Pulaski County, Kentucky Newspaper Resources

Newspapers are used in geneology to find obituaries of ancestors, community news items/events mentioning ancestors, and historical context information pertaining to the lives of our ancestors.

There are several sources available for Pulaski county, Kentucky newspapers. Some have been microfilmed and/or digitalized and are available at various repositories or on-line. Still others are in their original form at various repositories.

For just obituary information see the obituary section of the FamilySearch wiki page Pulaski county, Kentucky.

The best starting point for a catalog list of Pulaski county newspapers and the repositories that have them is the Library of Congress' website Chronicling America. Chronicling America also has the digitalized Kentucky newspapers done by the University of Kentucky for the NEH United States Newspaper Project cataloged  in it, but at the time of this writing the US Newspaper Program for Kentuckyhas not yet digitalized the Pulaski county newspapers.

Although Chronicaling America has much of the same content as this wiki page, the following list of extant Pulaski county newspapers is presented for two reasons. First, to make newspaper location by date easier; and second, to enable the genealogical community to easily add a known privately held copy or collection to the wiki list. Although not comprehensive at this time, it is anticipated that it will become such as researchers desire to find context material for their ancestors lives and contribute their knowledge of extant newspapers they have discovered during their research process.


 * [Nov 21, 1855] Somerset Democrat. See Library of Congress.
 * [1876 no. 3] Somerset Repulican. Available at Western Kentucky University Helm-Cravens Library, Bowling Green, Ky.
 * [Nov 3, 1876] Somerset Repulican. Available University of Kentucky Library. Note that the University of Kentucky does not have any Pulaski county newspapers, save those on their on-line catalog.
 * [Feb 4, 1891] Reporter. See periodical Kentucky Ancestors 
 * [1886] "Pulaski Co. Banner Newspaper Items,1886," Pulaski County Historical Society Newsletter.
 * [1886+] The Pulaski County Public Library also has a variety of Pulaski county newspapers on microfilm that start with the Oct 14, 1920 issue of the Commonwealth Journal. They also have a variety of scattered original issues of Pulaski county newspapers that are dated prior to the dates of the microfilm collection. On top of the microfilm drawers in the Pulaski Public Library is a small booklet that has a list of the specific issues in their collection---which is helpful for many years have issues wanting. The earliest original issue is the Feb. 25, 1886 issue of The Somerset Reporter.
 * [Apr 2, 1896] The Somerset Paragon. See University of Kentucky Library.
 * [1899] . Available at Western Kentucky University Helm-Craven Library in Bowling Green, Ky.
 * [Jan 29, 1908] The Burnside Item. University of Kentucky Library, Lexington, Ky.
 * [Jun 18, 1909] Available University of Kentucky Library.
 * [Oct 28, 1910] The Somerset Times. See University of Kentucky Library.
 * [1919] The Commonwealth. See Pulaski County Publick Library and University of Kentucky LIbrary.
 * [Aug 1, 1919 - May 20, 1932; Jan 1934 - Dec 1965. Scattered issues wanting] The Somerset Journal. University of Kentucky Library.
 * [Mar 4, 1942] "Newspaper excerpts, Mar 4, 1942," Pulaski County Historical Society Newsletter 'The Somerset Journal. Available at Univeristy of Texas Library.
 * [1971?] The Republic. See University of Kentucky Library and Western Kentucky University Helm-Craven Library (Bowling Green, Ky).
 * [1971-?-1983] The Observer. See University of Kentucky Library.
 * [1983-?-1987] The Somerset Observer. See University of Kentucky Library.
 * [1972?] The Sprite &amp; Bugle. See University of Kentucky Library and Western Kentucky University Helm-Craven Library (Bowling Green, Ky).
 * [1987] . See University of Kentucky Library (Lexington).
 * [1997] See Pulaski County Public LIbrary or University of Kentucky Library.
 * [8/5/2008 - current] The Commonwealth-Journal (8/5/2008-current) is available through GenealogyBank.

A list of newspapers ever known to be published in Pulaski County is found in the Nov 1998 edition of the Newsletter of the Pulaski County Kentucky Historical Society. This list was compiled by compiled by the late Don Orwin, a communications professor at Somerset Community College. (FHL US/CAN Book 976.963 H25P) This same list is also found in one of the 2008 editions of the Pulaski County Historical Society newsletter.