Wichita Public Library Genealogy Center

Wichita Public Library Genealogy Center Contact Information E-mail:  reference@wichita.lib.ks.us Address: 223 South Main Wichita, KS 67202 Telephone  316.261.8509 ; Fax 316-262-4540  Hours: Monday - Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m Friday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m Sunday 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m The library is closed Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day Holidays: Closed holidays, please check our calendar. Directions, and public transportation: From US 400 / US 54 / Kellogg Avenue take the Central Business District exit. Turn north onto South Main Street. The library is located on the left next to Century II Convention Center. Public transportation is available through Wichita Transit. All bus routes return to Downtown Transit Center. From Downtown Transit Center, head south on Topeka or Emporia to English (next street) and then walk west 3-4 blocks on English. NOTE: Requires walking and service is limited. No entrance fee, but parking lots are metered. The short-term Library Parking Lot on the south side of the library is 25 cents for one hour maximum. The larger Public Parking Lot further south is 25 cents for two hours with ten hours maximum. Internet sites and databases: Wichita Public Libraryis the main web page for the library. WPL online catalog allows Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, and ISBN/ISSN searches, and in WorldCat. Online Reference Sources contains a listing of the library's databases. Wichita Photo Archives contains a selection of the Wulfmeyer Genealogy Center’s local photograph collection. The Wichita Genealogical Society is a support group of the WPL Genealogy Center. Collection Description The Kansas and Local History collection has many genealogies. Their emphasis is mostly books, periodicals, and special publications for southeast Kansas, and corners of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The Wulfmeyer Genealogy Center contains over 25,000 genealogy books and magazines covering Kansas, the Great Plains, the Midwest, the South, and the Colonial States. There is a large Native American collection, mainly covering the Great Plains tribes, and a large military collection with over 1,600 volumes on the Civil War. Other major collections include: Dawes Rolls Applications, Draper Manuscripts, Germans to America, Italians to America, and the Barbour Collection. Over 15,000 rolls of microfilm cover the city's major newspapers, the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Beacon, along with state and federal census. Tips Search the collections on the Library Catalog before visiting. Guides Using the Materials in Our Collections is a guide for using the genealogy and special collections. Alternate Repositories If you cannot visit or find a source at the Wichita Public Library Genealogy Center, a similar source may be available at one of the following. Overlapping Collections Midwest Historical & Genealogical Society, Wichita Derby Kansas Family History Center Similar Collections Kansas Genealogical Society, Dodge City Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka Iola Public Library Johnson County Public Library, Overland Park Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library offers Ancestry.com, America's Obituaries, HeritageQuest Online, and the Topeka Room with local interest materials Neighboring Collections Wichita State University Library, Department of Special Collections, Wichita Sources