Kansas Research Links

Hale Family, members of Pottawatomi Tribe, 1932

These are other websites we use to research Kansas history and people.

Kansas History
Vital Records
Newspapers
Military Records
Court Records
Immigration
Federal Records online
Native American Genealogy
Places
American History

Kansas Family History and General History Sites

The Kansas GenWeb site has links to museums and genealogical societies for every county in Kansas

Kansas history online at GenWeb

Kancoll - early history of Kansas and the Great Plains

Kansas Legislators Past and Present

University of Kansas' Digital Commons

Orphan Trains of Kansas

Latter-day Saints Family History Centers can borrow Kansas county records on microfilm from Salt Lake City and have other research materials, including an online ancestor file. Use this site to locate the Center nearest you and learn about the services they provide.

Vital Records

Social Security Death Index

Interment lists for cemeteries all over the country, including U.S. military cemeteries.

Find A Grave

Kansas Office of Vital Statistics

Missouri Death Certificates Index, 1910-1955

The Birth Database

Kansas Court Records

Kansas' State District Court Directory

Kansas' U.S. District Courts

Kansas Appellate Court Cases Index, 1990-present - Supreme Court and Court of Appeals records are part of the State Archives

Immigration Records

The Central Plains branch of the National Archives has federal district court naturalization records for Kansas.

Military Records

Kansas in the Civil War

The National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is creating searchable databases of both Confederate and Union soldiers who served in the Civil War.

For information on military records at the National Archives and how to order them

These contain the official reports of Civil War military operations:
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion

The Kansas Commission On Veterans Affairs has information for veterans and their families who need copies of a DD-214.

Native American Genealogy

Kansas Native American genealogy

This site has links to tribal censuses and Bureau of Indian Affairs records online

Native American records at the National Archives

Federal Records Online

A list of records from the U.S National Archives that are being digitized by Ancestry on the NARA website

Places

Wichita State University digitized Kansas maps collection

University of Kansas digital maps collections:
KU Digital Commons
KU Map Library

The USGS Geographic Names search site can be used to locate dead towns as well as existing ones, cemeteries, schools and geographic features. The search engine provides links to maps and aerial photographs of the location as well

The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records site is digitizing Kansas homestead records and plat maps

The U.S. Postal Service history page lists historic postmasters and the dates post offices were established and closed.

Convert street addresses to and from latitude/longitude

Newspapers

Dr. Edward N. Tihen's index to articles in Wichita newspapers, 1872 to 1982

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library provides an online index to articles from Topeka newspapers for some years and also an obituary index 1906-ca. 1935 and January 2004 to the present:
Topeka newspaper index
Topeka obituary index

Digital Newspaper sites
KSHS contributes to Chronicling America, the Library of Congress site.
Google News - Kansas newspapers on Google news as of May, 2001
Small Town Papers
Newspaper Archive

Current Kansas newspaper websites:

History On the Internet

Making of America's online U.S. history documents from Cornell University
and from the University of Michigan

The Library of Congress' American Memory: Historical Collections from the National Digital Library

The Public Broadcasting System's history site