Do you have ancestors who hailed from or passed through Kentucky? Here are some free resources that I have found in my quest for genealogical records :
1. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA)
The e-archives tab brings a bonanza for any descendants of the famous Hatfield-McCoy dispute. The archives has already scanned court documents, governors’ papers related to the feud and state penitentiary records for those prosecuted.
A second resource is the tab for “Confederate Pension Records.” Images can be searched by the soldier’s name, home county, application number, military unit and date.
2. Kentucky Historical Society
There are several sites open to the general public, including Kentucky Land Office, which has a database of Revolutionary Land Warrants and West of Tennessee River Military Patents buried in its site. The Kentucky Land Office also has a great Links page, which lists the KY Native American Heritage Commission, KY Atlas and Gazetteer, USGS survey maps, along with links to other research libraries and online databases.
Another terrific source found on the Online Genealogy Resources list is the National Digital Newspaper Program, The Kentucky Edition. There is a map showing which counties have digitized newspapers available.
There are a few other useful links on this website, like the KY Virtual Library, so it is worth digging around to find all the information.
The KYGenWeb page is one of the most information-laden pages in the USGenWeb project that I have used in my research. Besides the county links, there are links to Jeff Murphy’s KY Biographies database, some early KY Supreme Court cases, a list of hangings, and obituaries, special projects and many other subjects.