Logan County Records

Logan County's Original Records

Logan County has never experienced a court house fire or other disaster, so there is minimal record loss. Unlike other counties in the Commonwealth, Logan County chooses to keep her records at home instead of sending them to the State Archives in Frankfort. So, unless a record has been taken or destroyed, it should be in our office, the Court House, or the County Clerk's Office depending on its age. One exception to this will be any case that was a capitol punishment crime that would have been an automatic appeal; those records are in Frankfort. Local record requests are handled by the respective office.

You may submit a records request to the Archives below.

The Archives Clerk can assist with a one-hour free records review for one person or couple per month. It is necessary that you provide enough information (birth, marriage, death dates and locations, names of spouse, children and parents, if known) so they know they have the correct person. From the review, you will receive a list of the records available for your person/couple and the copy costs for obtaining those records. Postage will be additional and calculated after you choose the records you most desire.

The links below are for FREE on-line access. For all Family Search links, you will need to register as a user. This is a free service offered by Family Search, account registration is necessary to access the images to most of the databases. If you find a link that is broken, please let us know.

Key to Records Listed Below -

** - Fully Indexed, easily searchable

*** - Indexing in progress

**** - Records only available at the state level

BONDS -

  • Administrator Bonds - covers years 1869 - 1963**

  • Civil Servant Bonds - covers years 1877 - 1980**

  • Coffee House Bonds - covers years 1868 - 1886**

  • Constable's Bonds - covers years 1865 - 1918**

  • Executor Bonds - covers years 1863 - 1977**

  • Guardian Bonds - covers years 1863 - 1977**

  • Justice of the Peace - covers years 1877 - 1894**

  • Minister Bonds - covers years 1877 - 1996**

  • Notary Bonds - covers years 1877 - 1980**

  • Officials Bonds - covers years 1970 - 1977**

  • Sheriff's Bonds - covers years 1878 - 1923** and 1933 - 1969**

  • Superintendent Bonds - covers years 1903 - 1906**

  • Tavern Keepers Bonds - covers years 1866 - 1876**

  • Trustees Bonds - covers years 1955 - 1977**

CENSUS RECORDS - Kentucky was included in the U.S. Federal Census counts from 1800 to the present. None of the original records are available in the Archives. [When there is a link, the links are for Logan County records and are to FREE on-line databases with images. When no link is available, those records should be available from the National Archives and Records Administration or through fee based sites.]

  • 1800 U.S. Census - only named the head of the household. All household members were grouped according to their ages and sex. This census is non-extant for Kentucky. Tax lists were used in reconstructing the data.

  • 1810 U.S. Census - only named the head of the household. All household members were grouped according to their ages and sex. The first census to include information on the industries and manufacturing companies in the country.

    • Industrial and Manufacturers Schedules for Kentucky are non-extant.

  • 1820 U.S. Census - only named the head of the household. All household members were grouped according to their ages and sex.

    • Industrial and Manufacturers Schedules for Kentucky exist.

  • 1830 U.S. Census - only named the head of the household. All household members were grouped according to their ages and sex.

  • 1840 U.S. Census - only named the head of the household. All household members were grouped according to their ages and sex.

    • Veteran and Pensioner schedules for Kentucky exist.

  • 1850 U.S. Census - first census that named all household members, but did not include relationships between the members and the head of the household.

    • Agricultural Schedules for Kentucky exist. [Right half of image 59 - left half of image 89.]

    • Industrial Schedules for Kentucky exist.

    • Manufacturing Schedules for Kentucky exist. [Right half of image 152 - left half of image 154.]

    • Mortality Schedules for Kentucky exist.

    • Slave Schedules for Kentucky exist. [Available on-line at Ancestry.com]

    • Social Statistics for Kentucky exist. [Left side of image 153 - 157.]

  • 1860 U.S. Census

  • 1870 U.S. Census - the first census after the Civil War and includes all residents of a state

  • 1880 U.S. Census - first census to include a relationship between household members and the head of the household.

  • 1890 U.S. Census - damaged by water in a 1920s fire. Information for Kentucky is unavailable.

    • Veterans/Pensioners Schedules for Kentucky partially exists

  • CENSUS ENUMERATION MAPS 1900 - 1940: The microfilm was loaded backwards, Logan County is on images 553 to 564

  • 1900 U.S. Census

    • Indian Schedules for Kentucky exist.

  • 1910 U.S. Census

    • Indian Schedules for Kentucky exist.

