Genealogy & History

Learn how the U.S. Census Bureau serves America as the leading source of quality data about our people, business and economy.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized databases containing very basic facts about servicemen who served both sides during the Civil War.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789–1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690–present.

This site is one of the best! Cyndi’s list of genealogy sites on the internet. Take your time and review the categories that you want to search. One thing can lead to another.

Online searchable death indexes and records. Many free databases, some are connected to Ancestry.com and may require a fee to search.

More immigrants came to the United States through Ellis Island than any other spot in our country. Type in your ancestor’s last name and see if one of your relatives came through this important and historical port of entry.

Family Search website includes free family history, family tree, and genealogy records and resources from around the world.

GGS offers information, educational opportunities, publications, and association with others researching German roots. This includes areas that are outside of the current borders of Germany. Their goal is to help you learn how to find and use records of your German-speaking ancestors.

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is a long-term effort to provide permanent access to a national digital resource of newspaper bibliographic information and historic newspapers from all U.S. states and territories.

Your starting place for Polish genealogical research. PGSA attempts to assist members in doing their own genealogical research by providing books, newsletters, bulletins, printed information, regular Society meetings, and an annual workshop.

A website so big we recommend taking the tutorial first. Type in your family name and let the fun begin!

Publiclibraries.com provides regularly updated directory listings for library systems and all their branch locations across the United States. The listings are organized by state (or territory) and they contain the physical address and contact phone number for each library.

The USGenNet Index of Online U.S. State and Local Historical & Genealogical Societies.

Keeping free genealogy on the Internet. The USGenWeb Project is a group of volunteers working together and having fun providing free online genealogy help and information for every U.S. state and county. Their national site provides links to state sites, which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties.

If you live in a house that’s more than a few decades old, it’s natural to wonder about its history. Who built it, and when? Who lived there before you moved in? You might even wonder about the evolution of the home’s structure, as well as any changes made to it over time. (Thank you to our awesome local Brownie Scouts for this suggestion!)

Illinois-wide genealogical events, classes, projects, databases, publications and more vital information.

Each year, IDPH records about a half million vital record events (births, deaths, marriages, divorces, adoptions and abortions) as mandated by state statutes and federal uniform data collection requirements.

Genealogists find the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library essential to their research. Records of interest to genealogists may be found in all of the Library’s collections.

This map was developed by the Local and Family History department staff of the Newberry Library. The map allows visitors to research the history of a particular address or Chicago neighborhood.

This organization provides storage and other services for inactive records created or received by Federal agencies in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Federal courts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Another great website for obtaining copies of many vital records from Cook County, IL at a much more reasonable price.

An especially great resource for Chicago city and telephone directories.

The Cook County Clerk’s office has available naturalization records from 1871-1929, probate records from 1871-1975, divorce cases from 1871-1986 and much more. Take a few minutes and access the records/archives section. (We would suggest using Chicago Genealogy resource when possible for requesting copies of vital records, as they are less expensive.)

This site is sponsored by the State of Illinois. You can search marriage and death indexes for a family member’s name. They also have a number of databases for military records. It also lists the records held at the regional archives depositories in the state of Illinois.

Online searchable death index for Chicago and Cook County, Illinois.

Photographs, slides, glass negatives, oral histories, manuscripts and letters, Federal government documents, postcards, posters, videos, newspapers, maps, and much more.

The Illinois State Historical Society was founded to encourage research and writing on subjects of Illinois history, encouraging everyone from University scholars to local historians to take an active part. The mission of the Society is to foster awareness, understanding, research, preservation, and recognition of history in Illinois.

The Newberry Library is located here in Chicago, Illinois. If you ever have an opportunity to visit the library, it is well worth the “field trip!”

This is an index to over 240,000 obituaries and death notices found in the following newspapers from the period January 1, 1985 to the present: Beverly Review, Blue Island Forum, Blue Island Sun Independent, Daily Southtown, Oak Lawn Independent, Reporter, Southtown Economist, SouthtownStar, Southwest Courier, Southwest News-Herald, and the Star. Although designed as a name index, many of the entries will also include maiden name, date of death, and place of death, in addition to name, date, and page citation of the newspaper.

This database is made possible by a collaborative effort between the Frankfort Public Library District and the Frankfort Area Historical Society. The database currently holds 2,187 obituary index records and counting.

The Research & Geneological Room contains 70,000 documents concerning Will County history including: plat maps, obituaries, mortgages, chattel mortgages, historical architectural surveys, Civil War histories, African-American database and more. Some files available for download.

Archives serving south Cook and east Will counties, Illinois including Chicago's Roseland/Pullman neighborhoods.

The Joliet Area Historical Museum occupies the space formerly known as the Ottawa Street Methodist Church at the intersection of Cass and Ottawa Streets in downtown Joliet. Since its opening in the fall of 2002, the museum's main exhibition gallery serves as an introduction to the many stories of the Joliet area and its people.

The Genealogy/Local History collection, housed at the Ottawa Street Branch, includes books about Joliet and/or Will County history, Joliet newspapers on microfilm from 1846 to present, Will County directories in print (1859-60 and 1872-73), Joliet city directories from 1875 to present (in print and/or on microfilm), Joliet telephone directories as far back as 1908, Will County atlases and plat books, Joliet high school yearbooks, Printed obituary indexes (1915-18 and 1976-2012), and funeral brochures for African-Americans of Joliet and Lockport Illinois (1968-2012). The library also offers access to the Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest databases, and an online index of obituaries published in the Joliet Herald-News from 1976 – 2012.

This page comes highly recommended by a Boy Scout working on his Genealogy badge. Thanks, Isaac!