Kentucky Archives and Libraries

United States Kentucky  Archives and Libraries

These archives, libraries, societies, museums, and collections house sources, lists, and indexes, and provide services to help genealogists document their ancestors who lived in Kentucky.

Wiki Articles on Major Repositories in Kentucky

Template:Adoption KYGenWebKentucky State Archives, Frankfort · Filson Library , Louisville · Martin F. Schmidt Research Library, Frankfort · National Archives Southeast Region (Atlanta) · Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

Archives

Dept. for Libraries and Archives

The Department for Libraries and Archives is the central repository for original city-, county-, and state-level records. It has two facilities of particular interest to genealogists.

• The state library has printed materials.
• The state archives maintains original Kentucky government records and other historical documents. Many of these repositories’ records are being microfilmed, and copies are being sent to the Family History Library.

The Department of Libraries and Archives responds to genealogical requests but prefers that requests be sent on a form available on its Internet site or through the mail.

Template:Adoption KYGenWebDepartment for Libraries and Archives
Public Records Division
300 Coffee Tree Road
Frankfort, KY 40601
Toll Free Phone: 800-928-7000
Telephone: 502-564-8300
Fax: 502-564-5773
Internet: http://www.kdla.ky.gov/

Mailing address:
P.O. Box 537
Frankfort, KY 40601-0537

National Archives at Atlanta
5780 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, Georgia 30260 USA
Phone: 770-968-2100
Fax: 770-968-2547
E-mail: atlanta.archives@nara.gov
Internet: National Archives at Atlanta

Records from over 100 federal agencies and courts in Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Also includes Vice Admiralty Courts of SC, evolution of federal courts, Constitutional rights, Revolutionary War, Civil War, reconstruction, World Wars I and II, and space exploration. Microfilms for censuses, diplomatic missions, military service records, bounty-land applications, passenger arrival lists, naturalizations, American Indians, and African Americans.

Archives in Appalachia

A resource for locating archives in Appalachia is:

• Archives in Appalachia: A Directory. Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985. FHL book 975 A3a The record covers the states of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The record is arranged alphabetically by state, then by the name of the repository. Each entry lists the archive, its address, phone number, inclusive dates of the collection, the records of the collection, what subjects are covered by the collection, and the size of the collection. There are two indexes: Record type, and Subject, with reference numbers corresponding to the repository. Also included is a list, under “Coming Attractions,” of agencies that do not currently collect manuscript materials but plan to do so in the future.
  

Archival Material

Daybooks, Journals, Letters, etc.

Libraries

Kentucky Historical Society

Martin F. Schmidt Research Library
Kentucky Historical Society
100 West Broadway
Frankfort, Kentucky
502-564-1792, ext. 4460
Internet: http://history.ky.gov

They have more family folders than any other library in Kentucky, as well as all known printed genealogies and histories for Kentucky. They have the state's best genealogical collection including newspapers, maps, and city directories.

Located on the second floor of the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. The library is a FamilySearch Affiliate, and as such, library patrons may order microforms from the vast collection held by the Salt Lake City-based Family History Library for temporary use at the Kentucky Historical Society. The library is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The card catalog for the Martin F. Schmidt library is available on-line, as is the Society's digital collections database, which includes images of manuscripts, maps, photographs and finding aids for the collections at Kentucky Historical Society. The Society also hosts an on-line database of cemetery records that contains over 150,000 names transcribed by volunteers from gravestones across Kentucky.

Filson Historical Society Library
1310 S. Third Street
Louisville, KY 40208
Telephone: 502-635-5083
E-mail: research@filsonhistorical.org
Internet: The Filson Historical Society

Formerly known as the Filson Club, they have a good collection of early Kentucky history and genealogy manuscripts. Their specialty is migration, especially via Ohio River traffic and steamboats.

University of Kentucky

Margaret I. King Library
Department of Special Collections and Archives
University of Kentucky
179 Funkhouser Dr.
Lexington, KY 40506-0039
Telephone: 859-257-8611
Fax: 859-257-6311
Internet: http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/lib.php?lib_id=13

While the Margaret I. King Library does not specialize in genealogical records, the Department of Special Collections and Archives maintains many items that lend themselves to the study of family and local history. The materials include an Appalachian collection, newspapers, church records; genealogical collections; historical manuscript collections; the Draper manuscripts, described in Kentucky History; county and local histories; county, state, and federal records; and a biographical file.

Daviess County Public Library
2020 Frederica Street
Owensboro, KY 42301
Telephone: 270-684-0211
Internet: Genealogy

They have one of the best genealogy collections in Kentucky.

Kentucky Genealogical Society Library
P.O. Box 153
Frankfort, KY 40602
Telephone: 502-875-4452
Internet: http://www.kygs.org/

KGS has a great collection of statewide records, guides, censuses, cemeteries, biographies, family folders and indexes. The Kentucky Genealogical Society promotes research of Kentucky families. They also publish items of genealogical interest, including the quarterly periodical Bluegrass Roots.

