Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

Join us as we dive into the deep and diverse history of southern Illinois. The full-day conference on Saturday, October 24, will feature three tracks of lectures from a variety of speakers, focusing on immigrant communities and ethnic heritage in southern Illinois, migration patterns, and military history, as well as a tech-focused AI workshop. Registration   Speakers and their Presentations: Darrel Dexter, an author, historian and high-school teacher from Cairo, writes about stories gleaned from his research of slavery in Illinois at Southern Illinois University's Morris Library. Tracing the Genealogy of John Willis Menard   Slavery in Southern Illinois LaDonna Garner, M.A., is a Professional Genealogist & Historic Consultant focused on historical preservation and genealogical research in and outside Southeast Missouri. The Great Migration and the Midwest   Investigating Digital Newspapers for Illinois & Missouri Families Laura Kovarik has been involve...

For over 50 years, the Chicago regional NARA facility on South Pulaski has welcomed researchers from around the Great Lakes Region to explore their own history. Now it is being closed to reduce federal real estate costs. Local records are being packed up to ship to less accessible facilities. Local staff, with years of institutional knowledge, face uncertainty and loss. Chicago needs to know just what it is about to lose. Next week, October 12th through 16th, volunteers will staff a lunchtime "reference desk" in Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago, near the Calder flamingo, from 11am to 1pm daily. Supporters are welcome any day of the week to hold signs and provide information. If you can only make one day in the week, we suggest Friday. Location: North side of Federal plaza, near the intersection of Dearborn and Adams (look for the flagpoles) What to Bring: signs in support of NARA Chicago and archives more generally, folding chairs, appropriate weather gear. © 2026, copyr...

A CALL TO ACTION: SAVE OUR NATIONAL ARCHIVES   saveournationalarchives.org  Our National Archives Are Being Taken Out of Public Reach   On June 23, 2026, the National Archives and Records Administration quietly informed its own employees, not the public (NARA Notice 2026-037) of a plan to close the National Archives at Chicago and San Bruno, CA and to relocate their holdings to up to 12 different facilities spread across the country. The Chicago facility serves the people of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. San Bruno serves northern and central California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific territories. Tens of millions of Americans are about to lose their regional window into the federal records including the actual Immigration and Naturalization records from all these areas. This is not a routine matter of facilities management, and it should not be treated as one. The regional archives are not a real estate line item to be trimmed in pursuit of...

The Illinois State Genealogical Society will hold its Annual Member Meeting via Zoom at 7:00 pm CT on Sunday, October 18th, 2026.   The Annual Meeting will include the announcement of the 2026 ISGS Honors and Awards recipients, the results of the 2026 ISGS election, as well as other important information about your society. To register to attend the Annual Meeting, please click on the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1jEykEUWTy6PDNjIYhvuNg   Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with directions on how to join the Annual Meeting. The ISGS Newsletter is also due in the next few days.   The 2026 ISGS election will take place via internet ballot. Since we are meeting virtually, "nominations from the floor" must be made virtually as well. If you wish to nominate someone for a 2029 Director position, those nominations should be sent by October 2, 2026, to the ISGS President at: isgspresident@ilgensoc.org .   The ISGS Board recomm...

This is not a routine matter of facilities management, and it should not be treated as one. The regional archives are not a real estate line item to be trimmed in pursuit of a leaner portfolio. They are public infrastructure of the most fundamental kind — the places where the American people go to examine the documentary record of their own government and their own families. When a regional archive closes, the federal government does not merely vacate a building. It withdraws from the people of an entire region their practical ability to see the evidence of their history. That is a loss no efficiency calculation can justify, and it demands the immediate attention of both the Archivist and the Congress.   The heart of the problem is simple: the overwhelming majority of the records held in Chicago and San Bruno exist on paper and nowhere else. NARA's own digitization efforts, however earnest, have reached only a small fraction of its regional holdings, and many of these materials — f...

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