Researching Shawnee County Ancestors?

We're here to help you find the answers you seek.  Our library houses an extensive collection of materials pertaining to Shawnee County, including original Probate and Naturalization records, marriage license applications, and tax books, cemetery records, city directories, local histories and more.  In additon to what our collection includes, both the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library and the Kansas Historical Society offer strong collections of  local history materials.  
 
Download our free Guide to Researching in Shawnee County for a handy reference to where to find various types of records.  (Updated and expanded in July 2020!)
 
This document lists Historic Topeka Street Names and the name changes that were made in 1937.
 
Our Shawnee County Surname index, which currently includes more than 150,000 names, serves as a first-stop finding aid to point researchers to information pertaining to an individual.  This is a work-in-progress, with more data being added as it becomes available to us, so check back often.
 
Search our Cemetery databases online to find your ancestors and family members who are buried in Shawnee County.  More than 92,000 new names were added in June of 2000!   (you will need to log in with your member login to access the details of the records) .  
 
Our library holdings include an extensive location of materials pertaining to Shawnee County.  To locate them, start by searching the Library Catalog by location, and select the "Kansas" button.  Then, narrow your search by selecting the "Counties" option in the "Search" dropdown box at the top of the results list, and type in "Shawnee" in the blank field.  If you find something of interest but are unable to visit our library in person, our volunteers will do lookups.  See our Research page for more detail.
 
Early Shawnee County Probate and Naturalization records (up to approximately 1920)  have been digitized and are avaiable on FamilySearch.org.  To browse them, search the FamilySearch catalog by location (Kansas,Shawnee) and then select the record group of interest.
 
An Index to Topeka Obituaries may be found on the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library website. 
 
Make sure you also check our Links to Shawnee County Resources  for links to digitized Topeka and Shawnee County resources available online.