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What's New at the Mason County KYGenWeb


SUMMER 2023
Historical and Genealogical Happenings In and Around
Mason County





A message about RootsWeb/Ancestry.com query boards: RootsWeb has been purchased and absorbed by Ancestry.com. Effective March 2020, posting of new messages on RootsWeb Mail Lists has been discontinued. Old post have been archived and may still be browsed. Other message boards are available at Ancestry. Also visit Ancestry.com to see what old RootsWeb locality, surname and special interest message board may still be available without a paid subscription.

To avoid confusion, except for private web pages hosted there, links to Rootsweb/Ancestry have been removed from the Mason County KYGenWeb website.


A reminder that many Mason County obituaries are published in The Bracken County News, based in Brooksville in the neighboring country of Bracken. Follow this link to the KGW Bracken County home page. Scroll down the home page to "Newspaper Records" to view indexed obituaries dating back to 2002. New obituaries are updated regularly. An email copy of any specific obituary is available by sending me an email request, as long as it appears on my index. To get past my spam filter, please enter "Obituary Request" in the subject field. Tell me the deceased's name as it appears in the obituary and the publication date. I can respond only by email, not by U.S. mail.



Martha Richards, researcher from Washington State, has contributed articles and announcements she found while researching in Ohio newspapers. One concerns an 1823 murder in Mason County. Principal parties mentioned are Richard FOWKE, Henry BALDWIN, and Charles MITCHELL. The latest contribution concerns the accidental death of William SUTHERLAND in 1826. Click HERE to see the full context of the article. Thanks to Martha for these contributions.

Bev Graver has again answered the request for references to individuals with Mason County roots found in old out-of-area newspapers and county history books. A big "thank you" to Bev for abstracting and contributing three old obituaries that could help break through a researcher's brick wall. Click HERE to view them.


These small gleanings from obscure sources can help break down a brick wall for a fellow researcher. If your research in old books or newspapers for any state and county reveals a family background in Mason County, please consider transcribing and submitting it to help me develop the Mason County Connections page on this website.


Brian Nichols, web manager of Genealogy Inc., would like you to be aware of a change in the web addresses for his sites. Follow these links to Brian's general Kentucky pages:

Kentucky Archives Historical & Genealogical Societies List with links
Kentucky State, County & City Government Website Links
Kentucky Antique Maps & Atlases with links

The following links will take you to Brian's websites specific to Bracken and Mason counties:

Bracken County, KY Genealogy Facts with links
Mason County, KY Genealogy Facts with links

For your convenience, please make note of the new web addresses.



Attention webmasters of family association websites and genealogy websites devoted to serious research in specific Mason County surname(s). Contact me if you would like to add a link to your website on the Mason County KYGenWeb Surname Registry page. Visit the Mason County Surname Registry page to review the general rules for submitting a link.


Old KY records surface in Fayette County! The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that a group of previously unknown records from the late 1700s to the 1900s have been found in Fayette County. The records, consisting of Kentucky land, census and marriages are being prepared for public inspection. According to the article, the old records are so fragile that working copies must be created for use. The original records will not be made available. They are currently being microfilmed at KDLA in Frankfort and should be available in a few weeks. Among the records is a document called the 'Doomsday Book,' that includes the names of many of the commonwealth's earliest settlers, while Kentucky was still part of Virginia. The records promise to become a critical source for researchers whose ancestors arrived in Kentucky before counties were well established and their records organized.

Read the full article at The Lexington Herald-Leader.


Copyright 2023
This website maintained by: Marla McCulloughThe Registry
Please report broken links to Marla.
Passed W3C link-check on 1-10-2023.

KYGenWeb State Coordinator Jeff KempThe Registry
Please contact the State Coordinator if you'd like to adopt a Kentucky county.

This site is not responsible for URL changes by managers of external websites.


Last Updated Wednesday, 26-Feb-2020 16:41:00 CST