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The following is a list of the fields in the database and their description.

First Name
This field contains the formal first name or initial. No multiple names or spaces are allowed in this field.

Middle Name
This field contains middle name or initial. This field may contain multiple names.

Last Name
This field contains last name. No multiple names or spaces are allowed in this field.

Former Name
This field contains maiden name, if known. No multiple names or spaces are allowed in this field.

Other Names
This field contains nicknames or other names, for example, "JP" or "Baldy". Nicknames or other names come from only reputable sources. This field also includes changes to last names after the members have left office. Multiple other names are separated by commas.

Service Information
This field contains span of service for each legislative body and district, for example H 1915-18 (26); S 1919-22 (27)

Years of service in separate bodies or different districts due to change of residence or redistricting are separated by a semicolon.

The span of service is recorded by using the year the legislator took office through the full year they served, ignoring the brief period between the end of that year and the start of the next person's term.

Party When First Elected
This field contains the legislator's political party affiliation, when first elected, such as Republican or Democratic. They are taken from the Minnesota Legislative Manuals, when listed there. From the 1914 election until the 1974 House election and the 1976 Senate election, the Minnesota Legislature was elected on a nonpartisan basis. Other reputable sources are used when the party affiliations aren't listed in the Minnesota Legislative Manuals. Comprehensive party/caucus affiliation sources include:

  • 1867-1869: Minnesota Legislative Manuals
  • 1873: The Fifteenth Legislature of Minnesota. St. Paul: Press Printing Company, 1873
  • 1877: Biographical Sketches of the Officers of the State Government of Minnesota and of the 19th Minnesota State Legislature, by C.L. Hall, 1877
  • 1887-1888 (Senate): Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1889-90 (since it was a portion of their 4 year term)
  • 1889-1914: Minnesota Legislative Manuals
  • 1915-1974: Nonpartisan elections, affiliations were surmised using the following sources:
    • 1945-1950 (House): House Journals, based on votes for Speaker of the House
    • 1951-1952: "The Minnesota Legislature...How it Works." Minnesota Association of Cooperatives
    • 1953-1956: House and Senate Journals, based on votes for Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate
    • 1957-1974: Unofficial Legislative Directories, Minnesota Railroads Association (conservative or liberal caucus identifications)
  • 1975-Present: Minnesota Legislative Manuals

Counties Served
This field contains counties of service over time. The legislator may have represented all of or only a portion of each county listed.

Birth Year
This field contains the four digit year of birth if known.

Format is four digit year with questions marks used as placeholder if unknown.

Birth Date
This field contains the month and day of birth if known, for example 01/23, 07/??

The format used is a two digit month and two digit day. If day is unknown, question marks are used as placeholders.

Birth Place
This field contains the place of birth if known, such as a city or region of the U.S. or other countries, for example Numedal (Norway).

Birth County
This field contains the county of birth if known, for example Ramsey.

The county name is included from a controlled list of all Minnesota counties with Unknown as an option. Some early counties no longer exist and existing counties were created at various times after statehood.

Birth Country
This field lists country of birth if known, for example Sweden.

This information is frequently not available for recent legislators, but older legislative manuals include data.

Death Year
This field contains the four digit year of death if known.

Date of Death
This field contains the month and day of death if known, for example 09/13, 03/??

The format used is a two digit month and two digit day. If day is unknown, question marks are used as placeholders.

Gender
This field tracks the number of men and women who have served in the legislature.

Religion
This field contains religion as reported by the legislator or by the media. This field uses controlled vocabulary. For legislators for whom this information is not reported, this field is blank.

Reported Minority
This field contains the race or minority status as reported by the legislator or by the media. This field uses controlled vocabulary. For legislators for whom this information is not reported, this field is blank.

City Of Residence (when first elected)
This field contains the city/township/town/village of residence when first elected. If this data isn't listed then the post office name is used.

Occupation (when first elected)
This field contains the self-reported occupation of legislator when first elected. If not self-reported other sources may be used.

