Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

October means not only Family History Month but also the return of the database trial at Try-It! Illinois which is sponsored by the Illinois Secretary of State's office. You must be an Illinois resident in order to qualify for a trial login and password. Here is a list of trial databases which include Digital Sanborn Maps (ProQuest), Fold3 (library edition), historical newspaper collections, MyHeritage (library edition) ProQuest Obituaries, and more! http://www.finditillinois.org/cgi-bin/tryit/dbsAvailable.pl From the Try-It! Illinois website: Welcome to Try-It! Illinois 2016, the seventeenth annual statewide database trial, sponsored by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois State Library. Try-It! Illinois offers the staffs and library users of the more than 5,000 ILLINET member libraries the opportunity to survey and evaluate a wide variety of electronic resources. Thanks to the partnerships between the Illinois State Library and the part...

The Illinois State Genealogical Society is pleased to announce a new database entitled  Illinois Conference of the Evangelical Church 1837-1937 Database (ICEC Records 1837-1937). This record set is a genealogical index to the book  History of the Illinois Conference of the Evangelical Church 1837-1937  and contains close to 12,000 records, all available free to the genealogy community. The database records are listed in "page order" for those wanting to see the records as they appear in the book. In addition, the database can be searched by Surname, Given Name/First Name and Field/Appointment, and results can be displayed in ascending and descending order. A special thanks to ISGS members Oriene Springstroh and  Sheryl Grandt who spent almost a year compiling this important research database. * * * History of the Illinois Conference of the Evangelical Church 1837-1937 (Authorized Centennial Edition, by Rev. John G. Schwab, assisted by Rev. H.H. Thoren,...

The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) is proud to announce a new database at its website for genealogy and family history researchers - the Illinois Cemetery Location Project database. The database, consisting of almost 15,000 entries, is available for free and to the public at the ISGS website at  http://ilgensoc.org/cstm_cemeteryIndex.php . Researchers can search by cemetery name or cemetery nickname and filter results by county; all 102 Illinois counties are covered in the database. Once a record is located, click on the "eye" icon to view the details about that specific cemetery: Information includes county and township location as well as the address of the cemetery. In addition data related to Illinois veterans, church affiliation, online website and status of the cemetery (active, inactive, etc.) is also included if available.   Note : the Illinois Cemetery Location Project database does not include headstone transcriptions. A special thanks to Be...

Yearbooks from Arcola Township High School in Arcola, Illinois are now available for free on the Ancestry.com website. ISGS 1st Vice President Larry Pepper helped scan the yearbook pages, uploaded them to the Ancestry site and indexed them as well! Currently, ISGS has fully-indexed the yearbooks for 1921 and 1922. Yearbooks for 1926 and 1927 are available in image only format and the indexing will be completed very soon. To view the ISGS Collection at Ancestry.com, click http://bit.ly/ISGSAncestryContentPublisher or visit the Free Databases section of the ISGS website at http://ilgensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=66 . © 2011, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society