El Paso County, CO, Genealogy Resources

If you are not local and would like lookups in Pikes Peak Library District's Regional History and Genealogy or other local repositories, see Research Help. If you know of other useful sources to add to this page or can report a broken link, please let us know.

 

El Paso County was formed in 1859 from old Arapahoe County in Kansas Territory. On 1 November 1861 it became one of 17 original counties in Colorado Territory. On 23 March 1899, what is now Teller County was separated from El Paso County. The county seat is Colorado Springs. One of the best online sources for the county is the Pikes Peak NewsFinder, a Pikes Peak Library District index with some links to document images.

 

Court Records / Law Enforcement

• El Paso County Combined Court, Fourth Judicial District: for records, click here and scroll down to "Records Department." Records are subject to redaction.
• El Paso County Civil District Court, Historical Records Index Search. In addition to the online index, Colorado State Archives holds civil case files, criminal case files, and other court-related records, but a case number is required to access them. See Colorado State Archives Finding Aids Quick Index.
• El Paso County Sheriff's Office says it has arrest records from 1987. Request records.
• Colorado Department of Corrections Current Offender Search

In addition to providing names and addresses of residents, city directories also usually offer street guides, information on city, county, and state governments, election precincts, lists of churches and clergy, hospitals and sanitariums, schools and colleges, businesses, labor organizations, clubs, societies, and secret organizations. The Colorado Springs directory often also contains Manitou Springs and Colorado City.

   Law

• Colorado Constitution and Revised Statutes
• Colorado Session Laws, 1861-2010: Some legislative actions are on behalf of individuals. Search to see if your ancestors appear.
• Colorado Session Laws, 1993-present
• Colorado House and Senate Journals, 1861-present
• El Paso County Ordinances
• Colorado Springs Official City Documents
• Guide to Colorado's Open Records and Open Meetings Laws
• Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition is dedicated to ensuring the transparency of state and local governments in Colorado by promoting freedom of the press, open courts, and open access to government records and meetings.

El Paso County is or has been home to many U.S. military installations, including:

• PPLD Pikes Peak NewsFinder index with Gazette 1871–present, Colorado City [now part of western Colorado Springs] Iris, Weekly Gazette,  Colorado Springs Independent, Colorado Springs Sun, Denver Post, El Paso County Democrat, Free Press, Out West, Manitou Journal, Pueblo Chieftain, Rocky Mountain News, Security Advertiser & Fountain Valley News, and seven early Cripple Creek newspapers. Various years are indexed and may not be complete. Request free copies of articles online from PPLD Regional History and Genealogy. Some article images before 1987 are linked to the index.
• PPLD has the Colorado Springs Gazette, 1988–present online; access is free with library card. From PPLD.org, select "Magazines/Newspapers," then "America's News," a GenealogyBank product. Enter login. Select Gazette, then desired source, usually "Newspaper." Highly configurable text searches are allowed, or a particular newspaper may be selected by date.
• Ancestry.com ($) has Colorado Springs Gazette, 1873-78, 1878-87, 1887-94, 1900-15; Weekly Gazette, 1879-82, 1884-86, 1888-95, 1897-1900; Out West, 1872.
• GenealogyBank.com ($) has Colorado Springs Gazette, 1896–1922 and Eastonville World, 1894-95. Searchable on all words.
• Newspapers.com ($) has Weekly Gazette, 1872-1906, incomplete, and Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, 1960-1978, incomplete. Searchable on all words.
• NewsBank has the Colorado Springs Gazette, 2 Apr 1988–present. Free access with Denver Public Library card, which is available free to anyone with a library card from any Colorado public library. (Click www.denverlibrary.org, Research Sources, Newspapers, Access World News, Colorado, Gazette.)
• Colorado Historic Newspapers has Gazette, 1873-78; Out West, March–December 1872; Colorado Mountaineer, 1876–77. Free.
• Colorado Springs Gazette Archive ($), www.gazette.com; from the Gazette's webpage: "The Gazette archive contains text-only archives from April 2, 1988, to November 30, 2002. Beginning December 1, 2002, the archive was expanded to include an electronic edition of the newspaper, which features searchable PDFs. These more recent issues are fully text searchable and reflect the full content and layout of the printed Gazette." Available to e-subscribers.
• Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, has bound volumes (1894-1922) of the weekly El Paso County Democrat, which has news from rural El Paso County communities. Not indexed, but easily searchable by community for a given period.
• Newspapers held by Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, per Library of Congress.
• Newspapers held by Regional History and Genealogy, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, per Library of Congress.
• Current El Paso County newspapers include: Colorado Springs Gazette, Pikes Peak Bulletin (Manitou Springs, 2001- ), Tri-Lakes Tribune (Monument), Colorado Springs Independent.
• The weekly El Paso County Advertiser and Fountain Valley News was published on Wednesdays from 1958 to Dec. 28, 2022 and served the Security and Widefield area. Archives are held by the Security Public Library. 
• African American Voice (1991-present), monthly, Colorado Springs, includes links to archival issues from 2007.
• The New Falcon Herald covers Peyton, Falcon, and Black Forest in El Paso County. The monthly started in January 2004; it is published on the first Saturday of the month. 