Occupational Category (when first elected)
This field contains the occupational categories used for searching including Agriculture, Business, Clergy, Education, Full-time legislator, Government, Health Care, Homemaker, Labor/trades, Law enforcement, Lawyer, Media, Military, Nonprofit/Volunteer, Others, Retired.

Education Level
This field contains levels of education achieved, for example B.S., J.D., Secondary, or Attended College. This information is included as reported in a reputable source such as the Legislative Manual. For the members who served in the earlier sessions, the education level is often not clear. For those an educated guess is made since this is a required field.

Education Place
This field contains the institution where the education level was achieved, for example University Wisconsin at River Falls. This field contains the name of the institution as it appears in reputable self-reported sources such as the Official Directory of the Minnesota Legislature or the Minnesota Legislative Manuals. Institutions may be listed under several variations of their names, for example Mankato State University or Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Education Notes
This field contains details about education level such as Major Area of Study, Graduation Date, Date Admitted to the Bar, etc.

Other Government Service
This field contains other government service, for example Judge, Military, Municipal Government, State Agency, etc.

Jurisdiction/Place
This field contains the jurisdiction or place served for other government service, for example, Ramsey County, Minnesota; United States Army; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minnesota Department of Transportation; 3rd Congressional District, Minnesota; etc., as stated in reputable sources. At times the Minnesota Legislative Manuals state that they served, for example, as Mayor or County Commissioner and do not specify the name of the city or county. In situations such as this, it is generally assumed that the city or county served would be the same as their city or county when elected. A question mark will appear after the city, county, etc. name if the location is particularly unclear. For example, a member who served in the early 1890s may indicate that they served in the war. This would be entered as "United States Civil War?". If it's extremely uncertain where they served the specific city, county, war, etc. may be left out.

Appointed or Elected
This field contains whether they were appointed or elected to the other government service, if applicable or known.

Date
This field contains the start and end date of other government service if known, for example 01/24/1975, ??/??/1965. The format used is a two digit month, two digit day, and four digit year. If month or day are unknown, question marks are used as placeholders. Many of the dates, especially those with question marks, are estimations based on the data provided. For example if it states they are a World War II veteran, then 194? would be entered in the date field to give an approximation of the time served. It is possible that they may have served prior to the 1940s. If the data indicate that they were in office for 4 years and only provides the initial year, the end year would be entered as four years later. Many times it is unclear if the date provided is an election date, a start date, or the date the appointment was announced. Thus many of these dates should generally be viewed as approximations.

Spouse/Partner
This field contains spouse/partner name or status such as "Single, Widow/er, or Divorced". Additional information, when provided, is put in parentheses and may include marriage and death dates.

Children
This field contains numbers, names, and gender of children as listed in reputable sources. Information for members who served long ago is often provided by relatives.

Family Member Name
This field contains the names of family members who have also served within the Minnesota Legislature. This information is often provided by the members or their relatives.

Relationship
This field contains the family relationship to the name above. Relationship is included from a controlled list.

General notes
This field contains things of interest about the legislator that don't fit into one of the established fields or that require more elaboration than the established fields allow.

Legislative Session
This field contains the number of the legislative session that the legislator served during.

Body
This field shows if the legislator served in the House or the Senate.

Elected
This field contains the date the legislator was elected. General election dates are listed in the Minnesota Legislative Manuals back to the 1890 elections. Prior to that election, the election dates were mainly determined by references gathered from the General Laws of Minnesota and a perpetual calendar. Although we are fairly confident in the election dates listed prior to the 1890 elections, it's possible that we missed some changes or applicable laws, or that mistakes were made in calculations. These are the General Laws of Minnesota that were found and consulted to determine the election dates prior to the 1890 elections:

Term of Office
These fields contain the starting and ending dates of the term the legislator served. The term start date is generally the first date of session. The term end date is generally the day before the next legislative session starts. The term end date is not the same as the session adjournment date. For special elections the term start date is usually the date they were sworn in. If a member dies before the official term end date, the death date is used.

