Kentucky Genealogy – Free Kentucky Genealogy

Kentucky Genealogy. This state page of our website provides direct links to free major genealogy databases and historical titles and information found on Kentucky Genealogy, whether they exist on our site, or across the web.

Black Kentucky Genealogy

Kentucky Bible Records

Kentucky Biographies

Kentucky Cemeteries

Kentucky Census Records

  • Kentucky Census Records
  • Kentucky 1910 Census Edition Map
  • Hart County Kentucky Tax List, 1819
    Often, the potential of tax records as a tool for genealogy research is not fully recognized. While their immediate details might seem sparse, they could be a gateway to acquiring land documents that are rich in valuable information for tracing our ancestry. This compilation represents individuals who were paying taxes in Hart County, Kentucky, in the year 1819. When applicable, it also includes details of the land parcel owned, specifying the size, geographical location, and any adjacent bodies of water.

Kentucky Church Records

Kentucky Court Records

  • Kentucky Wills
    This database includes scanned images of wills that have been located in patent files during the Land Office’s ongoing scanning project. Because wills include names of family members, disposition of slaves (many of whom are named in the will) and other estate components, they can be valuable for historical and genealogical research.
  • Adair County Court Records
    • Adair County Probate Index: 1801-1817
      The Adair County Probate Index is an index of all probate records for Adair County, Kentucky during the years of 1801-1817, as found in Volumes A+B of Adair County court records, Kentucky State Archives microfilm #3601.
    • Adair County Probate Index: 1818-1836
      The Adair County Probate Index is an index of all probate records for Adair County, Kentucky during the years of 1818-1836, as found in Volume C of Adair County court records, Kentucky State Archives microfilm #3601.
  • Barron County Court Records
    • Barren County Probate Records Index: 1817-1829
      The Barron County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Barron County, Kentucky for the years of 1799-1815 as found in Volume 1, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #209740.
    • Barren County Probate Records Index: 1817-1829
      The Barron County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Barron County, Kentucky for the years of 1817-1829 as found in Volume 2, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #209740.
  • Bourbon County Court Records
    • Bourbon County Probate Records Index: 1786-1795
      The Bourbon County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Bourbon County, Kentucky for the years of 1795-1805 as found in Volume B, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #183132.
    • Bourbon County Probate Records Index: 1795-1805
      The Bourbon County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Bourbon County, Kentucky for the years of 1795-1805 as found in Volume B, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #183132.
  • Bracken County Court Records
    • Bracken County Probate Records Index: 1798-1815
      The Bracken County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Bracken County, Kentucky for the years of 1798-1815 as found in Volume A, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #344088.
    • Bracken County Probate Records Index: 1815-1823
      The Bracken County Probate Records Index is an index of probate records for Bracken County, Kentucky for the years of 1815-1823 as found in Volume B, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #344088.
  • Breckenridge County Court Records
    • Breckenridge County Will Index: 1800-1893
      The Breckenridge County Will Index is an index of will records for Breckenridge County, Kentucky for the years of 1800-1893 as found in book 1 of the Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #7005267.
    • Breckenridge County Will Index: 1894-1935
      The Breckenridge County Will Index is an index of will records for Breckenridge County, Kentucky for the years of 1894-1935 as found in book 2 of the Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #7005267.
    • Breckenridge County Will Index: 1934-1968
      The Breckenridge County Will Index is an index of will records for Breckenridge County, Kentucky for the years of 1934-1968 as found in book 3 of the Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #7005267.
    • Breckenridge County Will Index: 1966-1975
      The Breckenridge County Will Index is an index of will records for Breckenridge County, Kentucky for the years of 1966-1975 as found in book 4 of the Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #7005267.
  • Hart County Kentucky Court Records
    • Hart County Kentucky Wills 1819-1850
      The Hart County, Kentucky Court House burned in 1928. This has caused a severe hardship on anyone researching their families in Hart Co, KY. The following index is all that exists of Will Book A. This index apparently escaped the fire. It was compiled by Colonel Ben LeBree and was originally published by the Hart County Historical Society in their quarterly publication. What this index tells us is the people listed here died before 1850 and estate papers or wills were filed in Hart County, Kentucky. It is a terrible shame the actual documents were lost.

Kentucky Directories

Kentucky Genealogy

United States Genealogy

KYGenWeb

Adair, Allen, Anderson, Ballard, Barren, Bath, Bell, Boone, Bourbon, Boyd, Boyle, Bracken, Breathitt, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Campbell, Carlisle, Carroll, Carter, Casey, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crittenden, Cumberland, Daviess, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Fayette, Fleming, Floyd, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Garrard, Grant, Graves, Grayson, Green, Greenup, Hancock, Hardin, Harlan, Harrison, Hart, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Hopkins, Jackson, Jefferson, Jessamine, Johnson, Kenton, Knott, Knox, LaRue, Laurel, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, Livingston, Logan, Lyon, Madison, Magoffin, Marion, Marshall, Martin, Mason, McCracken, McCreary, McLean, Meade, Menifee, Mercer, Metcalfe, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Oldham, Owen, Owsley, Pendleton, Perry, Pike, Powell, Pulaski, Robertson, Rockcastle, Rowan, Russell, Scott, Shelby, Simpson, Spencer, Taylor, Todd, Trigg, Trimble, Union, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Whitley, Wolfe, Woodford, Unknown County

