About EGS

On 1 December 1972 a group of six ladies gathered at the home of Pat Lose (our founder) to discuss genealogy. That small group grew each year until the official organization, the Elgin (IL) Genealogical Society was established in January 1976.

Since that time EGS has sought to uphold its purpose as stated in our constitution:
  • to bring together persons who are researching in family history and to promote co-operations among them
  • to foster, stimulate and share ideas, information, methods, and practices in family research
  • to seek, preserve and make available material on family history and research materials concerning past and present families
  • to inform people of the value of and need for preserving family and local history for posterity
  • to encourage those officials in charge of public records and genealogical collections to preserve them and make them readily accessible to the interested persons. 
Our ongoing projects are the
  • 50/50 program in which EGS provides 50% of the price - through donations - towards the purchase of specific materials for the Gail Borden Public Library (GBPL) genealogical collection 
  • and the indexing of old Elgin newspapers from micro-film at GBPL. Volunteers from GBPL place vital records information gleaned by EGS volunteers onto the online index at  http://innovative.gailborden.info:82/ 
There are always additional projects underway as well. We would love to have you join us in these endeavors. For membership information, check out our website at www.elginroots.com.