Kentucky Genealogical Society

Did you know Cloverport once had an opera house? Lots of interesting facts to learn at our local history museums!

Who is ONE current Kentucky brick wall you have?
(Name, circa, county)

Upcoming free public talks on Metro Louisville history. Click on image to view details

TRACING YOUR ROOTS
SUN. AUGUST 11 @ 2P, MAIN LIBRARY
------------------
🔍 Unlock your family's secrets! 🌳 Dig into Tracing Your Roots with local genealogy experts! Whether you're a seasoned ancestry buff or just starting out, we've got you covered. No sign-up needed - just bring your curiosity!

Finding School Records in the Archives (Even if Your Ancestor Didn't Go To School) Are you doing genealogy research in school records? Don't think you need to because your ancestor didn't attend school? Think again! School ...

Research Night at the Genealogy & History Center—

August 5th is the regular meeting night of the Adair County Genealogical Society at the Genealogy & History Research Center. There is no scheduled program, but this is a Research Night at the Research Center—just fellowship and research.

Come spend a couple of hours researching the collections, files, books, etc., and fellowship with friends and researchers. See some of the newest additions to the collections. Everyone is welcome—you don’t have to be a member of ACGS to attend and research.

Ernestine, Annita, and Mike will be on hand to assist and advise as needed.

Sponsored by the Adair County Genealogical Society and the Adair Genealogy & History Research Center of the Adair County Public Library. For more information: [email protected] or 270-380-1024; or follow our face book history pages.

Adair G&H Research Center, 307 Greensburg Street, Columbia, KY, 42728.

Mike Watson

This is an amazing resource for researching ancestors linked to Historic Germanna. Many of these folks settled in Kentucky.

Historic Germanna has made John Blankenbaker’s 15 volumes of Beyond Germanna and more than 2,500 Germanna History Notes available online for all to read and enjoy. https://germanna.org/beyond-germanna/

Beyond Germanna, published from 1989 to 2003, is a newsletter/journal devoted to German ancestors and their descendants who lived east of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. It includes general and genealogical history, starting in their German homes, continuing through their lives in Virginia, and extending to the colonies and states where they migrated.

"The City of Bowling Green donated an extensive collection of historic Shake Rag artifacts from the Southern Queen Hotel to the Western Kentucky University Special Collections Library last week. Almost 800 items were recovered by the City last summer during the process of stabilizing the property to save it for restoration."

The stories entwined in all these documents is almost overwhelming. This is just a small sample of the documents salvaged from the Southern Queen in the Shake Rag District of Bowling Green, KY. Thanks to the and for saving and sharing! Now to dive in and start reading.

Welcome to Kentucky to the Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW!
Hope you have a great national convention.

The Archives Research Room is getting a new look!! Unfortunately, this means will need to close for a few weeks beginning August 19th. We hope to reopen on Monday, September 9th, though services may be disrupted that week.

During this closure, staff will not have access to the microfilm collection. Please be aware that replies to orders of records will be delayed as a result.

Questions for the Research Room can be directed by phone to 502-564-1770 or email at [email protected].

Fort Mitchell, Near Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky; 1862
After a drawing by Henry Mosler (American, 1841–1920)

Published by Harper's Weekly, New York
Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art

From Logan County: The closure will be the entire week of August 5th. We will also have a volunteer work day on Saturday, August 10, beginning at 8 a.m. to complete the moving of records process. Wearing sturdy shoes is encouraged. Lunch will be provided. Please notify the office by email at [email protected] or by calling 270-726-8179 if you plan to help.

The KDLA-FamilySearch Digitization Project is moving along very well. Only four weeks old, four county clerks have already signed their Record Release Forms giving FamilySearch permission to digitize their microfilmed records kept at the KDLA in Frankfort, KY. A critical part of that form is an attachment listing the clerks’ records which could be digitized. We have an inventory of the records but need help in converting the lists into two-columned documents using either Word or Excel. This work can be done from any place in the world. That is, you don’t need to live in a particular county or even in the state. Fortunately, we have volunteers who are working on this aspect of the project, but we could use a lot more help. So, if you think you could give us a hand, please contact Susan Court at: [email protected].

This in-person class is being offered by the McCracken County Public Library in Paducah.

Family History Post Emancipation Join Kristen and Nathan as they discuss tips and tricks for researching your family history, using library resources! In conjunction with the 8th of August Emancipation Celebration, extra focus will be given to the unique struggles the descendants of emancipated slaves have when tracing their trees....

Carte de la partie me´ridionale des Etats-Unis
(Map of the southern part of the United States)
1 January 1800

Source: University of Pittsburgh; Darlington Digital Library; Identifier: DARMAP0251;
Full map: https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3ADARMAP0251

Allen Allensworth was born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky, served as a Union soldier, became a Baptist minister and educator, and was the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. He founded numerous churches, and in 1908 founded Allensworth, California, the only town in the state to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans, now a State Historic Monument.

Source: UCLA Digital Library

Learn more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Allensworth
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21364/allen-allensworth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allensworth,_California

🔍✨ Today on Bluegrass Roots: “The Dynamic Duo: Passive and Active Research Techniques in Genealogy,” Christopher Padgett reveals how blending passive and active methods can uncover hidden family stories and enrich your lineage. Discover how to balance online databases with hands-on archival work for more effective research. 🌳🔗
Check out the post here: https://kygs.org/dynamic-duo/

The Dynamic Duo: Passive and Active Research Techniques in Genealogy Explore the importance of active and passive research techniques in genealogy. Discover how they work together to uncover your family history.

Wonderful opportunity to learn from Nancy Richey in Glasgow this evening

Nancy Richey, our Visual Resources Librarian is presenting her research on Cousin Emmy. The presentation is tonight at 6:00p.m. at the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, 200 W. Water Street, Glasgow, Kentucky. This is a free event, welcome to all.

Nancy will discuss how Cousin Emmy was a Pioneering Performer here in Kentucky. You can look forward to video footage of Cousin Emmy's 1962 appearance on the Jack Benny Show. Hope to see you there.

This is an excellent resource for those in Woodford County to be able to access and use to preserve family history. Kudos to the Woodford County Library and Brown-Forman Brands for bringing this to life!

📰WE HAVE SOME VERY EXCITING NEWS!📰

Thanks to a $25,000 donation from Brown Forman, makers of Woodford Reserve, the Library is working to install a "Digitization Station" in an effort to preserve our rich local history. As you can imagine, older documents deteriorate over time. Their generosity will allow us to ensure we don't lose information that helps fuel historical research about Woodford County.

Here's where we can really help Woodford County... the Digitization Station will be open to the public to preserve your important documents and family history. Plus! Our digitized collection will be searchable over the internet. We hope to have our station installed by the end of 2024. The work of digitizing our collection will be an ongoing endeavor. You can even add your history! Watch the news spot on WDKY Fox 56 from this morning for more information.

Once again, we are overwhelmed by the generosity of Brown Forman, and their commitment to preserving local history and supporting community resources like the Library.

https://fox56news.com/video/woodford-reserves-25k-donation-paves-way-for-preserving-county-history/9897315/?ipid=ql

Sharing this excellent post of photographs of the James Young Family Cemetery in West Point, Kentucky. West Point has a wonderful local history museum The West Point, Kentucky History Museum Inc. which can help you learn about the rich history of this neck of the woods. Nearby, there's also Fort Duffield Park https://www.fortduffield.com and the Tioga Falls Hiking Trail https://radclifftourism.org/tioga-falls/