03/05/2026
Three Historic Kentucky Record Collections Approved for Digitization
Good news for Kentucky family historians!
On March 1, 2026, the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Genealogical Society approved three historically significant record collections for professional digitization through the Kentucky Records Digitization Program. If you research Kentucky ancestors, this work may directly impact your own family history.
A New Chapter in Digitization
Since 2018, the Society awarded grants to help local organizations digitize their collections. In 2025, the Board chose a new approach. Instead of distributing grant funds, the Society invited organizations to nominate important record sets. After
careful review, the Board selected three collections and engaged Advantage Archives to complete the digitization at the Society’s expense.
When the work is finished, the nominating organizations will receive digital copies of their materials, and the public will be able to access the records online free of charge. That means more Kentucky history preserved and placed within reach of
researchers everywhere.
This effort builds upon the Society’s broader preservation work, including collaboration with FamilySearch to digitize county clerk records in courthouses and microfilmed records housed at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort. Together, these partnerships are expanding access to deeds, wills, marriage records, and other essential genealogical sources across the Commonwealth.
The Collections Selected
The first collection comes from Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Stamping Ground, founded in 1877. These records span nearly 150 years and include meeting minutes, ladies’ auxiliary records, historic photographs, the original church Bible, and handwritten manuscript books. The congregation served families in Franklin,
Owen, and Scott counties, including communities such as Elmville and Peaks Mill. Church records often contain details not found in civil documents. Membership lists, baptisms, transfers, and handwritten notes can reveal relationships and migrations that help connect generations.
The second collection represents more than 130 years of community life in Eastern Kentucky. The Odd Fellows Lodge #293 in Prestonsburg nominated records that include meeting minutes, membership rolls, financial ledgers, correspondence,
newspaper articles, and historic photographs. Fraternal organizations played a central role in civic life. These records may reveal occupations, residences, and networks of neighbors and relatives, offering a fuller picture of the people behind the names in census records.
The third collection includes the Livingston Ledger, Livingston Leader, and Livingston Enterprise newspapers from Smithland. Spanning from 1911 into the early twenty-first century, these newspapers document more than a century of local life. Small town newspapers are among the richest genealogical resources available. Within their pages are obituaries, marriage announcements, school news, court reports, and personal columns that often preserve stories found nowhere else.
Why This Matters
The Kentucky Records Digitization Program protects fragile materials, ensures professional preservation, and expands free public access. Most importantly, these collections may contain your family’s story.
Digitization is not simply about scanning documents. It is about safeguarding Kentucky’s past and placing it within reach of every researcher who seeks it. We will notify you as soon as these collections become available online.
We extend sincere thanks to Director-at-Large Susan Court for her leadership in advancing this effort and building upon the foundation first laid in 2018, to the local organizations that nominated these collections, and to the members and public whose generous donations make this work possible. Because of you, Kentucky’s stories are preserved, accessible, and ready to guide future generations of family historians.
If you believe Kentucky’s records deserve to be protected and shared, we invite you to help carry this work forward. Your donation directly supports future digitization projects and keeps vital historical records within reach for researchers across the Commonwealth and beyond.
Please do your part to support this effort by giving at: https://kygs.org/donate-to-kygs/
