Iola Public Library

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:iolaref@sekls.org iolaref@sekls.org]

Address:


 * 218 E Madison Ave. Iola, Kansas 66749-3332

Telephone: 620-365-3262

Hours and holidays: Monday-Thursday, 9:30-8:00 ; Friday-Saturday, 9:00-5:00.

Google map: Iola Public Library

Internet sites and databases:


 * Iola Public Library reading festival, friends, genealogy, history, reads, meeting spaces, online services, policies, programs, services and collections. 
 * Search our Catalog (SEKnFIND) online. Search by keyword, title, author, subject, ISBN, series, or call number. Also available in WorldCat.

Collection Description
Their genealogy collection is good for all of Kansas including family folders, special indexes, and published records for many of the counties of Kansas. For Allen County they have a marriage index, obituary index, cemetery transcripts, history, and newspapers.

The library is known for its genealogy collection. The Raymond L. Willson genealogy collection contains 4300 books and 12,500 reels of censuses and newspapers on microfilm. Volunteers from the Southeast Kansas Genealogy Society are sometimes available to guide users, or you can ask for help at the library’s front desk.

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.
 * 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.
 * Southeast Kansas Genealogical Society, Iola, quarterly publication, queries, cemetery transcripts, obituary and newspaper indexes.
 * Iola Kansas Family History Center offers research suggestions, and can order genealogical microfilms from the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.

Similar Collections


 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Neighboring Collections


 * Iola City Clerk has some birth, death, and burial records.
 * Allen County Clerk, Iola, minutes, licenses, and cemetery reports.
 * Clerk of the District Court, Iola, marriages since 1856; civil, criminal, domestic, and probate records since 1860; and naturalizations 1871-1929.
 * Allen County Register of Deeds, Iola, land records since 1860, county school records, and military discharge papers.
 * U.S. District Court District of Kansas, Topeka, recent federal civil, criminal, and bankruptcy cases.
 * Allen County Historical Society, Iola, operates three museums.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: Anderson, Bourbon, Coffey, Linn, Neosho, Wilson, and Woodson.
 * Fort Hays State University Forsyth Library, Hays, western Kansas history, oral histories, genealogical and historical societies, Hutterites, Mennonites, Catholics, and Lutherans.
 * Kansas Heritage Center, Dodge City, cowboys, oral history, Fort Dodge history, the Old West.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.