March AM Meetinge - Illinois Online Resources

This mornings meeting was well-attended and well-received. Michael Mulholland from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library spoke to us about some of the resources available on-line for Illinois. Some of these sites were known to many of the members but a fresh look brought many oohs and ahhs from the audience.
The first sites are specific to Cook county and if you have ancestors from Cook you'll want to be sure to take a detailed look at them. They are:

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/ - To access the online databases click on Departments, then Illnnois State Archives, then Online Databases. Searchable databases include the Illinois State Death Inde 1916-1950, the pre-1916 Death Index (in progress), the pre-1900 marriage index, and many more. Be sure to read the description of each database before you start searching. FREE

http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com/ - Search this index with over 8 million vital records for Cool County. Birth records = 75 years and older, Marriage records = 50 years and older, Death records = 20 years or older. This database is updated regularly. FREE - registration required

http://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/ - Holdings date from the 1871 Chicago Fire Click on Records/Archives. The Archives houses Naturalization, probate, and divorce records but only Declarations of Intention are searchable online (on-going project). FREE

http://www.alookatcook.com/ - Use this website if you are searching Chicago census records. There are maps of the city of Chicago for 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 including boundary descriptions for wards, townships, and enumberation districts. FREE

http://www.familysearch.org/ - This is the website for the Family History Library of the LDS Church. Under What's New, click on See prototype for searching millions of records. Scanned records are available. This id an on-going project. FREE [The on-line records can also be accessed at this url: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start]

http://www.cyndislist.com/ - This is THE website for all genealogists! Internet genealogical resources are alphabetically categorized and cross-referenced. It is constantly updated with new websites. Go to United States - Illinois - Localities [Localities has been changes to Counties] FREE

Thanks to Michael for a very interesting and informative talk.