State partnership will allow for free document digitization

A new state partnership will help with preserving important documents and records for Kentuckians. 

The Commonwealth is partnering with FamilySearch in order to digitize “tens of thousands of primary records such as birth, death, and marriage certificates that are currently on microfilm reels.”

The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives along with volunteers with the Kentucky Genealogical Society will be reaching out to county clerks to notify them of the opportunity to have records digitized free of charge by FamilySearch. The county clerk offices will receive copies of the digitized records and FamilySearch will post copies to their free online database.

The KDLA says local records such as marriage licenses and land ownership records date back to each county’s establishment, resulting in some of the most continuous sources for families researching their histories. The KDLA also says the partnership with FamilySearch increases public access to the documents, which they hope will increase interest and awareness in the historic nature of these records.

Visit the KDLA on the web for more information.