Harvey County Genealogical Society

The Current Elected Officers of the Harvey County Genealogical Society:

• Carol Gibbens Gaeter – President
• Jane Jones – Vice President
• Darren McMannis, Publicity & Editor

The Current Volunteer Project Coordinators:

• Veteran Graves Project –
• Genealogy Database Project – Carol Gibbens Gaeter
• Obituary Transcription Project –
• Programs & Education –
• Newspaper Transcription – Darren McMannis
• Burial Verification –

The Harvey County Genealogical Society’s Old Newspaper Transcribers Guild is a group of dedicated volunteers who give of their time to transcribe old newspaper articles of historical and genealogical interest.  These articles are added to this website in an effort to make Harvey County’s “Old News” available to all generations of family researchers.

The Harvey County Genealogical Society is open to everyone with any interest in Genealogy, Family History, and Harvey County people.  We have several types of members in our collaborative society:

• Individuals who are researching Harvey County relatives.  Maintaining your membership keeps a connection between information you seek and information all of our members come across for your reserach surname.
• Individuals who are seeking ideas and help from others in their personal family history pursuits,
• Individuals who are interested in sharing their genealogical tips and research experience with others
• Individuals who are interested in giving back to others by transcribing County information, collecting headstone photos & obituaries, and/or getting it online,  thus helping others find their ancestors.
• Individuals and organizations who have genealogical records, family histories, and individual biographies (etc.) that they are willing to share with the larger genealogical community.

We would encourage you to join us!

The typical Society model is to add and delete members based on annual dues.  In Harvey County, however, our goal is to gather everyone interested in Family History together – so we don’t charge any dues.  Simply complete a Membership Request and we’ll add you to the list!

Benefits of membership include email copies of The Homesteader and The County Connections, which will keep you apprised of current events as well as family research.  You will have the ability to participate in discussions, meetings, and Society business should you desire to do so.  Other members will notify you when information on your ancestor is found.

If you have any Harvey County ancestor, or are interested in Harvey County Genealogy, please consider joining us!

In order to offer a comprehensive family history research experience as well as to preserve the history of our Harvey County ancestors, it is important to systematically document these life events through biographies, stories, transcriptions, photographs, and scanned documents of every kind.  Items will be made available through the Database, HarveyCountyRoots.com, The Homesteader, and other similar venues.  As you can see, there’s a lot to be done and a lot you can do, regardless of your interest level or available time – Every article Helps!

A.     INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED:

• Individual or Family Stories
• Individual or Family Photos
• Individual or Family Biographies
• Miscellaneous Stories of Harvey County Life & History
• Miscellaneous Photos of Harvey County Life & History
• Digital scans of Funeral Folders, Birth, Marriage, & Death Records, Etc.

B.     COMMUNITY RESEARCHERS NEEDED:

Individual contributions in the following categories are always welcomed.  However, if a particular topic excites your interest, let us know you’ve adopted all (or part) of the project.  If a coordinator is already listed, please contact them to work together so that duplicate effort is not wasted.  You can also choose to focus on a category county-wide, or just within a particular community.  Of course, topics not on this list are wonderful also – this is just to get your ideas started!  Thank you for your participation!

• Funeral Home Records Transcription &/or Scanning
• Cemetery Records Transcription &/or Scanning
• Buildings & Homes Histories – tied to Individuals who built/lived there
• Business Histories by Merchant, Type, or Community
• Census Transcriptions (by township)
• Church Histories
• Transcription &/or Scanning of Church Records available to you (birth, marriage, death, baptism, funeral, membership)
• Community Histories
• Deaconesses, Nurses, Etc
• Directory Transcription – Phone books, City & Rural directories, Merchant directories, etc.
• Doctors
• Ghost Towns of Harvey County
• Homestead Land Records
• Maps & Plat Map Indexes of Residents
• Marriage Records Index
• Mayors & City / County Officials
• Organizations & Club Histories – GAR, IOOF, Masonic Lodge, Reading Circles, etc. etc.
• Pioneer First Families &/or their Residences/Farms
• Politicians
• Post Office Histories
• Prominent Citizens & Their Families
• Railroad History
• School Attendance & Graduation Indexes
• School Histories, Start & Stop Dates,
• School Teachers Serving Harvey County 1872-2010
• Sheriff, Deputy Sheriff, Policemen
• Township Histories
• Unique Histories – Chisholm Trail, County Fairs, Community Events, etc.

C.     NEWSPAPER TRANSCRIPTION PROJECTS

Newspaper transcriptions can be undertaken for a particular community newspaper covering a specific span of years, and may be a full issue transcription, or transcription of a particular section of the paper only.  Transcriptions can be made from microfilm copies at the Libraries &  Historical Societies.  I am now able to obtain some microfilm rolls which are scanned as PDF files, if you prefer to transcribe from these.  We ask that you transcribe complete articles, with full sourcing including page number.

• Obituary Transcriptions
• Society Page Transcriptions
• Railroad News Page Transcriptions
• Oil Field News Page Transcriptions
• Farm & Weather Report Transcriptions
• Merchant’s Advertising – Create Merchant’s Index
• General Interest County News Stories
• Hospital Admissions & Dismissals
• Church Page News – Create Pastor’s Index
• Specific Interest Stories – Rodeo’s, Jayhawk Speedway, City or County Government Issues, etc.

D.     ORAL HISTORY RECORDER

Anyone with a caring demeanor would be ideal to meet with nursing home residents, or older residents in our communities, to interview them about their ancestry, their experiences, their remembrances.  These interviews can be voice recorded and transcribed, or simply written.  This is a vitally important project in collecting first-hand accounts of family and history.  Rich and compelling family histories are being lost every day in Harvey County, because nobody has taken time to obtain them from those Harvey County residents who lived them.

Do you want to contribute to the collections?

If you think genealogy is great fun, wait until you begin offering back to the larger community of researchers who are looking in Harvey County for their family!

You don’t have to be an HCGS member to submit materials (but since membership is free, we hope you’ll join so we can stay in touch).  You can submit regularly or whenever you wish to; you can submit information directly into the Database, or you can email or mail your materials to the Society.

To add information to the Harvey County Genealogical Database, you will need to be registered with the Society, using the Login Registration found on the database front page.  That simply allows us to keep in contact with you, keep information resellers from auto-collecting what is submitted, and keeps people who maybe shouldn’t have access from creating significant errors to the Database.

Once you’ve logged in, you can 1) create families by connecting individuals together, 2) add photos, biographies, obituaries, family memories, etc to the individual, and adding indivuals who are not yet included in the Database.  Remember to PLEASE source EVERYTHING you add, so that others will know from whom or where the information has come.

1. Any person who was BORN, DIED, or BURIED or who ever LIVED or WORKED in Harvey County at any time is eligible to be included in the Database.
2. Please do not add ancestors or descendents into the Database if those individuals were never a part of Harvey County.  Instead, provide this information to family researchers by placing it in a separate document, and then attaching that document to the individual(s) who did live in Harvey County.  However, if siblings came to Harvey County, you may add parent’s names even if they did not live in Harvey County, for the purpose of connecting the siblings together.
3. If you know someone should be in the database but isn’t, you may add that individual.  Please give source information and any details you can about them.

If you prefer, the easiest way to contribute information is simply to email your information to harveycountyroots@cox.net This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – then we’ll put it online and connect it to the individual in the Database.

Please view the “How You Can Help” article for more information on all the information we’re hoping to collect.