Preserving and Sharing Resources
Since 1973, the Kentucky Genealogical Society has completed many records preservations projects that have benefitted many family researchers. The following lists some of the larger undertakings by the society volunteers.
Wills and Ways: Miscellaneous Kentucky Records
One of the first publications of the Kentucky Genealogical Society was the Wills and Ways: Miscellaneous Kentucky Records book. This 108-page book features multiple family records of over 500 Kentucky families. The index of names is six-pages long. The society published the book in 1975.
The book highlights the following items:
- Wills and Last Testaments from various men
- Vital records from Family Bibles
- Obituaries
- Excerpts from the Kentucke Gazette 1787-92
- Listing of the Georgetown Cemetery
- Partial List of Franklin, Henry, Fleming, and Scott County Marriage Records
These records can be found in the KYGS Digital Archive Collection.
Frankfort Cemetery Records
Between 1978 and 1988, the Kentucky Genealogical Society began documenting the Frankfort Cemetery located in Frankfort, Kentucky. Project Chair, Ramona Slattery, lead a team of close to 50 people. This project was an immense undertaking.
While sites like Find A Grave make this information freely available today, this was an impressive task for a volunteer organization. The finished project was a 541-page book that contains illustrations along with the compilation of names and dates on all grave markers in the Frankfort Cemetery as of the year of publication.
The book highlights the following items:
- Provides a map to the gravesite of Daniel and Rebecca Boone
- Pictures of curious grave markers
- Picture of an 1890 Chapel that was built for funeral services
These records can be found in the KYGS Digital Archive Collection.
Family Bible Records Scanning Project
The birth, death, and marriage information lovingly recorded in family bibles are true treasures – and sometimes the only record of long-ago family events. Often, these bibles contained the only written records of births, marriages and deaths of a family. These remain solid components to proving a family genealogy.
To help keep those records alive and make them available to researchers, the Kentucky Genealogical Society launched the family bible records scanning project. During that time members have donated family bible record scans to the Society from many Kentucky ancestors. Some of these family bibles records go back to the founding of Kentucky and detail many vital records that genealogists rely upon.
These records can be found in the KYGS Digital Archive Collection.
Early Kentucky Tax Records
Prior to Kentucky becoming a state, Virginia collected taxes for those living in the area. The society digitized and transcribed the pre-1790 tax lists. A searchable index is available for Bourbon, Daviess, Fayette, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison and Mercer counties. Each county is organized by the tax list year and book number. Next to it is the transcription. Every image and transcription appear as it was written at that time. Remember that transcribing is done just as it appears on the image. That way we do not change the historical value of the record, no matter how we might feel about what was written.
These files are available in the Members Only Digital Archive.
Birth Index from 1874-1879
The Kentucky Birth index was created by volunteers between 2006 and 2009. It covers births registered in 114 counties in Kentucky from 1874–1878. Fayette, Jefferson, and Perry counties did not register births during this time period. Carlisle, Knott, Leslie, and McCreary counties were not formed until 1878 or later, so records for those areas will be in the parent counties (1878 records exist for Leslie).
This file is available in the Members Only Digital Archive.