Newspapers publish notices of marriages, divorces, deaths, and funerals, and they publish obituaries. Notices include names of the persons involved and the date of the event, and they may contain maiden names and the names of parents and other living relatives.

Newspapers also publish articles of local interest, including religious and social events in the community, with the names of those involved. Some newspapers serve several communities and devote columns to the everyday happenings in the area. Newspapers also include legal notices, estate sales, and advertising for local businesses.

The University of Kentucky has the most extensive collection of Kentucky newspapers. Western Kentucky University and the Kentucky Historical Society also have large newspaper collections.

The Kentucky Room at the Central Library in Lexington, Kentucky, has newspapers on microfilm for Lexington and scattered issues of newspapers for a few other cities.

The Kenton County Public Library has all existing northern Kentucky newspapers, beginning in 1835, and they are indexed.

The Family History Library also has some Kentucky newspapers on microfilm, especially for the cities of Henderson, Louisville, Lexington, and Paducah. For example, see:

Henderson Daily Gleaner. 1892–1911. Reprint, Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky, 1959. (On 14 FHL films, beginning with 215412; computer number 422969.) Many issues are in fragmentary condition, and some years are missing.

Many marriage, death, and obituary notices have been extracted and published. For example, see:

Green, Karen Mauer. The Kentucky Gazette...: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts. 2vols. Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 1983–. (FHL book 976.9 B38g; computer number 231129.) Volume one covers 1787 to 1800. Volume 2 covers 1801 to 1820. It is indexed.

See the “Newspapers” and “Obituaries” sections of the United States Research Outline (30972) for help in locating other newspapers published in Kentucky.

Many periodicals publish information from newspapers. These are referenced in the “Places” section of the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI), which is described in the “Periodicals” section of this outline. See also the “Obituaries” section of this outline for help in finding obituaries.

For more resources regarding local newspapers for Kentucky, use the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

KENTUCKY- NEWSPAPERSKENTUCKY, [COUNTY]- NEWSPAPERSKENTUCKY, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- NEWSPAPERS

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