Logo ©Helen Lawson
Logo by Helen Lawson

Kentucky Biographies

J Murphy
In Memory of Jeff


Frequently Asked Questions


What is the intended project scope?
We will be making a concentrated effort to do nothing but KY biographies. The project is not involved with any other form of document. No wills, censuses, cemetery records, etc.

Part of it will be entering all the biographies from Battle, Perrin, and Kniffen, and other existing sources. Part of it would be duplicating their work, a hundred years later, collecting a new set of biographies. In both cases, we would want to make them available on the Internet, with a search engine so that individuals could be easily looked up.

Who is managing the Kentucky project?
To volunteer to help on the project, contact Sherri Braddley, KyGenWeb State Coordinator for uploading and adding to the index databases. Thanks to Pam Durstock, Asst. Ky State Coordinator, for the new search engine.

Who is managing the US project?
For information on the project for other states, contact Nathan Zipfel or visit the US page at: http://www.usbiographies.org/

Copyright Restrictions
In 1909 the copyright law stated that a copyright was for a period of 28 years. This could be renewed for an additional 47 year period, making a total of 75 years of copyright protection. In 1976 the copyright law was changed. Copyrights are now for the period of the creator's life plus 50 years. Anything copyrighted before 1976 falls under the 1909 law.

This means that anything published prior to 1921 has no further copyright protection, and can be published freely by anyone. The same would apply to photostated copies of that material, or reprints of books originally published prior to that time. The mere reprinting of material does not extend the copyright beyond the 75 year period, unless additional material has been added, and even then only the additions may be copyrighted.

Storage of Biographies
All biographies for Kentucky will be stored on the KyGenWeb website. The county coordinators for KyGenWeb are free to put a copy of them on their county website if they wish.

File Names
File names will consist of surname.initials.txt

Previously, it was allowed to put & in the file name but that is no longer permissible. Replace & with - [a dash].

Saving Files
To get a copy of the biography, you have to save it as a text file.

Linking to project or files
We would like to give you blanket permission to point to one or more of our biographies from your own web site. We would appreciate your giving credit to the Project in some way, as this is the result of thousands of hours by unpaid volunteers whose real pleasure in this is helping others. But there is no need to ask for permission to link to the site, or to any of the biographies.

More Information on subjects listed
Just because a biography has been entered does not mean that it is part of any of our lines. Please do not contact us for more information.

Corrections to biographies
To ask for changes to a biography, such as misspellings or modifying the indexes, please contact the data entry volunteer who did the work or Ellen Franks, the volunteer coordinator.

KY INDEX TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
The book KY INDEX TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES is $15.50 softbound and $19.50 HB ppd. Each person is indexed with a key letter that indicates in which book a biographical sketch may be found on that person. 23,000 biographies are listed. To order, or for additional information, send mail to Bettie Cummings Cook. While Mrs. Cook is not affiliated with the project in any way, her book is a valuable index to Kentucky biographies.


Browse or Search the Biographies

Ky Biography Homepage |  Data Entry Standards
Living Bios Outline |  Volunteers |  Sources |  FAQ
KyGenWeb


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