While this list covers the majority of our holdings, there are many more items available that are not indicated here.

 

If there is anything you would like to know more about but do not see written here, please ask us!

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What we have:

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• Books and printed materials, digital archives, subject files about local history and genealogy, and microfilms (Click here to view our microfilm holdings).

• Census records

• Select family histories

• Obituaries in Keokuk newspapers dating back to 1840’s. We do have some obituaries for Donnellson, Montrose, West Point, Ft. Madison, and surrounding communities.

• Scrapbooks of Caleb Forbes Davis

• Books written by local authors

• Titles about local history, reminiscences, and curiosities

• Military

  • Military burials in Oakland Cemetery

  • Van Buren County In the Civil War

  • Revolutionary War Soldiers in Lee Co. & Illinois

  • African American & American Indian soldiers in the Revolution

  • World War II (Hancock County)

  • Medal recipients

  • Veteran Obituaries  from Keokuk & Burlington newspapers

  • Civil War roster and record

• Missouri

  • Migration to Missouri

  • Historical review

  • Marriage (before 1840)

  • Clark, Pike, and Scotland County cemetery records

  • Knox, Lewis, and Schuyler County histories and portrait and biographical albums

• Iowa

  • Des Moines County

    • Cemetery records

    • Marriage records (1835-1862 and 1887-1890)

    • Real estate records 1905-1909

    • County history and portrait and biographical albums

  • Henry County

    • County history and portrait and biographical albums

    • Marriage records (1836-1957)

  • Van Buren County

    • County history and portrait and biographical albums

    • Cemetery records

    • Marriages and grave records

  • Lee County

    • Anniversaries (1985-1991)

    • Births (1880-1896)

    • Graves registration

    • Cemetery maps and burial records

    • Church Records

      • St. John’s Episcopal, Keokuk

      • St. Joseph, Ft. Madison

      • St. Paul UCC, Donnellson

      • St. James Parish, St. Paul, Iowa

      • St. John’s Catholic, Keokuk

      • Zion Mennonite

    • Death Records (South: 1867-1885. North: 1880-1907)

    • Death certificates (mid 1910’s-early 1930’s)

    • Mortality Schedules (1860, 1870, 1880)

    • County Histories and portrait and biographical albums

    • Maps and historical atlases

    • Marriage records (1837-1921)

    • Lee County Shopper and Free Press

    • Wills (South)

  • Keokuk

    • Keokuk Citizen newspapers

    • Good Old Days and Our Visual Heritage

    • Park Place/Grand Avenue residential district

    • Gate City trade annuals (1885-1893)

    • Tales of Early Keokuk Homes

    • Voting records of Keokuk (1932-1971)

    • Sanborn fire insurance maps (1893 and 1919)

• Illinois

  • General history of Illinois and the tri-state area

  • Adams County

    • 1850 and 1860 Census Records

    • Cemetery records (Greenmount, Woodland, Calvary, St. Peter’s, St. Boniface, rural burials)

    • Marriage records (1825-1899)

    • Early death records (1835-1850)

  • Brown County – Pictorial history and cemeteries (1825-1972)

  • Cass County (Sesquicentennial history)

  • Hancock

    • County histories and portrait and biographical albums

    • Family maps and family histories

    • Funeral home records (1933-1999)

    • Cemetery records

    • Nauvoo and Mormon history

• Histories

  • Churches

  • Businesses

  • Societies and organizations

  • Schools (public, private, and colleges)

  • Structures (homes and businesses)

  • Community histories for smaller towns

• ​Printed research aid books to help you learn how to conduct research using specific resources or to guide you in a certain aspect of your research.

• Amish and Mennonite Cemeteries in Iowa

• Native American histories

• City directories

• Yearbooks

• Plat maps and atlases

• Bickel notebooks (these are scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, fully indexed, which include an amazing wealth of information about local history and events. There are 42 binders full of clippings on subjects including aviation, businesses, churches, crime and police, fires, industry, schools and colleges, parks, pioneers, steamboats and transportation, and more.)

• Collections of photographs, post cards, scans, and other digital archives of the area’s history

• Online access to Ancestry.com (in-library use only)

• Online access to HeritageQuest (available from home with a library barcode/patron account)

 

 

What we don’t have:

 

• Many times we have the index to a collection of records. However, we do not house the records themselves. We may have an index of birth records but the actual record itself would be held at the county or state level archives.

• A complete index of everything we have. Our collection spans centuries of life in our area and while we do our best to document what we have and what our collection is about, it is impossible to index everything. We are working on indexing as much as we can and welcome volunteers to assist in this daunting but important project.