Don Taylor’s – Kentucky Research Toolkit

Review information on Wikipedia for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, particularly history during the period to be researched. Look carefully at the List of Counties to be examined to see when and where they came into being. Also, look at:

• • The Kentucky Atlas & Gazetteer.
  • Vital Records: Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics
  • United States Maps: Kentucky

Step 1 – Confirm using the initial sources.

• • Family Search
    • Catalog – Kentucky (and add counties as appropriate)
  • $$ Ancestry
    • Ancestry Card Catalog – Kentucky
  • $$ Newspapers
  • $$ Genealogy Bank
  • $$ Newspaper Archive
  • $$ American Ancestors
  • Find a Grave
  • Elephind – Searches Chronicling America (Kentucky) and the Newspaper collections from several states. Also see “Getting the most from CA.”
  • Hathi Trust Digital Library – Kentucky
  • Internet Archive
  • Randy Majors Ancestor Search (Google Search)
  • Google Books
  • Google

Step 2

• • Walk-through the Family Search Wiki for Kentucky
    • Also, each county, township, or city as appropriate.
  • Walk-through The Ancestor Hunt for Kentucky
  • Walk-through the Red Book – Kentucky Family History Research.

Step 3a – My Top – Non-Paid Kentucky Sites[i]

1. 1. UKY                Explore UK (University of Kentucky)
   2. KDLA             Kentucky Dept. for Libraries & Archives – Researchers
   3. KDL                Kentucky Digital Library
   4. KHS               Kentucky Historical Society (Est. 1836)
   5. KY.GOV         Kentucky State Digital Archives
   6. UofL              University of Louisville – University Libraries Digital Collections
   7. KYGENWEB Kentucky Gen Web
   8. NARA            Atlanta

Step 3b – My Top Paid Kentucky Sites

1. 1. $$- Kentucky Pioneers – $195/year for 8 Genealogy Websites (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia).

Step 3c – Other Kentucky Sites worth checking

1. 1. Kentucky Land Office – Kentucky Secretary of State
   2. Kentucky Genealogical Society
   3. Virginia Land Patents & Grants (pre-1779)
   4. Kenton County Public Library – Faces and Places – Northern Kentucky Photographic Archives
   5. Jefferson County – Louisville – The Filson Historical Society

Step 3d – Kentucky County Links – List of Counties

• Dive into individual county records, historical societies, etc.

Step 3e – Time-based Sites

Civil War

• • • Soldiers and Sailors Database
    • National Archive – Military Records – Civil War
    • $$ – Fold 3 – Kentucky Civil War

Step 4 – Aggregate sites – One last look for any websites missed.

• Cyndi’s List – United States, Kentucky
• Kentucky Genealogy
• Genealogy Research Guides

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Endnotes

[i] Note: Many of these sites may have been examined during earlier steps.