Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

As the Illinois State Genealogical Society travels down the social media highway, we keep finding ways to improve our offerings and to make it easier for members (and potential new members) to find us.  One new way is to create a "vanity" URL for our Facebook fan page. The new address is:  http://www.facebook.com/ILGenSoc . Facebook allows members and pages to have customized URLs; however Facebook pages must wait until there are at least 25 fans for the page.  At last count we had 68 fans and we're attracting more each week! © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Don't forget! If you want to take advantage of Footnote.com's offer of contributing 20% of the purchase price of a yearly subscription to ISGS, you must make your purchase no later than June 30, 2010.  Click here to read more about this fantastic opportunity to not only get access to Footnote for 50% off, but also to help out ISGS financially. The 50% off offer does not expire on June 30, 2010 - only the 20% donation portion.  The discount offer expires on August 15, 2010. © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

If you are looking resources and blogs dealing with genealogy for the middle part of the United States including the Prairie State - take a closer look at Midwest Genealogy . © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

As announced in the Illinois State Library e-news update on 11 June 2010, the collection of images on the Digital Past website previously maintained on the North Suburban Library System has now been migrated over to the Illinois Digital Archive . Click here to go directly to the new location for Digital Past. And thanks to the Glenview Public Library Genealogy Blog for alerting us to this move! © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

The one to follow on this Follow Friday is Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog run by Harold Henderson. If you are looking for resources for genealogy research in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as neighbor and feeder states, then check out Midwestern Microhistory! © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has just acquired a rare photograph of Lincoln's son, Tad, dated 1861 when the child was 8 years of age. Read more at: Rare photo of Tad Lincoln, 8, on display in Springfield © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

ChicagoAncestors.org is an amazing treasure trove of information if your ancestors lived in Chicago.  Developed by The Newberry Library , you can not only lookup information based on an address, but by registering at the site, you can also become a contributor and share your family's Chicago history. Here are some highlights of the site: When you enter an address or a street intersection, you can locate various items such as historic buildings, digital images of old postcards, even crimes that occurred within a radius of .5 to 3.0 miles. The Browse tab allows you to browse by category or by collection.  Collections include: American Terra Cotta Company CB&Q Collection Chicago Genealogist Chicago Neighborhood Research Guide ChicagoPC Chicago Tribute Markers of Distinction Cushman Photographs Digital Past Great Houses of Chicago Historic American Buildings Survey Homicide in Chicago Jazz Age Chicago Lutheran Churches Modern Manuscripts New York Public Libr...

Editor's note : If you are attending this year's Federation of Genealogical Societies' Annual Conference - Rediscovering America's First Frontier - in Knoxville, Tennessee from August 18-21, 2010, see the information about the Early Registration Deadline of June 21, 2010 below. If you have been wondering if attending FGS 2010 would be valuable to you as a researcher of Illinois ancestors, please keep in mind that many of our ancestors came from Tennessee and Kentucky and ended up in Illinois!  There will be plenty of workshops to assist you with your research and plenty of opportunities to meet and talk with other genealogists! Pat Oxley, President of The Federation of Genealogical Societies, reminds us that there is just one week left to take advantage of the early registration discount pricing for the 2010 FGS Genealogy Conference. The big $50.00 savings expires Monday, June 21, 2010 at midnight, Central Daylight Time (CDT). Pat says, “we are happy to be able to ...

ISGS Members Get 50% Off on Footnote.com Subscription - PLUS ISGS Receives a 20% Donation! ISGS members have been offered a significant discount on a research tool that may be of interest. Presently Footnote.com is offering a substantially reduced yearly subscription rate of $39.95 until August 15, 2010 . Access to this rate is available only through a special link to Footnote's site and very soon all current ISGS members will receive an email with the link.  If you are already a Footnote.com subscriber and you recently renewed your subscription, you can add an extra year to your subscription at this great price. If you are not aware of Footnote.com, it is an online research resource which contains scanned images of many materials, newspapers, etc. from many repositories around the country. Included are Illinois newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune and city directories . In addition to this discounted offer, Footnote.com will rebate to ISGS 20% of the subscription d...

The ISGS website provides the Online Index to the ISGS Quarterly for the years 1968 to 1999 and it is accessible in two formats: Listed by County Listed by Subject A complete (or near complete) collection of past copies of the ISGS Quarterly can be found at the following locations (besides the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library ) : Decatur Genealogical Society Library 1255 W. South Side Drive Decatur, IL (217) 429-0135 Monday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday and Saturday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Oswego Library 32 West Jefferson St Oswego, IL 60543 630-978-1024 Weekdays 9:00 am - 9:00 pm Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Wheaton Public Library 225 N. Cross St. Wheaton, IL 60187630-668-1374 Monday - Thursday 9:00 am - 9:00 pm Saturday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm © 2010, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society