Prairie Pioneers of Illinois

If your ancestor settled in Illinois before 1880, you may find valuable information about them in the Illinois State Genealogical Society's Prairie Pioneers of Illinois. This two volume work records biographical and genealogical details for the earliest settlers in the state and lists when they arrived in Illinois.

The Illinois State Genealogical Society still collects information on Illinois' early pioneers. Their website lists the names of 3900 individuals but does not include genealogical information on them. The society is also currently collecting information on families who have lived continuously in Illinois since the state's founding in 1818.

Illinois Maps

Celebrate Illinois' 200th birthday with some very interesting maps! See how the state has changed with Illinois: Mapping the Prairie State Through History. 

This book includes maps from the 1670s to the present as well as essays about different aspects of Illinois history. The maps record boundary changes, detail the growth of towns (both large and small), and chart railroad and industrial expansion in the state.

Maps make great resources for family historians too. Trace your ancestors with Family Maps of Cook County, Illinois compiled by Gregory A. Boyd.

If you family was an early settler in the area, they may have received a land patent. Boyd gives you three maps: a land patent map, a current (ca 2006) road map, and a historical map which lists cemeteries, railroads, and waterways. Look for you family in the surname index or search the map of your ancestors town and neighborhood to find family names.

While land patent maps sound confusing, they're easy to use. For example, here you see a road map of Glenview. The library would be located in box 35.

And here is the land patent map. You can see that Edwin Clark received a patent for the land the library currently sits on in 1840. 

Find your ancestors' original homestead or see who originally owned your current property. Maps can add lots of context to our family histories.

And for more historical maps, check out the map case in the Genealogy & Local History Room.

Illinois Bicentennial

This year we're celebrating Illinois' bicentennial. Illinois became the 21st state on December 3, 1818.

Visit Illinois 200 to see how the state is honoring its birthday, find out how to get involved, and learn about Illinois' past.

Look for upcoming Illinois 200 programs we're hosting at the library and discover more Illinois history in the Genealogy & Local History Room. We have shelves of Illinois history books dating back to the 1800s.

Polish Pioneers in Illinois

Every good Chicagoan will tell you that Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw. It's no secret that the area has welcomed a large number of Polish immigrants throughout the twentieth century but it's pre-1850 Polish immigration that interests James D. Lodesky.

Polish Pioneers in Illinois, 1818-1850 by Lodesky attempts to account for all of the earliest Polish settlers in Illinois. He believes that about 325 Poles lived throughout the state before 1850.

Lodesky discusses reasons for early Polish immigration and Polish history in Illinois and elsewhere. He examines Polish populations in Chicago and several counties throughout the state and also provides genealogies of some early families.

Indispensable history for Illinoisans with Polish roots!

Skokie History

In addition to our Glenview history collection, we have a large selection of local histories for communities throughout Illinois. If you're researching local families or the history of the north suburbs, we have many items that can help you out.

One item particular to our library is A Tour of Old Niles Centre compiled by the Skokie Historical Society. The village of Skokie was incorporated in 1888 as Niles Centre. The village voted to change the name to Skokie in 1940.

This pamphlet guides you on a walking tour of historic Skokie sites. What did the corner of Lincoln and Oakton look like in 1834? Who were the early settlers of Niles Centre and where did they live? The Skokie Historical Society explains the history of the village and describes its historic sites and events. It's a fun little tour of north suburban local history.

You can find other items on Skokie history here.

Illinois at Vicksburg

The Battle of Vicksburg began on May 18, 1863 and culminated with Vicksburg surrendering on July 4. Ulysses S. Grant's military campaign was one of the major successes of the Civil War. In 1906, The Vicksburg Military Park dedicated a memorial to the service of Illinois volunteers who participated in that campaign.

The Lundberg Collection contains the book Illinois at Vicksburg which was printed to commemorate the dedication of the Illinois State Memorial at Vicksburg.

Illinois at Vicksburg describes Grant's campaign in detail and the aftermath of the siege. The volume also contains information about each Illinois regiment that served at Vicksburg. Each entry includes the regiment's history, its role in the battle and a roster of soldiers.

It's an interesting resource for anyone with Illinois ancestors who fought in the Civil War!

Illinois Genealogy Resources

Missed our class on Chicago and Cook County Resources? Check out our Illinois Genealogy Resources Page for links to online resources, local genealogy societies, and record depositories, archives, and libraries.

Rock Island County Genealogical Society

The Rock Island County Genealogical Society has a nice website and offers great services if you're

looking for ancestors from the Quad Cities area of Illinois.

Their online records includes:

• Obituary Index
• Funeral Home Memorial Cards
• Surnames Index
• Cemetery Facts

There is plenty of other great information to be found on the site too!

Illinois Newspapers

With the library's subscription of GenealogyBank, you have access to historic newspapers from across the country.

For the Chicago area, you can search the following newspapers:

Chicago Daily Times (1855-1856)
Chicago Times (1854-1888)
Daily Inter Ocean (1874-1894)
Inter Ocean (1879-1889)
Pomeroy's Democrat (1869-1879)

For more recent newspapers, you can use Newsbank to search:

Chicago Sun-Times (1986-present)
Daily Herald (1995-present)
Glenview Announcements (1995-present)

Newsbank gives you access to other suburban and Illinois papers too. And through the library's databases you can also search the Chicago Tribune archives 1849-1990 and 1985-present.

The Genealogy and Local History Room has Glenview-area newspapers on microfilm going back to the 1920s and don't forget to use our Obituary Index to locate death notices.

If you're still not finding what you're looking for with library resources, try one of these free websites to locate historic newspapers.

