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Try-It Illinois is BACK! Don't Miss Your Once-A-Year Opportunity for FREE Access to Genealogy Databases!


Have you heard of Try-It! Illinois? It's a statewide database trial that runs from October 1-November 30, 2020, sponsored by Secretary of State Jesse White and the Illinois State Library.

Try-It! Illinois offers library users in Illinois the opportunity to survey and evaluate a wide variety of electronic resources. Thanks to the partnerships between the Illinois State Library and the participating electronic resource vendors, there is NO CHARGE for accessing these databases!

Try-It! Illinois offers a wide variety of databases for you to try- and many of them relate to genealogy and historical research! This year's offerings include:

  • Access World News Research Collection 
  • African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
  • America and World War I: American Military Camp Newspapers
  • GenealogyBank
  • America's Obituaries and Death Notices- NewsBank
  • Civil War Collections- and several other databases from Accessible Archives, Inc.
  • Historical Chicago Tribune- and several other databases from ProQuest
  • MyHeritage Library Edition
  • NewspaperArchive.com
  • Newspapers.com Library Edition

Don't miss your chance to check out these research tools- Try-It! Illinois ends NOVEMBER 30th!
To register for Try-It! Illinois, visit http://www.finditillinois.org/tryit/ and click "I am an Illinois librarian or a library user and would like to access Try-It! Illinois" on the right hand side of the screen. Enter your contact information, and the name of your local library. You will be contacted with login information.

A big THANK YOU to Jesse White and the Illinois State Library for offering such a great opportunity!


© 2020, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

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