  • 1920 U.S. Census

  • 1930 U.S. Census

  • 1940 U.S. Census

  • 1950 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2022.

  • 1960 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2032.

  • 1970 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2042.

  • 1980 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2052.

  • 1990 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2062.

  • 2000 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2072.

  • 2010 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2082.

  • 2020 U.S. Census - Scheduled for release on 01 April 2092.

COURT RECORDS -

  • Circuit Cases - covers years 1946 - 1950**

  • Civil Cases - covers years 1951 - 1977**

  • Guardian Settlements - covers years 1831 - 1973**

  • Indictments / Judgments - covers years 1859 - 1921***

  • Equity Cases - covers years 1802 - 1940; primarily early divorces, estate settlements, land disputes**

  • Miscellaneous Records - covers years 1789 - 1925; These were a set of records located at the Special Collections Library of WKU in Bowling Green, KY; after discovery, they were returned to Logan County. They are pieces of cases normally in the Equity or Ordinary cases, but figuring out which case an individual slip may belong to would have been impossible.**

  • Ordinary Cases - covers years 1800 - 1942; primarily "petty" law suits such as broken contract, debt, and slander**

  • Order Books -

    • Circuit Court Civil Orders - covers years 1800 - 1977***

    • Commonwealth Orders - covers years 1881 - 1976***

    • Fiscal Court Orders - covers years 1792 to present***

  • Police Court - covers years 1968 - 1975

    • Russellville City records, we store them to save them room

  • Quarterly Court - covers years 1851 - 1930***

ENSLAVED PEOPLE - Other than records mentioned below, when individuals were identified as black, negro, a person of color, or mulatto, those names were abstracted and collected as a separate dataset. Check with the Archives Clerk for a specific name since those records could have been in anything from deeds to wills to court cases.

  • Emancipations

  • Freedman's Bureau Records - Choose Bowling Green Field Office Location record sets

  • Freedman's Marriages - records marriages declared at the end of the Civil War**

  • Marriages - covers years 1865 to present**

  • SEEK Museum holdings - Formerly known as the West Kentucky African American Heritage Center. "The SEEK MUSEUMS are comprised of 6 historic buildings that have been restored to tell the unique and buried stories beginning with the arrival of Revolutionary War Major Richard Bibb and the people enslaved by him in Russellville, Ky. Bibb eventually emancipated nearly 100 enslaved people, and the museums tell the stories of their struggles for equality and justice over the last two centuries." [See their website and Face Book page for additional information.]

LAND -

  • Deeds - indexed by grantor and grantee only; covers years 1792 to present

    • For Lincoln County entries 03 Nov 1779 - 19 Apr 1792, visit Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office Division

    • Index to Commonwealth of Virginia Grants or Patents 1779 - 1794 and 1801 (now in Kentucky) - This is the land identified as being in the "Military District," otherwise known as "Land South of the Green River," the land that became the original Logan County. These were the warrants and grants issued for military service during the Revolutionary War. [Images 5 - 169.]

    • Willard Rouse Jillson, Kentucky Land Grants - includes Grants South of the Green River Using the information in this book, you are able to contact the Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office Division and request copies of original land warrants, grants, and surveys

  • Division of Land - covers years 1877 - 1930

  • Mortgages - covers years 1879 to present

  • Surveys - covers years 1796 to 1927**

    • These also cover the Walker Line land grants.**

MILITARY -

  • Militia Records - original record, covers years 1874 - 1875**

  • Pension Applications - Confederate only [See Publications For Sale page]

  • Service Records, CIVIL WAR CSA - abstracted from Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky [See Publications For Sale page]

  • Service Records, CIVIL WAR UNION - abstracted from Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky [See Publications For Sale page]

PROBATE -

  • Inventory, Appraisal and Sales - covers years 1834 - 1970**

  • Original Wills - some originals missing; covers years 1795 to present, have been abstracted to 1966.

  • Probate Settlement Packets - covers years 1795 to present

  • Will Book Entry - covers years 1795 to present [See Publications For Sale page]

TAX RECORDS -

VITAL RECORDS -

OTHER RECORDS such as funeral home information, family files, etc., may be available but is not guaranteed for every family or every person. Check with the Archives for specific record availability for your research needs.


Although Kentucky is an "open records law" state, meaning you should be granted access to any record you request to view, you ARE NOT allowed to request access to adoptions or other specific juvenile related cases without a court order. Adoptions in Kentucky, regardless of when they occurred, are never unsealed and are not available to anyone other than the adoptee, the biological parents and the adopted parents.