Genealogy and Local History

Family History Resources and Services

The ability to digitize vast compilations of source materials and generate indexes to the contents online have revolutionized family history research. Complex sites like RootsWeb and FamilySearch open up a bewildering variety of resources for family historians. FamilySearch’s How to Start Your Family History is a good introduction.

Local resources we are aware of include:

The York County Historical Association maintains a variety of indexes for family history research assistance.  This group also maintains this site listing links to regional online resources.

Greenwood Cemetery has made their records searchable online. This web site includes a map of the cemetery and a Find A Grave searchable index.

Metz Mortuary also provides their index of death records online.  This index is a compilation of records from the Metz Mortuary and York Memorial Chapel.

The Kilgore Memorial Library staff have created a web site listing York Area Cemeteries this site includes links to Google maps(tm) to locate each of them.

Nebraska residents also have access to My Heritage through the NebraskAccess service from the Nebraska Library Commission.

The library’s staff can perform some limited searching for people who cannot come to the library. The library does not have a large enough staff to undertake extensive original research in local document sources. Searches that can be completed in an hour may take staff a few days to complete. An hour is sufficient time to look up and copy a couple of obituaries when the death dates are known or can be easily determined from local cemetery indexes. The library charges fifteen cents for every black and white copy and twenty-five cents for every color copy made in the library. If the library is mailing print-outs concerning genealogy research to your location, we ask that you make a donation to at least cover those costs.  Use our Contact Us form to let us know what you are looking for.

Local History Resources

Kilgore Memorial Library’s resources to research and study the local past include:

  • microfilm back files of local newspapers
  • indexed local cemeteries in the early 1980s, published by local Genealogical Society in two volumes
  • clipped obituaries filed in a series of binders
  • past York High School annuals; the High School has a more complete set
  • a few York College annuals; the York College archives has a more complete set
  • York telephone books from 1948 to the present
  • City directories for 1887, 1891, 1902, 1906, 1909, 1912, 1915; no city directories were published after 1915 until the early 1960s
  • printed local history compilations

Other facets of community history are documented in the collections of the York County Historical Association, the Anna Bemis Palmer Museum at the York Community Center, and at History Nebraska.

Some of Kilgore Memorial Library’s FLICKR image sets and collections are historic materials. York History (photos), and York History (texts) feature annotated images from the community’s past. “Then / Now Pairs” presents historic and recent photos of the same York locations, with brief comments.

An often cited source for newspaper archives is the list of digital newspapers maintained at The Ancestor Hunt blog.  The owners of the papers of York County, Nebraska have not released copyright for allowing digitization of their papers.  The counties surrounding York do have their papers digitized and available to search.  These for your convenience we are including direct links to these papers.  Fillmore County, Polk County and Seward County.