Kansas Heritage Center

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:library@ksheritage.org library@ksheritage.org]

Address:


 * Mail: PO Box 1207 Street: 1000 North 2nd Avenue (School Administration Building Main Floor) Dodge City, KS 67801-1207

Telephone: 620-227-1616 Fax:  620-227-170

Hours and holidays: 8 a.m.–5 p.m. weekdays; Holidays: school vacations (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, etc.) hours are limited; call ahead.

Map and public transportation:


 * Google map:  Kansas Heritage Center
 * Public transportation:  Both the Dodge City Public Transit D-Tran fixed routes Blue Route and Red Route stop next to the Kansas Heritage Center each hour Monday-Friday between 6am and 6pm.

Internet sites and databases:


 * Kansas Heritage Center on-site research, specialized library, photos, audio-visual material, microfilm, teaching kits, programs, contact information.
 * Categories show the main subject divisions of their collection.

Collection Description
The Kansas Heritage Center is a social studies resource center operated through Unified School District 443 in Dodge City, Kansas. Their emphasis is history — especially the history of Kansas, the Great Plains and the Old West. They have a research library of books, microfilm, and vertical file materials.

The library holds over 6,000 volumes covering U.S. exploration, the westward movement, Civil War, Territorial Kansas and statehood, development of the Old West, and contemporary themes. The Santa Fe Trail is especially well covered. The Center’s collection includes 4,500 photographs of the Old West, early Dodge City, and some surrounding towns. Photographs date from 1872 to the present. 500 video titles are available on topics like the history of Kansas, the Great Plains, and the Old West. Their microfilm collection includes most of the newspapers published in Dodge City from 1876 to the present, newspapers from several other Kansas towns, selected Kansas and U.S. census records, military records from Fort Dodge, and some historic Sanborn Insurance maps from many Kansas communities

Tips

 * To accommodate patrons who cannot visit in person, they will conduct research for a nominal fee.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, bounty land, homesteads, ethnic sources, prisons, fed employees.
 * National Archives at Kansas City federal censuses 1790–1930; military service indexes, pension indexes, passenger lists, naturalizations, photos, vital records, land, and Indian records.
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 2.5 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, censuses, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and Mormon records.
 * American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln NE, AHSGR ancestor lists, cemeteries, homesteads, an AHSGR German hometowns list, passenger lists, obituaries, surname charts, and Russian village files.
 * National Orphan Train Complex, Concordia, museum, history, rider registry, research, and events. 66 v. (20,000 records) of orphan train riders, photos, 9,700 name computer database.

Similar Collections


 * Kansas Genealogical Society, Dodge City, has the best set of family folders and genealogical periodicals in Kansas. . Also, clippings, obituaries, and an online catalog.
 * Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, clearly the best place to start researching Kansas ancestors including newspapers, county records, biographies, genealogies, land records, and railroads. Statewide births and deaths prior to 1894; City of Topeka births and deaths 1885-1912.
 * Topeka Genealogical Society Library, 12,000 books, 700 periodicals strong on Shawnee County and northeast Kansas. Also includes almost every U.S. state, and many foreign nations.

Neighboring Collections


 * Dodge City Clerk, incomplete births and deaths 1892-1904 (births and deaths 1905-1911 at Kansas Historical Society).
 * Ford County Clerk of the District Court, Dodge City, marriages since 1874; divorces, probate, and court records since 1873.
 * Ford County Register of Deeds land records since 1873.
 * Ford County County Coroner, Dodge City, suspicious deaths
 * U.S. District Court, Dodge City Division, recent civil, criminal and bankruptcy cases.
 * Ford County Historical Society, Dodge City, online history articles.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: Clark, Edwards, Gray, Hodgeman, Kiowa, and Meade.
 * Fort Hays State University Forsyth Library, Hays, western Kansas history, oral histories, genealogical and historical societies, Hutterites, Mennonites, Catholics, and Lutherans.
 * Iola Public Library, for all Kansas including family folders, special indexes, and published records for many counties of Kansas.
 * Johnson County Library, Overland Park, both a Kansas and a genealogy collection, mostly books, and periodicals with family folders. Also covers Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
 * Riley County Genealogical Society Library, Manhattan, pre-Civil War records are excellent for Kansas. Early settlers are documented by obituaries, family folders, and some good indexes.
 * Wichita Public Library Genealogy Center, has many genealogies with an emphasis mostly on books, periodicals, and special publications for southeast KS, and corners of MO, AR, and OK.
 * Kansas State Library, Topeka, largest book library in Kansas with county histories, ethnic sources, guides, inventories, and family genealogies. This is a main depository of historical documents about Kansas residents.
 * Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Topeka, since 1911 births, stillbirths, deaths; since 1913 marriages; and since 1951 divorce records issued for a fee only to immediate family members or representatives.
 * University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library, Lawrence, manuscripts, photographs, maps, histories, newspapers, periodicals, film and videotapes that document the "Kansas Experience" of pioneers, railroads, and American Indians. A depository for publications of Kansas and Douglas County.
 * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas Archives baptism, confirmations, marriages, deaths, parish records.
 * Kansas United Methodist Archives, Baker University, Baldwin City, church records, newspapers, manuscripts, memoirs, obituaries, archives, reports.
 * Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, Newton, Mennonite-related books, periodicals, and genealogical materials.
 * Repositories in surrounding states: Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence MO, one of America's best genealogical centers: censuses and indexes, 80,000 family histories, 100,000 local histories, 565,000 microfilms, 7,000 maps, and newspapers. Surrounding states are well represented.
 * Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections, The Missouri Valley Room has a great genealogy collection for Missouri and Kansas with biographies, periodicals, genealogies, diaries, photos, scrapbooks, and newspapers of the Kansas City area.