Kentucky History

Kentucky Land Records

  • Certificates of Settlement and Preemption Warrants
    Under the Virginia land law of 1779, any bona fide settler in Kentucky County (also known as the Kentucky District) prior to January 1, 1778, who had made an improvement and planted a crop of corn was eligible for a 400-acre certificate of settlement for the land he or she had improved. The settler could purchase an additional adjoining 1,000 acres under a preemption warrant. All those who had “marked out” or chosen unappropriated lands and built any house or hut or made improvements prior to January 1, 1778, but who could not prove actual settlement were entitled to a preemption of no more than 1,000 acres. The Certificates of Settlement and Preemption Warrants Database is indexed by warrant number, individual acquiring the certificate and warrant, immediate assignees and tract location; it includes scanned images of commissioners’ certificates.
  • Jackson Purchase Land Locator
    The southern half of the Jackson Purchase region in western Kentucky was acquired under the October 19, 1818, land treaty between the United States and the Chickasaw Indian Nation. On February 14, 1820, the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation stated the entire Jackson Purchase region would be mapped in compliance with the system used by the federal government for surveying public lands. There are 9,308 patents in the West of Tennessee River Non-Military Series. The online database includes scanned images of patent files. By entering Ranges, Townships, and Principal Meridian Direction (East or West), researchers using this database will find the scanned image of the exact township location for 9,308 West of Tennessee River Non-Military Patents indexed by Willard R. Jillson in “The Kentucky Land Grants” change to The Kentucky Land Grants. Researchers may also find references to ranges and townships in deeds for the Jackson Purchase area.
  • Kentucky Doomsday Book
    The original “Domesday Book” was completed in 1086 for William the Conqueror. It identified England’s landowners and land locations for tax purposes. Kentucky’s “Doomsday Book” is a journal created by land commissioners appointed to hear settlers’ claims in the Kentucky District under Virginia Land Law A.
  • Lincoln County Entries
    In 1780 Kentucky County, Virginia, was divided into three counties: Fayette, Jefferson and Lincoln. The Virginia General Assembly instructed the Kentucky County Surveyor to copy land entries into separate volumes for each of the new counties. This database contains 4,763 entries reserving land for patenting in the Lincoln County area from November 3, 1779, through April 19, 1792.
  • Revolutionary War Warrants Database
    This database indicates includes 4,748 bounty land warrants issued by Virginia to veterans of the Revolutionary War. Warrants, the first step in land patenting, were given as payment for military services; the allotment was determined by the soldier’s rank and time of service, and the land was located in the Revolutionary War Military District. Patents issued for service in the Revolutionary War are filed with the Virginia Patent Series (VA), Old Kentucky Patent Series (OK) and the West of the Tennessee River Military Patent Series (WTRM).
  • Virginia Treasury Warrants
    The May 1779 Land Laws passed by the Virginia General Assembly authorized the sale of treasury warrants to patent “waste and unappropriated land.” After proof of payment was established, the Virginia Land Office provided a printed warrant specifying the quantity of land and the rights upon which it was due. No proof of prior military service or residency was required for purchasing a treasury warrant. This database includes all entries in the Virginia Treasury Warrants Register, Volumes I and II. It includes the names of persons purchasing the warrants, immediate assignees, acreage, cost of warrant (in pounds, shillings and pence) and the date the warrant was purchased. Treasury warrant numbers range from 1 to 23,082. Some warrant numbers were skipped, and some were used more than once.
  • West of Tennessee River Military Patents
    The Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky was acquired under the October 19, 1818, land treaty between the United States and the Chickasaw Indian Nation. A number of Revolutionary War soldiers occupied the Jackson Purchase prior to the treaty. On December 26, 1820, the Kentucky General Assembly approved legislation for the “surveying of military claims west of the Tennessee River” and for the establishment of a town at Iron Banks. The 242 patents under this series were authorized by entries filed with the Military Surveyor prior to May 1, 1792.
  • Adair County Land Records
    • Adair County Land Records Index: 1802-1807
      The Adair County Land Records Index is an index of land records for Adair County, Kentucky for the years of 1807-1811 as found in Book B, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #828890.
    • Adair County Land Records Index: 1807-1811
      The Adair County Land Records Index is an index of land records for Adair County, Kentucky for the years of 1807-1811 as found in Book B, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #828890.
    • Adair County Land Records Index: 1811-1815
      The Adair County Land Records Index is an index of land records for Adair County, Kentucky for the years of 1811-1815 as found in Book C, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #828890.
    • Adair County Land Records Index: 1815-1818
      The Adair County Land Records Index is an index of land records for Adair County, Kentucky for the years of 1815-1818 as found in Book D, Kentucky State Archives microfilm roll #828890.