Western Kentucky Univ. Library

Western Kentucky University Library
1906 College Heights Blvd., #11067
Bowling Green, KY. 42101-1067
Phone (270) 745-6125.
Fax' (270) 745-6422
E-Mail library.web@wku.edu
Internet: http://www.wku.edu/library

The Kentucky Library has significant genealogical records, church histories, oral histories, and biographical files relating to south central Kentucky, early settlers, and Shakers.

Eastern Kentucky Univ. Library

Eastern Kentucky University Library
Crabbe Library
Special Collections and Archives
521 Lancaster Ave.
Richmond, KY 40475
Telephone: 1-859-622-1790
Fax: 1-859-622-1174
TTY: 1-859-622-6594
E-mail: University Archives Website archives.library@eku.edu
Internet: http://www.library.eku.edu/

This university library has many records about Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, with an emphasis on Kentucky records.

Lexington Public Library

Kentucky Room
Lexington Public Library
140 East Main Street
Lexington, KY 40507
Telephone: 859-231-5520
Internet: http://www.lexpublib.org/

The Kentucky Room of the Lexington Public Library houses many secondary sources on state and local history and genealogy, family histories, census indexes, and some census microfilm. It also has an excellent collection of Lexington newspapers and the Local History Index, an extensive index to newspapers. More detailed information on the collection can be found on the library’s web site.

Murray State University

Forrest C. Pogue Special Collections Library
Murray State University
208 Waterfield Library
Murray, KY 42071-3307
Telephone: 270-809-4295 or 866-774-6612
E-mail: Specialcollections@murraystate.edu.
Internet: http://libguides.murraystate.edu/special_collections_index

The Pogue library has records on all areas of Kentucky, with an emphasis on the western portion of the state.

Kenton County Public Library

Kenton County Public Library
502 Scott Blvd
Covington, KY 41011
Telephone: 859-962-4070
Internet: http://www.kenton.lib.ky.us

The Kenton County Public Library has extensive statewide, local, and family history materials and in-depth collections for northern Kentucky. It has a local newspaper index for the years 1835 to 1931 and 1984 to the present. This includes an obituary index. The catalog of the Kenton library is available on its web site. You can also access the Kenton County Historical Society from the Library’s web site.

Bristol Public Libary

Bristol Public Library
701 Goode Street
Bristol, Virginia 24201-4199
Telephone: 540-645-8780
Fax: 276-669-5593
E-mail: bplref@yahoo.com
Internet: http://www.bristol-library.org/

They have a relatively small family folder collection. Nevertheless, it is an important resource for settlers coming from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia  along the Great Valley Road into Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

Santa Cruz Public Library

Santa Cruz Public Library Downtown
224 Church Street
Santa Cruz, California 95060
Telephone: 831-427-7707 ext. 5794
E-mail: E-mail reference service form
Internet: http://www.santacruzpl.org/branches/14/

Holds the Genealogial Society of Santa Cruz County's library, including the Tina Brayton Collection which is equivalent to the Draper Manuscript Collection  but larger and with a better index, and many compiled genealogies of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia  families.

Virginia Historical Society
428 North Blvd
Richmond, VA 23221-0311
Telephone: 804-358-4901
E-mail: Ask a Librarian] form
Internet: Looking for People

County records such as marriages, county court records, wills, censuses, land, militia lists, bounty lands, passenger lists, tax lists, poll lists, genealogies, newspapers, family Bibles, and African American genealogy. They have a card index to 10 million documents of the Old Dominion, that is Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library
8346 Mary Ball Road
Lancaster, Virginia 22503
Telehone: 804-462-7280
Fax: 804-462-6107
E-mail: nfo@mbwm.org
Internet: http://www.mbwm.org/genealogy.asp

A small library with a good name index to nearly every history book published in Virginia  or Kentucky, including court records from 1651, indexes and abstracts, Virginia vital records, census records, county histories, biographies, church and cemetery records, family histories, newspapers, obituaries, vertical files, militia records, and fraternal organizations.

Draper Manuscript Collection
Wisconsin Historical Society
816 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
E-mail: Ask a librarian form
Internet: Wisconsin Historical Society

The Draper Collection, consists of 491 volumes of manuscripts, papers, and books collected by Lyman Copeland Draper  about the history of the trans-Allegheny West in the United States, a region including the western areas of the Carolinas and Virginia, all the Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley from the 1740s to 1830. This includes New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Durrett Collection
University of Chicago Library
Regenstein Library
University of Chicago
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago Illinois 60637
Telephone: 773-702-4685
Fax: 773-702-6623
E-mail: Ask a Librarian form.
Internet: University of Chicago Library

The Durrett Collection  consists of historical Kentucky and Ohio River Valley manuscripts. The size and content of this collection is comparable to the Draper Manuscript Collection. It includes the earliest people in the Ohio Valley.

Kentucky Online Records

Links to online databases and indexes that may include vital records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.