Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

November is Native American Heritage Month! Celebrate your Illinois Native American ancestors and their stories, with these online research links! Native American Heritage Month.gov offers plenty of resources from the Library of Congress, NARA, the National Gallery of Art, and more- plus there are links to upcoming events honoring Native American heritage. FamilySearch Wiki   has a page dedicated to the resources for researching Indigenous Peoples of Illinois, along with their main resource page for Native American Online Genealogy Resources. The National Indian Law Library  offers a topic page with tons of links for Tracing Native American Family Roots! Learn about the American Indian Records in the National Archives. Legacy Tree has an article with tips for Tracing Cherokee Ancestors with DNA, Tribal Citizenship, and Cherokee Rolls The Illinois State Archives' Servitude and Emancipation Records include occasional Native Americans from the Illinois colonial period (1722-179...

ISGS Associate Members and Subscription Members can now renew their memberships (or create new memberships) on our website!  Click on the "Join/Renew" tab, and then "Organizations- Join/Renew." Or CLICK HERE! There are several join and renewal options to fit your particular organization's needs: Associate Members should be formal Illinois organizations that have bylaws and elected officers Subscription Members can be any historical/genealogical Societies outside of Illinois, or any libraries regardless of location. The New Join/Renew options allow you to pay online through PayPal- or you can still print out an invoice and mail in a check. Give the new join/renew option a try and let us know what you think! There are many benefits to being an ISGS Associate or Subscription Member! Associate Members can also participate in the ISGS Society Forums. These are virtual meetings where Society leaders can collaborate and address issues together, with the support of th...

CALLING ALL ILLINOIS GENEALOGISTS! The Illinois State Treasurer's Office needs your help! Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs has announced the launch of Operation Purple Heart , a mission to return 11 Purple Heart Medals to their rightful owners. These medals were abandoned in safe deposit boxes and brought to the Treasurer's office as Unclaimed Property. Frerichs is seeking to return these medals to the families of their recpients, as “They belong in the loving care of families rather than hidden inside our cold basement vault.” Last names and last known cities connected to the family that rented the safe deposit box containing the Purple Heart medal have been released, and you can learn more details about Operation Purple Heart HERE.   Do you recognize any of the family names or locations? Maybe you can help! © 2021, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Wednesday, Nov 17, 2020, 7 pm Show, Don't Tell: Creative Nonfiction Writing for Genealogists with Lisa Ann Alzo, M.F.A. Virtual Meeting As genealogists, we often focus on facts and uncover so much information that our research produces nothing but boring lists. But do you really know what happened between the dashes of your ancestors' lives? How can you share that information in a compelling way? Learn how to use creative nonfiction writing techniques to produce a "can't put down" family history. CLICK HERE for registration information. Genealogy Trivia Game Saturday, November 20 th  – 10:00 AM  Genealogy Trivia Game with Robert Allen will be a fun way to start the holidays with the  British Interest Group of Wisconsin & Illinois.  Here's a chance to find out how much you and others know about the world of genealogy. We'll look at DNA, Resources, Databases, Internet sites, Terms, Organizations and Special Secrets about the hobby we all love so much. T...

Thursday November 11th is Veteran's Day. What better way to honor your ancestors who served our country, than by learning about and sharing their stories? Do you have a military ancestor from Illinois? ISGS can help you tell their story! Submit your ancestor for a  Miltary Certificate.    ISGS has several Military Certificate projects in progress to recognize the sacrifices made by our Illinois veterans' valiant efforts. We preserve and record material submitted in support of the certificates, so it will be available for future generations of researchers.  Send your ancestor's stories to  ISGS  Quarterly  Editor Richard Anderson  (isgsquarterly@ilgensoc.org) so we can honor their military service and share their story with others! Anyone can submit a story to the  Quarterly,  whether you are a seasoned family historian, or new to genealogy.  Be sure to check out the Veterans' Databases at ILSOS.gov!   The State Archives has nea...

We are excited to announce a brand new search feature on the ISGS Website- available to ALL visitors, members and non-members! The IL Combined Name Database contains ancestor names included in three of our major databases: The Illinois Conference of the Evangelical Church (ICE) Church Records, 1837-1937 The ISGS Military Certificates Database the Prairie Pioneer Certificate Database The IL Combined Name Database contains thousands of names from these record sets, and now you can do a fast and easy, one-stop search for your ancestors' names! You can search by record type, first name, or last name! The new search tool can be found on the ISGS Website by clicking "Free Databases & Indexes," and "IL Combined Name DB." ISGS is in working on adding more of our databases to this "unified search" tool. Keep an eye on the ISGS website for more updates! © 2021, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Time is running out to access Try-It Illinois! Don't miss your opportunity! Try-It Illinois! is a statewide database trial that runs from October 1-November 30, 2021, sponsored by Secretary of State Jesse White and the Illinois State Library. Try-It! Illinois offers any library user 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! Check out this year's list of databases HERE! Don't miss your chance to check out these research tools, you may find some surprises to help your family history research! Try-It! Illinois ends NOVEMBER 30th! To register for Try-It! Illinois, visit   http://www.finditillinois.org/tryit/   and click "I am an Illino...