Kentucky Maps

Kentucky Military Records

Kentucky Native American Records

Kentucky Newspapers

Kentucky Vital Records

Lewis Family of Norwich Vermont

William Lewis and family, consisting of his wife, Naomi, five sons and three daughters, (Joseph, his eldest son, having been a citizen of the town for some years) came to Norwich in 1781 or 1782 from Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut, and settled on a farm now owned by Benjamin Clifford, where he resided for a number of years. In 1787 he purchased the farm now occupied by John W. Hutchinson. From time to time he added to it by purchase until at his death it contained 250 acres of good land, mostly covered with a large growth of timber. This…

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Natchez Under the Hill

Natchez Trace

In 1792, in a council held at Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis, Tennessee, is now located, a treaty was made with the Chickasaws, in which they granted the United States the right of way through their territory for a public road to be opened from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. This road was long known, and no doubt, remembered by many at the present time by the name “Natchez Trace.” It crossed the Tennessee River at a point then known as “Colberts Ferry,” and passed through the present counties of Tishomingo, Ittiwamba, Lee, Pantotoc, Chickasaw, Choctaw, thence on to Natchez, and…

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Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne

Gen. Anthony Wayne’s Campaign

In April 1792, General Anthony Wayne was appointed by the general government to take command of the Northwestern Army. On the 5th of the following November a hundred men from Kentucky, under Adair as captain, made a raid across the Ohio River into the Indians country, but the indefatigable Little Turtle and his band of heroes met him and, in a severe fight: defeated him, with heavy loss, and drove him back to his own. In the spring of 1793, during the arrangements that were being made for Wayne’s campaign, Congress sent commissioners to the Northwest Indians to negotiate a…

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George Rogers Clark

Moravian Massacre at Gnadenbrutten

In the early part of the year 1763 two Moravian missionaries, Post and Heckewelder, established a mission among the Tuscarawa Indians, and in a few years they had three nourishing missionary stations, viz: Shoenbrun, Gnadenbrutten and Salem, which were about five miles apart and fifty miles west of the present town of Steubenville, Ohio. During our Revolutionary War their position being midway between the hostile Indians (allies of the British) on the Sandusky River, and our frontier settlements, and therefore on the direct route of the war parties of both the British Indian allies and the frontier settlers, they were…

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Columbus Landing on Hispaniola

The Discovery Of This Continent, it’s Results To The Natives

In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portugal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome Monis De Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps and geographical charts, and also…

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Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

The Meeting in 1811 of Tecumseh and Apushamatahah

The meeting in 1811, of Tecumseh, the mighty Shawnee, with Apushamatahah, the intrepid Choctaw. I will here give a true narrative of an incident in the life of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as related by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to the Choctaws for the United States Government, and who was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never before nor afterwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andrew Jackson,…

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Narrative of the Captivity of of Mrs. Francis Scott – Indian Captivities

A True and Wonderful Narrative of the Surprising Captivity and remarkable deliverance of Mrs. Francis Scott, an inhabitant of Washington County, Virginia, who was taken by the Indians on the evening of the 29th of June, 1785. On Wednesday, the 29th day of June, 1785, late in the evening, a large company of armed men passed the house on their way to Kentucky, some part of whom encamped within two miles. Mr. Scott’s living on a frontier part generally made the family watchful; but on this calamitous day, after so large a body of men had passed; he lay down…

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Narrative of the Captivity of Capt. William Hubbell – Indian Captivities

A Narrative of the desperate encounter and escape of Capt. William Hubbell from the Indians while descending the Ohio River in a boat with others, in the year 1791. Originally set forth in the Western Review, and afterwards republished by Dr. Metcalf, in his “Narratives of Indian Warfare in the West.” In the year 1791, while the Indians were yet troublesome, especially on the banks of the Ohio, Capt. William Hubbell, who had previously emigrated to Kentucky from the state of Vermont, and who, after having fixed his family in the neighborhood of Frankfort, then a frontier settlement, had been…

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An Artists rendition of James Smith

Life and travels of Colonel James Smith – Indian Captivities

James Smith, pioneer, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1737. When he was eighteen years of age he was captured by the Indians, was adopted into one of their tribes, and lived with them as one of themselves until his escape in 1759. He became a lieutenant under General Bouquet during the expedition against the Ohio Indians in 1764, and was captain of a company of rangers in Lord Dunmore’s War. In 1775 he was promoted to major of militia. He served in the Pennsylvania convention in 1776, and in the assembly in 1776-77. In the latter year he…
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kitcarson

Kit Carson, His Life and Adventures – Indian Wars

The subject of this sketch, Christopher “Kit” Carson, was born on the 24th of December, 1809, in Madison County, Kentucky. The following year his parents removed to Howard County, Missouri, then a vast prairie tract and still further away from the old settlements.
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