• PPLD Pikes Peak NewsFinder index with Gazette 1871–present; some years from the 1970s are not fully indexed; Colorado City [part of  Colorado Springs since 1917] Iris, Colorado Springs Sun, and other newspapers. Request free copies of articles online from PPLD Regional History and Genealogy.
• www.legacy.com
• FamilySearch, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014, index

• Look up Colorado licensed professionals or organizations at DORA, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies: accountants, medical/dental/mental health/veterinary, trades (plumbing, electrical, barbers/cosmetology), funeral homes, architecture, and more. Includes current, expired, cancelled, and revoked licensees. Searchable by name or portion of name. Licensee mailing address available from occupation download link.
• Colorado business search: includes images of historic and current reports for businesses and nonprofit organizations. Click on "Filing history and documents" to see principles' names and addresses.
• Used bookstores specializing in local historical materials:
  • Clausen Books
  • DeWitt Enterprises, 433 E. Cucharras St., PO Box 25095, Colorado Springs, CO 80936; (719) 473-0330. Call for appointment. See PikesPeakShadow on eBay or Etsy.

Links to information on prominent people in the Pikes Peak region

• Assessment Rolls, 1877-99, Colorado State Archives, Colorado State Archives Finding Aids Quick Index
• El Paso County Tax Records, 1877-99, FamilySearch Library

• Birth certificates, State of Colorado An employee at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environoment said in 2022 that they have Colorado birth certificates from 1902. Handybook for Genealogists says they have records from 1907. Order birth certs through VitalChek at 1-866-300-8540. 
• Birth certificates, El Paso County Health Department
• Pikes Peak NewsFinder: Search for births by parents’ last name(s). Not yet complete for some years, but names are continuing to be added. Digital images of microfilmed copies may be requested for free from the library if not already available.
• Entries in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry.com ($) include date and place of birth (usually a town or county) and parents' names. You can search on selected fields, including names and place of birth.

• Pikes Peak NewsFinder, marriages reported in various newspapers.
• 1858–1939, Colorado Marriage Index, WPA project, with some later, FamilySearch
• In 2020, Ancestry ($) added 613,745 marriage records for El Paso County to the database "Colorado, U.S., Select County Marriages, 1863-2018." Most records include marriage license and marriage certificate images. 
• If you don't find a marriage where you expect in southern Colorado, look in the "Gretna Green" of  Raton, Colfax Co., New Mexico. Many couples in the mid-1900s went there for a fun road trip with their friends and/or to avoid blood tests.

