Illinois State Genealogical Society Blog

Celebrate your ancestors this Black History Month with these unique genealogy resources! Freedom On The Move - a collection of runaway slave advertisements, which can provide details of a slave ancestor's personality and physical traits Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery - a collection of newspaper advertisements placed by formerly enslaved people, looking for their loved ones Caribbean Roots-  an excellent starting point to learn about researching ancestors that came from the Caribbean Northeast Slavery Records Index -  a compilation of records of enslaved persons from the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey Got Hoosier ancestors? Check out Indiana University South Bend's virtual  African American Landmark Tour. Learn about the Descendants of Enslaved Communities project and its resources, created by the University of Virginia Be sure to check out past ISGS Blog posts for even more Black Hi...

The North Suburban Genealogical Society and the Glenview Library will present their next event on Saturday, February 11th at 1:00pm (hybrid- in person at the library or on Zoom). Diane L. Richard will present "Sign of the Times: Timelines in Genealogy." CLICK HERE for more information and to register! FREE webinars from the Southern California Genealogical Society! Wednesday, February 15th at 8:00pm Central, Kelli Bergheimer, MSM, will present "Ancestry Dots, ThruLines, and an Organized Plan." CLICK HERE for more info and to register! CAGGNI will hold their next hybrid meeting on Saturday, February 18th at 10:30am (virtual and at the Schaumburg Library). Diane L. Richard will present, "Post Office Records: Geography, Politics, Religion, and More." CLICK HERE for more info and to register! The Villages Genealogical Society (Florida) is holding a hybrid seminar on Wednesday, February 22nd featuring Sunny Jane Morton. Join via Zoom!- CLICK HERE for more i...

The January/February 2023 ISGS Newsletter is now available for all on our website- CLICK HERE to visit our Newsletter page! Features in this issue include an upcoming events and conferences calendar, tips for protecting your digital research library, and much more- plus a teaser for the ISGS 2023 Fall Conference, which will be held IN-PERSON this year! Stay tuned for more info! © 2023, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

ISGS now offers digitized versions of some of our most popular publications in our Online Store! When you visit the store, you will see 2 options for these publications: The printed books at their current pricing, and the digital publications, indicated with  DIGITAL PUB . These are high-quality PDFs that can be downloaded to your computer or device. The digital publications are offered at a discounted price from the print versions- and Members, remember to log in to receive your member discount for even bigger savings! The digital publication offerings include: Soldiers of the American Revolution in Illinois Children of the Orphan Trains Family Bible Records, Volumes 1 & 2 Remembering Illinois Veterans Ancestor Charts, Volumes 1-4 2018 Insider's Guide to Illinois Genealogy Quarterly 25-year index  To purchase a digital publication, simply follow the instructions in the Online Store to complete payment. Our Office Manager will then email you a link to download the publica...

ISGS has just heard fantastic news from the Illinois State Archives Director, Dr. David Joens- The Illinois Death Certificates searchable database at ilsos.gov has been updated to include death certificate entries for the years 1951-1971! CLICK HERE to visit the NEW 1951- 1971 Death Index Database! This is a long-awaited update that is sure to help many Illinois family historians! The updated database is listed separately from the earlier death indexes, so now when you visit the State Archives Databases page at ilsos.gov, you will see the marriage index plus three death index options: The information you will find in the new database is very similar to the 1916-1950 database-  Name  Sex/race Age at death  Certificate number  Date of death  City and county where the certificate was filed Date certificate was filed  This information can be used to contact the county clerk for a copy of the death certificate. Death certificates prior to 1916 or after 19...

Check out these upcoming in-person events! RootsTech 2023 is offering in-person and virtual options this year! The expo runs from March 2nd-4th in Salt Lake City and online, CLICK HERE for more info. Registration is OPEN for the 2023 DuPage County Genealogical Society 45th Annual Conference! The conference will be held at the NIU Conference Center in Naperville on Saturday March 11th- get the best pricing before February 11th.  CLICK HERE for more info and registration. The Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri, is hosting their Spring Seminar on Saturday March 25th- featuring Gena Philibert-Ortega! CLICK HERE for more info and registration. The Polish Genealogical Society of America is excited to announce the return of their Genealogy Tours! This year will three tours to the west, east/south, and northeast/eastern regions of Poland. CLICK HERE for more info. © 2023, copyright Illinois State Genealogical Society

Happy New Year! Here are some upcoming genealogy events for January! The Chicago Genealogical Society is holding their next meeting TONIGHT, January 2nd at 7:00pm. Barbara Coakley will present, "Search vs. Research: John G. Clay Case Study." CLICK HERE for more info and to register! The St. Clair County Genealogical Society will hold their next meeting via Zoom on Thursday, January 5th at 6:45pm. Brad Winn, Site Superintendent of the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site, will present "Lewis and Clark in the Illinois Country." CLICK HERE for more info and to register! The Northwest Suburban Genealogy Society will hold their next meeting on Saturday, January 7th at 10:00 am (with a pre-meeting "members helping members" starting at 9:00am) via Zoom. Paula Stuart-Warren will present "The U.S. National Archives: The Nation's Attic." CLICK HERE for more info and to register! The North Suburban Genealogical Society will hold their next meeting via...