Kentucky NewsPapers

The University of Kentucky Library is the major state repository for newspapers for the state. It participates in the United States newspaper project with holdings available from an on-line data base. The Kentucky Union List of 14,000 titles of early Kentucky papers that have been identified by a recent project is presently being microfilmed. When complete, all titles will be available through interlibrary loan.

The Kentucky Gazette, a Lexington newspaper, published news for most early Kentucky counties. Microfilm copies are available at many libraries in and out of the state and at the University of Kentucky Library in Lexington. The Louisville Courier has been indexed for the years 1917 to 1977.

Some original and microfilmed newspapers are also available at the Kentucky Historical Society, the Filson Club Library, and the Lexington Public Library. The FHL and some regional libraries also have copies on microfilm. Other helpful sources include:

  • Clift, G. Glenn, comp., ed. Kentucky Obituaries, 1787-1854. Reprint, Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984. Compiled from publications of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, from newspapers housed in the Lexington Public Library, from The Kentucky Gazette, aand from The Reporter. Chronologically arranged.
  • Green, Karen Mauer. The Kentucky Gazette: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts. 2 vols. Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1983-85. Volume 1 covers 1787-1800; Volume 2 covers 1801-200. These volumes are extracts of names, events, and dates from The Kentucky Gazette and include entries for people from may Kentucky counties. Volumes are individually indexed; each ahve separate indexes for persons and places.

While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

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....

The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

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