images - Historical images from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles - 16,000 historical and biographical articles. Search by name, location, or article subject(s).

Wisconsin Genealogical Research Service - Are fee based services offered by the Wisconsin Historical Society. They have the following records available to them:

• Wisconsin Birth Records (1850-1907)
• Wisconsin Marriage Records (1836-1907)
• Wisconsin Death Records (1850-1907)
• Wisconsin Civil War Service Records
• Wisconsin Name Index Records
  

Waupca County History - See our community page for a a brief overview of Waupaca County history.

Join the Waupaca Area Genealogical Society!

Waupaca Area Genealogical Society

The group generally meets at 9:00 am on the second Saturday of the month at the Holly History and Genealogy Center. However, locations, times and dates do change, especially in the summer. Check the website to verify.

We meet at the Holly History and Genealogy Center in Waupaca during the winter months, but during the summer our location varies, check the newsletter or call Nancy Helbach at 715-258-2247 for more information.

Local Sources

Waupaca Sexton Office
Cemetery Records
Richard Martin (715) 258-4406, ext. 230 407
School Street, Waupaca, WI 54981

Waupaca County Courthouse
811 Harding Street, Waupaca, WI 54981

Register of Deeds
(715)258-6250
P.O. Box 307, Waupaca, WI 54981

• Birth, Marriage, Death and Land Records
• Index to Military Discharges

Waupaca Area Public Library Microfilm Holdings:

Cemetery Index

Wayne and Alta Guyant's Cemetery Index on microfilm ( See Waupaca GenWeb at the top of the page for a listing of cemeteries).

This index includes a general index, as well as veteran and maiden name indexes with each cemetery. It includes cemeteries found in Portage, Waupaca, and Waushara counties as well as obituaries from the Waupaca County Post for some of the listings.

Newspapers

• Waupaca County Republican from April 2, 1874 - May 31, 1917
• Waupaca County Record from December 1, 1894 - May 31, 1917
• Waupaca County Post from January 19, 1878 - present.
  

Federal and State Census Records

Birth and Death Indexes

• Pre-1907 Birth and Death Indexes for Wisconsin on microfiche donated by the Waupaca Area Genealogical Society.

Malcolm Rosholt Books Available On-Line

The works of Central Wisconsin historian Malcolm Rosholt, out of print for more than a decade, have been digitized and are now available through McMillan Memorial Library’s website at www.mcmillanlibrary.org/rosholt. Rosholt spent decades researching Wisconsin history and his works are an important resource for students, genealogists and historians.
 
The eleven books cover such topics as logging, railroads and the early pioneers of Central Wisconsin. All of the titles are well illustrated and four of them are photographic albums.
 
The works remain protected under their original copyright, but his family granted permission for these books to be digitized and displayed on McMillan’s website.  Digitization was overseen by the South Central Library System. Funding was provided by a Library Services and Technology Act grant made available through the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
 
Malcolm Leviatt Rosholt (1907-2005) grew up in the Wisconsin village named for his family and worked as a lumberjack as a young man. After graduating from St. Olaf College, he worked as a journalist in 1930s China, served as an intelligence officer for the Flying Tigers during World War II and eventually authored twenty-five books. He wrote about Wisconsin history, his experiences in China and other subjects, along with several historical novels. His wife, Margaret, co-authored several of the books.