Suzanne

Here is some information on the Turners in Olathe cemetery...

From page 265 of “the Cemetery Index of Johnson County Kansas” in Olathe cemetery…

Turner, James Abram b. 1881 – d. 1946
Turner, Minnie Bell b. 1887 – d. 1955

You have several options to try and find obituaries for James and Minnie.

1. Contact the cemetery directly and see if they have dead or burial dates......

Olathe Memorial Cemetery
738 N Chestnut St
Olathe, KS

913-971-5226

2. Search the Olathe newspaper(s) for their obituaries. The Olathe paper was a weekly paper in those years. Microfilms are available from the Kansas State Historical Society for interlibrary loan. Visit this link and search for the microfilm number. Also take a look at the interlibrary loan policies from the link on the search page. Enter the year, "1946", for the beginning and “1955” for the end of the time period, "Johnson" for the county, and "Olathe" as part of the title.

http://www.kshs.org/library/news.htm

3. Visit this link and see if you qualify to apply for a death certificate.

http://www.kdhe.state.ks.us/vital/

In general Kansas birth an death records are closed records. The state began keeping these records in 1911. Prior to that, they were supposed to be kept at the county level. However most county clerks never kept the records. So prior to 1911 official birth and death records are very rare. Marriage records have always been kept by the county clerks and they are usually available from the clerk. Some early records have been microfilmed (usually prior to 1900). Also a number of local genealogy societies have indexed the marriage records for their county.

I did not see a marriage for James and Minnie in the Johnson County marriage records prior to 1905. They are not indexed past 1905. However the county archivists has the marriage records to 1960 and can do lookups in them. They do accept email requests for look ups.


Dave Goldy
Overland Park, KS