Digital Access Project of Kentucky, LLC

The Digital Access Project of Kentucky, LLC (DAP), is a community engagement project that is expanding access to Kentucky’s historical county documents through digitization.  Early Fayette County land records are the oldest group of a complete set of records preserved in Kentucky. The earliest of which date from the late 1780, when Kentucky was still a part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Fayette, as one of Kentucky's original three counties, holds records for land and people in neighboring counties that split from Fayette over time. DAP strives to be a resource for the public, scholars, professionals, and student researchers.  

DAP has currently digitized over 257,000 pages in 450 books.  These books include deeds, wills, county court orders, marriage records, city minutes, and more. They reveal 250 years of American history found in Kentucky and records a wealth of information about some of Kentucky's most prominent historical figures, like Henry Clay, Daniel Boone, and the Todd family. They also include valuable information about everyday Kentuckians like enslaved people and free people of color, European immigrant communities, business owners, law enforcement, and Kentucky women.

Your contribution will directly support our team in accomplishing the following growth plans:

     ● Continuing to provide a paid opportunity for college students and community members to gain practical experience working with historic documents 

     ● Indexing these records to make them electronically searchable

     ● Improving image quality control to help ensure that high quality scans are being produced 

     ● Helping to continue expanding the mission into other Kentucky counties 

     ● Building our own platform to share this historic information, to build stories, and to make it accessible, both to the local community and to anyone                            interested in the history of the area

     ● Facilitating community engagement, educational events, and digital humanities exhibits

DAP is under the leadership of Dr. Vanessa Holden, PhD., University of Kentucky Associate History Professor, Director of Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative and Mr. Shea Brown, "Dr. Shea", Special Projects Deputy Clerk with over 26 years of experience and expertise in land records. DAP records are made available online for free and the public can access these records by visiting https://fayettedeeds.com.