What You Will Learn

Beneath Louisville’s busy streets and along the banks of the Ohio lies the story of how Jefferson County became a crossroads of families, faiths, and frontiers. In this engaging presentation, discover how to trace your ancestors who lived, worked, and built lives at the Falls of the Ohio — from early settlers and river workers to immigrants who found opportunity in the growing city.

You’ll learn where to uncover Jefferson County’s richest genealogical sources, from courthouse and church records to overlooked archives and cemetery files. We’ll explore neighborhood histories, shifting boundaries, and the resources that connect families from Portland to Prospect and everywhere in between. Whether your ancestors arrived by flatboat or railroad, this session will help you piece together their stories and see how your own family fits into the larger current of Louisville’s past.

Speaker

Christopher Padgett is a Louisville-based family historian, writer, and past president of the Kentucky Genealogical Society. An eighth-generation Kentuckian, he has spent decades exploring how the Commonwealth’s local stories connect to the larger American experience. His research focuses on the people and places of Jefferson County — from the early settlements at the Falls of the Ohio to the vibrant neighborhoods that grew along the river’s edge.

Through his ongoing initiative, The Corn Island Project, Christopher blends genealogy, history, and storytelling to reveal how Kentucky families have shaped — and been shaped by — the land and communities they called home. His work encourages genealogists to move beyond names and dates to uncover the deeper human stories hidden in archives, cemeteries, and family heirlooms.

Christopher is a member of the Thurston Chapter, National Society Sons of the American Revolution; The Filson Historical Society; Clan MacMillan International; the Folsom Family Association; Ancestral Trails Historical Society; the Exeter, New Hampshire Historical Society; the Kentucky Genealogical Society; and the New Hampshire Genealogical Society. He also serves as one of the Kentucky Genealogical Society’s Partner Representatives to the International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP).

A frequent speaker and educator, Christopher is known for making complex research approachable and inspiring audiences to see family history as both a personal journey and a public legacy. Whether tracing the path of a German shoemaker through early Louisville or connecting migration patterns across the Commonwealth, his presentations invite listeners to rediscover the roots beneath their own stories.

Registration Form

Members

Not a Member?

If you are not a member, you can choose to join the Society and attend this webinar for free. You will also have free access to all webinars in the next year as well as access to all of our past webinars in the Learning Library.