Although we are fairly confident in the Senate term dates listed prior to the 1882 elections, it's possible that we missed some changes or applicable laws, or that mistakes were made in calculations. As far as we can determine from the General Laws of Minnesota, Senate terms were staggered between the odd and even district numbers prior to the 1882 elections. The lists of members in the Minnesota Legislative Manuals and the few Minnesota Journals of the Senate available in the Legislative Reference Library from this time period were the primary sources used to determine the staggered Senate terms. Further complications include the fact that sessions were annual until the 1878 election, several apportionment changes occurred in this time frame, and House terms changed from one to two years while Senate terms moved from two years to four. (The links to the General Laws of Minnesota listed above detail many of these changes.)

District
This field contains the number of the district that the legislator represented.

Residence
This field contains the city/township/town/village where the legislator lived during this term. If this data isn't listed then the post office name is used.

Counties Represented
This field contains the names of the counties that the legislator represented during this term. The legislator may have represented all of or only a portion of each county listed.

Occupation
This field contains the legislator's self-reported occupation for this time period. If not self-reported other sources may be used.

Party
This field contains the legislator's political party affiliation such as Republican or Democratic. They are taken from the Minnesota Legislative Manuals, when listed there. From the 1914 election until the 1974 House election and the 1976 Senate election, the Minnesota Legislature was elected on a nonpartisan basis. Other reputable sources are used when the party affiliations aren't listed in the Minnesota Legislative Manuals. Comprehensive party/caucus affiliation sources include:

  • 1867-1869: Minnesota Legislative Manuals
  • 1873: The Fifteenth Legislature of Minnesota. St. Paul: Press Printing Company, 1873
  • 1877: Biographical Sketches of the Officers of the State Government of Minnesota and of the 19th Minnesota State Legislature, by C.L. Hall, 1877
  • 1887-1888 (Senate): Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1889-90 (since it was a portion of their 4 year term)
  • 1889-1914: Minnesota Legislative Manuals
  • 1915-1974: Nonpartisan elections, affiliations were surmised using the following sources:
    • 1945-1950 (House): House Journals, based on votes for Speaker of the House
    • 1951-1952: "The Minnesota Legislature...How it Works." Minnesota Association of Cooperatives
    • 1953-1956: House and Senate Journals, based on votes for Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate
    • 1957-1974: Unofficial Legislative Directories, Minnesota Railroads Association (conservative or liberal caucus identifications)
  • 1975-Present: Minnesota Legislative Manuals

Committees
This field contains the names of the committees that each legislator served on during each term. The information was mainly taken from the Official Directories of the Minnesota Legislature, the Minnesota Legislative Manuals, or the House and Senate Journals. House committee chairs were clearly identified and were placed first on these lists from 1915 to the present. Senate committee chairs were also clearly identified and were placed first on these lists from 1917 to the present. Prior to these years, the chairs were no longer clearly identified in these sources. However, whenever we found other sources for committee chairs for this time period they generally matched the first person listed. So we assumed the first person listed in these sources were the chairs. Thus it is possible that the people listed as chair prior to 1915 in the House and prior to 1917 in the Senate are incorrect.

Media Type
This field contains the type of media related to the legislator: Archive Collections, Articles/Books About, Articles/Books By, Audio, Interview (Term), Other, Photo (Other), Photo (Term), and Video. (Term photos currently are available for 1857-58, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, 1913-14, 1923-24, 1935-36, 1949-50, 1957-58, 1963-64, 1973-74, and 1981-82 courtesy of the Minnesota Digital Library, and 2001-present, courtesy of House Photography and Senate Photography.)

Media File
This field contains the filename of the local file or the URL of an external file related to the legislator.

Media Description
This field contains the description of the file or citation to media related to the legislator.

Media Date
The date of the media, if applicable, is divided into 3 fields - Month, Day, Year.

Media Notes
This field contains credit statement or any additional notes.