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.

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 * The state archives maintains original Kentucky government records and other historical documents.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.

Department 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: [mailto:atlanta.archives@nara.gov 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. 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.

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: [mailto:research@filsonhistorical.org 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 [mailto:library.web@wku.edu 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: [mailto:archives.library@eku.edu?subject=From 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: [mailto:Specialcollections@murraystate.edu Specialcollections@murraystate.edu][mailto:library.webmaster@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: [mailto:bplref@yahoo.com 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 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: [mailto:nfo@mbwm.org 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.