Kansas County Church and Cemetery Records
See Also Research In State Church & Cemetery Records - Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states) , church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death. They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations-there are hundreds of them. Identifying and locating the records of these various churches makes even professional genealogists hesitate......
The earliest churches were established among the native tribes settled in Kansas long before it was organized as a territory. The Methodist, Baptist, Society of Friends, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches all had early missions which grew as the white settlers immigrated. Records of the Quakers can be found at Friends University in Wichita; Untied Brethren(Dunkards) at McPherson College in McPherson; Methodists at Baker University in Baldwin City; Mennonite at Bethel College in Newton; Lutheran, especially Swedish, at Bethany College in Lindsborg. Forsyth Library at Fort Hays University in Hays, Kansas 67601, holds numerous ethnic and religious group records. Volga German records here are outstanding.
The Kansas State Historical Society solicits church rolls, membership lists, records, and histories. The published material is located in the library; the unpublished material is located in the manuscript department. A few church records have been microfilmed.
Search Kansas Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....
Cemeteries -Two national cemeteries were established in Kansas: Leavenworth National Cemeteries, P.O. Box 1694, Leavenworth, Kansas 66048, and Fort Scott National Cemetery, P.O. Box 917, Fort Scott, Kansas 66701.
There is no central registry of cemetery locations in Kansas. The Woman's Kansas Day Club recently completed a project to identify and locate many Kansas cemeteries. The project's results are at the Kansas State Historical Society which has additional collections of published cemetery inscriptions, though not comprehensive, listed in their card catalog.
The Register of Deeds in each county is often able to assist in locating cemeteries. Certain maps distributed by the Kansas Department of Transportation show the location of known cemeteries in relation to county roads.
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
| FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL CEMETERY TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA | |
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