Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

Guest Author, Stephanie Carbonetti Just a few blocks west from the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, you can find another magnificent Chicago treasure, The Newberry Library. The Newberry is an independent research library that houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, maps, music, manuscripts, and other printed material. The Library's holdings span the history and culture of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century and the Americas from the time of first contact between Europeans and Native Americans. Its strengths include: European discovery, exploration, and settlement of the Americas; the American West; local history, family history, and genealogy; literature and history of the Midwest, especially the Chicago Renaissance; Native American history and literature; the Renaissance; the French Revolution; Portuguese and Brazilian history; and British literature and history. The collections number 1,500,000 printed titles, five million manuscri...

Guest Author, Dennis Suttles One of Springfield’s best kept secrets for genealogical research is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (ALPL). The Illinois General Assembly created this library in 1889 as the Illinois State Historical Library charged with the collection of the history of Illinois and its people. In October 2004 the library’s name changed to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and moved from the basement of the Old State Capitol to its present location at the corner of Jefferson and Sixth Streets, just south of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The ALPL houses published, manuscript, audio-visual, newspapers on microfilm, and Lincoln collections documenting all aspects of Illinois history. Its collection strengths include Lincoln, the Civil War, 19 th -century Illinois history, genealogy, biography, and geography. The reference desk in the Steve Neal Reading Room on the first floor of the library services the books and maps housed in both the general ...

Guest Author, Julie Tarr One of the best places to conduct genealogy research in Illinois is at the State Archives in Springfield. This massive repository is home to many government records, some of which are of interest to genealogists. The Archives is located at the Margaret Cross Norton Building, Capitol Complex, near 2 nd & Edwards.  You can contact the Archives at 217-782-4682 or visit their website . Death Certificates 1916-1947 I would imagine this is the most-used resources among genealogists doing research at the Archives. All of the death certificates in the state from 1916 to 1947 can be found on microfilm. To obtain the records, you will first need to visit the index for Illinois death certificates, 1916-1950 . Once you locate the decedent, record all of the information contained in the line item, as you will need this to determine which film the record is on. At the Archives, refer to the binders in the reading room to locate the film number based on the info...

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...

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...

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...