Holiday Wistfulness

Do the holidays make you think of family long past or days gone by? Are you interested to see when your great grandmother got married or you think your grandfather was born in White City, or was it White Cloud, Kansas? Have you misplaced your son’s birth certificate? Kansas has resources to help you in your search through your family tree.
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To obtain birth, marriage, divorce or death records, contact the Office of Vital Statistics (a division of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment).You can order records online at http://www.kdheks.gov/vital/index.html . Or you can contact them by phone or email at 785-296-1400 or mailto:Vital.Records@kdhe.state.ks.us?subject=Inquiry%20from%20OVS%20Web%20Site .

Did you hear that great-uncle Larry was once a Kansas representative? Then try looking through Kansas Legislators Past and Present at http://www.kslib.info/legislators/index.html .

Heritage Quest available from the State Library of Kansas is a great resource. Heritage Quest is a database that searches US federal censuses 1970-1930, family & local histories, tax lists, city directories, probate records. You can find it among the other statewide databases at http://www.kslib.info/ (click on “explore our resources”).

The Kansas State Historical Society has a wealth of great family information at
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/index.htm

Was a relative in the military? You can search military records at http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/military/index.htm

You may want to utilize a Family History Center, available from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (well known for their extensive family histories). Find the one closest to you at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

You could try searching biographical sketches, obituaries, and other short biographies about Kansas people in various publications owned by the Kansas State Historical Society through their Kansas Biographical Name Index at
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/individuals/nameindex.htm .

Did you see a picture of your relative someplace, somewhere? Then try searching through Kansas Memory at http://www.kansasmemory.org/