Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:lhistory@kclibrary.org lhistory@kclibrary.org]

Address:


 * Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections Central Library 14 W. 10th Street, 5th Floor Kansas City, MO 64105

Telephone: 816-701-3427 Fax:  816-701-3401

Hours and holidays: Monday-Friday 9-5; Saturday 9-5; Holiday closures Sunday 1-5 ONLY when Missouri Valley Sundays are scheduled.

Map and public transportation:


 * Google map: Kansas City Public Library Central Branch
 * Public transportation:  The 10th and Main Transit Center is across the street from the Central Library. KCATA or Metro bus routes 24, 27, 28, 30, 47, 54, 71, 101, 102, 106, 108, 129, 173, 660, 661, and four other routes stop at the 10th and Main Transit Center.

Internet sites and databases:


 * Local history and genealogy hours, join, quick links, and this week in Kansas City history.
 * Special collections collection description and inventories.
 * Kansas City Public Library Catalog Search online. Search by title, author, subject, series, keyword in subject heading, or call number. Also available in WorldCat.
 * Digital Gallery images from the arts, architecture, culture, society, Kansas City, maps, and people.
 * Local History Index of 36,000 articles, newsletters, news clippings, and books about the Missouri Valley and Kansas City area.
 * Kansas City Regional Histories Index a master index to about 50 histories.

Collection Description
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. Jackson County births 1883-1895, marriage indexes 1827-1937, deaths 1874-1909. They also hold papers, postcards, newspaper clippings, city directories, maps, school yearbooks, and ephemera from local individuals and organizations to document the history and development of the Kansas City area including some material from the Kansas City School District. They provide information on vital records research, adoption search resources, how-to-do obituary searching, African Americans, American Indians, the American Civil War, explorers, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and the Overland Trail.

Librarians began collecting genealogical materials almost from the beginning of the Library, but in 1933, a donation of the vast personal genealogical library of lumber baron John Barber White greatly enhanced the collection. Resources continued to be added. Of note are the many now out-of-print nineteenth-century histories of counties in the Midwest, specific family histories, and many genealogical periodicals beginning in the late 1800s.

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 at Kansas City federal censuses 1790–1930; selected military service indexes, pension indexes, passenger lists, naturalizations, photos, adoptions, vital records, land, and Indian records.

Similar Collections


 * St. Louis County Library, a Missouri collection including the National Genealogical Society, and St. Louis Genealogical Society collections, online databases, federal censuses, births, deaths, cemeteries, church records, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, wills, African American records, yearbooks, and access to FamilySearch microfilms.

Neighboring Collections


 * Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, local civil, criminal, and probate records since 1828.
 * Jackson County Health Department, Independence, Jackson County birth certificates since 1920.
 * Jackson County Historical Society, Independence, title abstracts, diaries, letters, 2000 books, business ledgers, census, city directories, court, election, tax, vital records, plat maps, newspapers, periodicals, photos, subject indexes.
 * Jackson County Medical Examiner, Kansas City, suspicious deaths.
 * Jackson County Recorder of Deeds, Kansas City, marriage and land records since 1827.
 * Kansas City Health Department, Kansas City birth certificates; deaths 1874-1909.
 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, a great American genealogy collection: censuses, MO federal land sales, penitentiary, St. Louis fur trade, Civil War, passenger lists, plantations, American Indians, city directories, newspapers, Draper Manuscripts, and KY taxes.
 * Riverview Missouri Family History Center has premium online services for free, can offer research suggestions, and can order genealogical microfilms from the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.
 * United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Kansas City, recent federal civil, criminal, and bankruptcy court records.
 * Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, books, periodicals, letters, and diaries of the of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Community of Christ.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: in Missouri: Cass, Clay, Johnson, Lafayette, Platte, Ray, in Kansas: Johnson, and Wyandotte.
 * Missouri Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Jefferson City, birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates.
 * Missouri History Museum Library, St. Louis, has regional history sources, St. Louis, Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, the Louisiana Purchase, American West: indexes, guides, catalogs, photos, genealogy workshops. Many records of Missouri settlers from Illinois.
 * Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, has court, land, military, death records, federal censuses, county and municipal records, photos, penitentiary, and manuscript records. Birth and death record index since 1883 is online; birth records 1883-1895; marriages 1827-1937.
 * Missouri State Genealogical Association has donated their books the the Midwest Genealogy Center.
 * National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), St. Louis, federal government employee and military personnel records starting 1917.
 * St. Louis Mercantile Library, early newspapers, railroads, inland waterways, county records, biographies, and genealogies. A premier library for Missouri research.
 * St. Louis Public Library obituaries, passenger lists, family histories, and HeritageQuest online.
 * State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, census, maps, newspapers, online tools, oral history, photos, historical manuscripts, and reference materials.
 * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis Office of Archives and Records parish christenings, confirmations, marriages, and deaths.
 * Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis, Department of Archives and History of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
 * Episcopal Diocese of Missouri Archives, St. Louis, a library, extensive document and photograph collections, and parish registers.
 * Missouri United Methodist Archives, Fayette, historical materials on Methodism in Missouri emphasizing ministers.
 * Repositories in surrounding states: Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
 * Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne IN, has a premier genealogical periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, American Indians, African Americans, Canadians.
 * Dallas Public Central Library, outstanding genealogical collection with records for more than Texas, including Missouri, Oklahoma, the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states.
 * Newberry Library, a large Chicago repository with genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and British Isles.