• Colorado Statewide Divorce Index, 1900-39
• El Paso County Divorces, 1903-41, Historical Records Index Search, Colorado State Archives; others may appear in Historical Records Index Search
• District Court Divorce Decrees, 1940-55, Colorado State Archives, Colorado State Archives Finding Aids Quick Index
• Pikes Peak NewsFinder, divorces reported in newspapers for various periods.
• Colorado Vital Records has a statewide index to divorces, 1900-1939 and 1975-present. Divorce decrees are held in the county courts in which they were filed or an archive.
• MyHeritage.com, available for free at FamilySearch Centers or by subscription, has a database "Colorado Divorces, 1878-2004" with 1.4 million records. It does not appear to have entries between 1940 and 1967.

• Death Certificates, State of Colorado
• Death Certificates, El Paso County Health Department
• Pikes Peak NewsFinder has death announcements and obituaries from area newspapers.
• 1870 El Paso County Mortality Schedule extraction
• 1880 El Paso County Mortality Schedule extraction
• 1885 El Paso County Mortality Schedule, available at U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885, Ancestry ($)
• El Paso County autopsy reports from 1971 to present are public records and can be requested by e-mail. It's best to have evidence (death certificate, newspaper account) that an autopsy was performed before requesting one. The coroner's office says autopsy reports before 1971 were destroyed, but El Paso County coroner's reports 1882-1942 are at the Colorado State Archives.
• Homicides of the Colorado Springs Area, 1872 to Present, vols. 1-6, compiled by Dwight Haverkorn, Regional History and Genealogy, PPLD, 20 N. Cascade, Colorado Springs. Call no.: SC 364.152 H767, indexed at Pikes Peak NewsFinder.
• El Paso County Coroner's Record, 1882-1933, 1933-42 at Colorado State Archives: Colorado State Archives Finding Aids Quick Index
• Colorado Springs Death Register, 1871-1920, Pikes Peak NewsFinder, has information on people who died in Colorado Springs and were buried here or shipped elsewhere, as well as people who died elsewhere and were shipped in for burial in city-owned Evergreen Cemetery. Some of the later years have information on people who died in other parts of El Paso County.
• The Social Security Death Index is an online searchable database of names of deceased individuals whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration.  It has been kept since 1962, when operations were computerized. The index includes about 50 percent of deceased persons from 1962 to 1971 and about 85 percent of deceased persons from 1972 to 2005. It also includes a few deaths from 1937 to 1961. Beginning in 2014, rules governing the SSDI changed and online database have not been updated since then. 
• Beyle Funeral Home Record Abstracts, 1897-1937, Colorado Springs and (Old) Colorado City, Colorado

• Regional History and Genealogy, PPLD, has a good collection of Colorado Springs high school and college yearbooks.
• Can you donate a yearbook? Here's a list of local yearbooks Regional History and Genealogy for its collection.
• Ancestry.com ($) has a number of yearbooks from Colorado Springs high schools and college. See U.S. Yearbook Collection.

• Regional History and Genealogy, Penrose Library, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs. Also has archives.
  • Databases available from home with a library card include HeritageQuest, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and Newspaper Archive.
  • Databases available at any PPLD branch library include Ancestry.com Library Edition  and Fold3. You may also log on to these databases with your laptop computer from the branch libraries.
  • American Ancestors database from New England Historic Genealogical Society may be accessed only on computers at PPLD's Regional History and Genealogy.
• Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs.
  • Tutt Library has on microfilm Rocky Mountain News, 1859--Dececember 1964, and Denver Post Jan. 1965--2012.
  • Newspapers held by Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, per Library of Congress.
  • Microfilm is held offsite. Make an appointment to pull the film you need before you arrive. (May be closed to public because of COVID.) Special Collections is on the Garden Level.
• Stephen H. Hart Research Center, History Colorado, Denver; has the best collection of microfilmed Colorado newspapers in state.
• U.S. Air Force Academy Libraries

   

• Fountain Branch Library, first Thursday, 7-8:45 p.m., "Genealogy on the Internet"
• High Prairie Branch Library, second Saturday, 1-3 p.m., "The Genealogist's Internet"

• Visit Colorado Springs

© 2016 Pikes Peak Genealogical Society