Many people connect with the past through genealogy — the lives of personal forebears.
Kilgore Memorial Library’s resources to research and study the local past include:
- microfilm back files of local newspapers
- Some 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
- a small collection of local postcards — (a project to post digitized images from the collection awaits volunteers)
- 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 the Nebraska State Historical Society.
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. As of September 2009, some of these are also being added to waymarking.com.
Kilgore Memorial Library’s staff can perform some limited genealogy requests such as finding obituaries, or listings in old directories, etc. The local Genealogical Society indexed local cemeteries in the early 1980s, and published those listings in two volumes. They also clipped obituaries and filed the clippings in a series of binders. The library’s York Area Cemeteries page lists the cemeteries and has links to google maps(tm) to locate them.
The York County Historical Association’s web site includes an assortment of searchable indexes to local history sources including early directories, census records, and mortuary records.
FamilySearch.Org is a powerful free search service for family historians.
In addition to Kilgore, Niblo, and Parks local features, the library’s web site includes some small pieces relating to local history:
- Mugged by History presents local advertising pieces — mostly coffee mugs — with brief descriptions.