Kentucky County Church and Cemetery Records

Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states), church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death. They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations-there are hundreds of them.

Churches - Church membership of early Kentuckians include Baptist, Church of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. Some church records were published, others were microfilmed, some are housed in church repositories, but many remain in the local church. Church records and histories may be found in periodicals pertaining to Kentucky. Repositories include the DAR Library, the FHL, Kentucky Historical Society, University of Kentucky Library, and Filson Club Library. The original Shane Manuscript Collection, which pertains to Kentucky Presbyterians, is housed at Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19147. It has been microfilmed and is available at other libraries.

See also Kentucky Bible Records, 6 vols., from files of the Genealogical Records Committee, Kentucky Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. Volume 4 was compiled by Malle B. Coyle and Anne W. Fitzgerald for the Kentucky Records Research Committee (Florence, Ky.: Kentucky State Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 1966). Volume 5 was compiled by Malle B. Coyle and Lorena C. Eubanks (1981). Each volume is individually indexed. Most entries include only name, date, and name and address of the owner of the Bible at the time of publication. These are available at the Kentucky Historical Society. Local genealogical groups publish Kentucky Bible records in genealogical publications such as Bluegrass Roots, and Kentucky Ancestors.

Search Kentucky Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....

Cemeteries - Many collections of cemetery records are available for Kentucky. In 1977 the Kentucky Historical Society began computerizing extant cemetery records for the state. Cemetery tombstone transcriptions are included in the Ardery collection. The main repositories for cemetery compilations are the Kentucky Historical Society, University of Kentucky Library, Filson Club Library, DAR Library in Washington, D.C., local libraries, and the FHL. Kentucky regional libraries and some other large genealogical libraries outside the state have collections of Kentucky cemetery transcriptions. In addition, publications pertaining to Kentucky and Kentuckians frequently contain cemetery records for the state.

Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:

FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL CEMETERY TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA
Biographical works Burial permits Church burial registers Cemetery records (often several different kinds are kept) Cemetery indexes (often compiled by genealogical societies) Cemetery sextons’ records Cemetery deed and plot registers Death certificates Death indexes Family bibles Family burial plots	Funeral director’s records Grave opening orders Gravestone (monument) inscriptions Military records Monuments and memorials Necrologies Newspaper death notices Obituaries Probate records Published death records Religious records Transcriptions of cemetery inscriptions