The Mormon Church is well-known for its vast collection of genealogy records. They have collected information since 1894 and maintain information on more than 3 billion deceased people. Recently, their researchers began looking for early information in the northern Oklahoma area and were excited to learn about Kaw City Museum and its historical records.

Years ago, workers at the Kay County Courthouse in Newkirk decided to clean house and began throwing away outdated records that were taking up needed space. Mrs. Judy Ford, a long-time Kaw City resident, proved the old adage, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” is true. She gathered as many of the Kaw City tax record books as she could find that were being discarded, 113 in all, loaded them into her car and brought them to the Kaw City Museum for safe-keeping. Her quick thinking kept the historical information from being lost forever.

The Mormon’s genealogy team brought their cameras to the museum and digitize all of the tax record books along with some of the museum’s old school records. This information will be available for free to anyone who visits their library in Salt Lake City. They have also committed to provide Kaw City Museum with digital copies of the tax books.

Museum visitors view vintage Kaw City school annuals