Researching Your Chicago Ancestors

Do you have Chicago Ancestors? Join us on Wednesday, July 9, and discover what sources are available and where they can be found. Databases discussed will include vital records, church records, state records, federal records, employment records, histories of the neighborhoods and many more. The sources that are reviewed will include online websites, genealogy collections held at the major libraries, collections at local libraries and collections compiled by area genealogical societies.

This program will be presented by Steve Szabados who has given numerous presentations to groups in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin and wants to share his passion for Family History. He is a member of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the board of directors for the Polish Genealogical Society of America, and also a genealogy volunteer at the Arlington Heights Library. His roots are Polish and Hungarian plus he has also had success researching Slovenian and Bohemian records. He has also written three books that over his tips for beginning your research and also European research.

Register for the program online or call the Reference Desk at 847-729-7500.

DuPage County Genealogy Resources

This week the New England Historic Genealogical Society showcased some genealogy resources for DuPage County.

DuPage County Genealogical Society

DCGS has a lot of great resources on their site:

• Cemetery Indexes for Addison, Downers Grove, Lisle, and York townships
• DuPage Families contains information about people who have lived in DuPage County
• Newspaper abstracts for Hinsdale Doings and the Wheaton Illinoian
• Other useful links for DuPage genealogy research 

Argus Obituary Index
Obituaries published in the Villa Park Argus from 1931 to present. This database was created by the Villa Park Public Library.

Bronswood Cemetery Burial Index
An excellently made index by the Oak Brook Historical Society.

Christmas in Glenview 1995

I found a great seasonal book in the Genealogy & Local History Room: The Best Christmas Decorations in Chicagoland by Mary Edsey. It was published in 1995 and features photos and addresses of the best places to see holiday decorations in the city of Chicago and the surrounding area.

The book includes two houses from Glenview: the Dorband house on Glenview Road and the Olsowski house on Huber Lane. The Olsowski's PVC pipe Christmas tree is a featured photograph.


Come by the Genealogy & Local History Room to peruse The Best Christmas Decorations in Chicagoland. There are lots of fun photographs and stories of holiday traditions from around the area. Most of the photographs are from the nineties but there are stories and pictures going back to the fifties!

Coal Mining Database

Were your Illinois ancestors coal miners?

There is a new online database listing information about coal miners who were injured or killed in mining accidents within the First District of Illinois between 1882 and 1927. It also lists the names of men certified as hoisting engineers, mine managers, and mine supervisors in the First District for the same time period.

The data is from The Illinois Coal Reports, and  provides access to the names of thousands of miners who may or may not have lived in the area long enough to be recorded on census records.

The first coal discovered in North America was in Northern Illinois in the 1600’s by explorers Marquette and Joliet

The database is named Coal Reports of Illinois First District Index.

New Illinois Data on FamilySearch

New Illinois collections have been uploaded to the FamilySearch website. 

If you have Maywood ancestors, you may enjoy browsing  through the Maywood Herald Obituary Card Index, 1885-2002.  This is a surname card index created by the Maywood Public Library from the Maywood Herald Newspaper.

And, there is a collection of Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1970, that was created by courts in various Illinois counties, which you can also  browse through

Illinois Servitude and Emancipation Records

Servitude and Emancipation Records Database, 1722–1863 is an index Compiled by the Illinois State Archives (ISA)The database of includes approximately 3,400 names found in governmental records involving the servitude and emancipation of Africans and, occasionally, Indians in the French and English eras of colonial Illinois (1722–1790), and African-Americans in the American period of Illinois (1790–1863).

The ISA extracted the names of servants, slaves, or free persons and masters, witnesses, or related parties from selected governmental records to produce this database. After searching the database, researchers can see an abstract of the record by clicking the record number of the appropriate entry.

This database may be useful to people researching African American Ancestry.

The Illinois State Archives also makes available online other valuable record indexes.

St. Clair County Marriages

New in the Genealogy Room...

St. Clair Co. (Ill.) Marriages 1791-1845 / by Robert Buecher.

This index contains approximately 3,000 marriages, or 5,493 names of both spouses. Date of marriage appears under name of groom. People of color are indicated by "C."

War of 1812 Ancestors

The Library recently acquired two books pertaining to the War of 1812.

War of 1812 Soldiers Buried in the State of Illinois, and War of 1812 Soldiers Buried in Northern Illinois were compiled and published by the National Society of United States Daughters of 1812.

Listings include the soldier's name, birth and death dates, wife's name, soldier's rank, state served from and company, pension record references, county code, cemetery name, townshiip, and the nearest city / town.

Find these in the Reference Room at R929.3773 WAR.

Do You Know Illinois?

In the 1930's Edward Hughes was Secretary of State and State Librarian of Illinois, and he composed a column which ran in many newspapers entitled "Do You Know Illinois?"

The columns were short Q & A pieces dealing with Illinois facts and history, and contain nearly 5,000 factual trivia and obscure facts about Illinois. They are now digitized and part of the Illinois Digital Archives.

Click each page in the left column to view more than 500 pages of this column. At the very end is an index.

Illinois Veterans History Project

The purpose of the Illinois Veterans' History Project is to create a permanent record of the names and stories of Illinois war veterans and civilians who served our state and country during war, so that their contributions will not be forgotten.

To participate in the Illinois Veterans' History Project, veterans or their family members can complete the Illinois Patriots Information Form.



You can view the 3569 forms that have been collected, telling the remarkable stories of some of our brave men and women, at the Illinois Veterans History Project section of the Illinois Digital Archives .


Don't miss the interesting material that accompanies many of the forms. When you click on the veteran's name, you will see a page that shows what there is about that veteran. In the border at the left, you might see only the word Form...but you might alse see Form Page 2 or Newspaper Article or something else. Click on each term to learn more about that particular veteran.


Have a wonderful Memorial Day!