Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

Guest Author, Dax Dixon One of Springfield’s most often overlooked genealogical resources is the Illinois State Library. The building is located at 300 S. Second Street, Springfield, Illinois, directly east of the Illinois State Capitol Building and is open from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. The Illinois State Library houses a large number of collections that pertain to the history of the state of Illinois. One of the more prominent collections is the map collection. This is the second largest collection of Illinois maps housed in the state, the largest being the University of Illinois map collection. The maps stored here cover all the counties in the state and a variety of cities and individual towns throughout the state. Also included in this collection are landowner maps, topographical maps, some cemetery maps, and a variety of maps from other countries throughout the world. County plat books and atlases are also included in this collection. When visiting the library...

The January/February 2012 issue of the ISGS Newsletter is now available to both ISGS members and non-members. Visit the ISGS website at http://www.ilgensoc.org and click ISGS Newsletter to download the current issue (in PDF) and to view past issues going back to January/February 2008. © 2012, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Guest Author, Becky Higgins If you have ancestors from the Elgin, Illinois area, here are a couple of places you’ll really want to check out. The Gail Borden Public Library ( www.gailborden.info ) is a treasure not to be missed. Their holdings include how-to guides, name indexes, family and county histories, cemetery indexes, census records, death records, and over one hundred thirty-five years of local newspapers on microfilm. The microfilmed Elgin death records contain wonderful information that may not be found anywhere else. The Elgin Genealogical Society has been gleaning vital record information from the microfilmed local newspapers found at Gail Borden for many years. Gail Borden personnel and volunteers have and continue to include these findings in the online Local Newspaper Index . With the information found in the index, the researcher may go to the newspaper and find the actual announcement/obituary. Also, at Gail Borden in the Genealogy Section is a card file of informa...

The ISGS Office will be closed on Thursday, January 26, 2012. The office will be open from 10am to 1pm on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 . Regular hours will resume on Monday, January 30, 2012. © 2012, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

With the majority of our members having their memberships expire at the end of 2011, now is the time to renew your Illinois State Genealogical Society membership. Take a minute right now and renew online at  http://ilgensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=10  to ensure that you'll continue to receive the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly and all the other benefits of membership. We realize that some browsers would not play nice with our online form so we've simplified the form and made it easier to use!  In addition, if you want to mail in a check, please click the printable form here . ISGS has lots in store for 2012 including more webinars and more web content - don't miss out . . . renew your membership today! © 2012, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Guest Author, Janice Fritsch Among my favorite research facilities in Illinois are the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD). The Illinois State Archives administers a system of depositories (IRAD) to manage the archival records of local governments. Each IRAD covers specific counties. The seven IRAD offices, each with a research area, are typically located within a State University Campus and are named for the University they reside in. The type and amount of records are varied depending on the records transferred from the local government. They can include records from cities, counties, townships, municipalities, and school districts. Some of the record types included are: Circuit Court/Circuit Clerk Coroner County Board of Supervisors/Board of County Commissioners County Court County Home/County Farm/Almshouse County Mine Inspector County Treasurer Justice of the Peace Probate Court Recorder Sheriff Superintendent of an Educational Service Region Why would yo...

Join the Illinois State Genealogical Society on Valentine's Day for a "dinner and a webinar" date! Upcoming Webinar : Cool Tools for Publishing Date : Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 8:00 pm Central Presenter : Lisa Alzo Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A. is a freelance writer, instructor, and internationally recognized lecturer, specializing in Slovak/Eastern European genealogical research, writing your family history, and using the Internet to trace female and immigrant ancestors. She is the author of nine books, including the award-winning Three Slovak Women , and hundreds of magazine articles, and writes the blog " The Accidental Genealogist ." Description : Now that you've written your family’s story, what do you do with it? Thanks to technology and the Internet, it’s easier than ever to document and share your genealogical discoveries. Those attending this FREE webinar will learn about some of the popular online tools and methods available for writing and pu...

The ISGS Office will be closed on Monday, January 16, 2012 in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The office will be open from 10am to 1pm on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 . Regular hours will resume on Thursday, January 19, 2012. © 2012, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Editor's note: we just received the following information from ISGS member and well-known genealogist Lou Szucs Do you or your group know of a deceased genealogist who you believe would be eligible for the National Genealogical Society Hall of Fame Award ? There are many worthy candidates, often they are best known to the regional societies but overlooked when it is time to file papers for this prestigious award. Our committee would be grateful if you would bring this to the attention of your group so that papers could be prepared and submitted by January 31, 2012. A nominee must have been actively engaged in genealogy in the United States for at least ten years, must have been deceased for at least five years at the time of nomination, and must have made contributions to the field of genealogy judged to be of lasting significance in ways that were unique, pioneering, or exemplary. The National Genealogy Hall of Fame is an educational project in which the entire genealogica...

Last night, Tuesday, January 10, 2012, we had a very successful premiere of the ISGS Webinar program with over 200 attendees from as far as way as El Salvador and Australia! If you didn't get a chance to catch 10 Ways To Jumpstart Your Genealogy , you can now access the recorded webinar and the handouts in the Members Section of the ISGS website at http://www.ilgensoc.org . If you aren't a member of ISGS, please click here for more information on all the member benefits and how to join! © 2012, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society