by Candace Marx
Do you have ancestors that settled in Illinois? Then you are in luck! Records for the “Prairie State” date back to the 17th century, when French explorers journeyed down the Mississippi River. From the early pioneers in the south, to the modern melting pot of Chicago in the north, Illinois’ rich history holds a treasure trove of resources for the family historian!
Part of Indiana Territory, 1800; Illinois Territory, 1809
1818
1820, 1825, 1830, 1840, 1845, 1855, 1865
1820
Public
1916
1962 (request earlier records on the county level)
Illinois Department of Public Health
Division of
Vital Records
605 E. Ridgely Ave.
Springfield, IL 62702
(217) 782-6553
Illinois was a bustling population center for indigenous peoples, who settled the area centuries before Europeans arrived. Cahokia, near Collinsville, is the largest pre-Columbian settlement discovered north of Mexico. It was once home to 20,000 Mississippian people.
In the early 1600s, several Illinois tribes, including the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Peoria and Tamaroa, banded together to form the Illiniwek Confederation. These tribes were the first to encounter French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, who reached Illiniwek territory via the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. More explorers followed, and by 1703, missions had been established at Cahokia and Kaskaskia. The French named the land Pays des Illinois (country of Illinois), after the people of the Illiniwek Confederation.
In 1763, the French lost Illinois to Great Britain after the French and Indian Wars. The land would change hands again, briefly becoming part of Quebec, then was claimed by Virginia Colony during the Revolutionary War. After independence, the United States founded Northwest Territory, a broad swath of land between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. This was further split into Indiana Territory in 1800, then Illinois Territory in 1809. At the time, Illinois Territory included what is now Wisconsin and parts of Michigan. But upon statehood in 1818, Illinois was reduced to its modern borders.
Illinois’ earliest American settlers were families migrating from the southeastern states, including neighboring Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as Virginia and the Carolinas. Many arriving men were veterans claiming bounty land warrants, awarded for service during the Revolution and War of 1812. Rich farmland along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in the southeastern part of the state attracted pioneers. Settlement continued northward in the 1830s and 1840s, and the capital followed: first Kaskaskia, then Vandalia, then Springfield. The Erie Canal (completed in 1825) opened the Great Lakes for trade with the eastern seaboard, making Illinois a more-attractive destination for New Englanders.
Encroaching white settlement led to conflict with indigenous populations. Sauk leader Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi in 1832 with a group of Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo in an attempt to reclaim disputed land. Local men—including a young Abraham Lincoln—mobilized into a militia. The “Black Hawk War” was brief, but helped lead to a wider policy of Indian removal of native peoples.
Chicago, incorporated in 1833, eventually attracted immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Bohmia, Italy, Poland, Sweden and more. The Great Fire of 1871 killed an estimated 300 people and razed one-third of the city, but didn’t stop Chicago from becoming the second-most-populous city in the United States by 1890. During the Civil War, some 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union Army. Abolitionists helped freedom-seekers travel north through the Underground Railroad, which had “depots” hidden throughout the state.
Thousands of African American families from the South settled in Illinois cities—notably Chicago, Peoria and Springfield—in the early 20th century as part of the Great Migration.
1673
Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet encounter members of the Illiniwek Confederation while exploring
1763
France cedes its territory west of the Mississippi to Britain
1787
Congress establishes the Northwest Territory
1809
lllinois Territory is created
1818
lllinois becomes the 21st state of the Union
1832
The “Black Hawk War” (the last large-scale conflict with indigenous groups in Illinois) takes place
1848
The Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed, connecting the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan
1859
Douglas County is created from Coles County, the last major change to Illinois’ county boundaries
1871
“The Great Fire” consumes much of Chicago
1893
A rebuilt Chicago hosts 21 million people at the “World’s Columbian Exposition” world’s fair
In 1877, Illinois passed a law requiring birth and death records. However, compliance was not mandatory until 1916. As a result, the availability of birth and death records prior to 1916 will vary by each of Illinois’ 102 counties. Request them from the individual county clerk’s office, many of which have an online form.
Post-1916 birth and records can also be requested through the Illinois Department of Public Health. Recent records are restricted by privacy laws: birth records less than 75 years old, and death records less than 20 years old.
Likewise, Illinois first required marriage records in 1877, but counties weren’t required to send copies to the state until 1962. Records created after that year can be verified—but not obtained—through the vital records division; find records themselves through the respective county clerk. Records less than 50 years old are restricted.
Fortunately, the state government provides two excellent online resources: the state archives website and the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System (IRAD). Both can aid you in finding vital records. The former hosts three searchable vital records indexes: pre-1916 deaths, deaths from 1916 to 1972, and marriages from 1763 to 1900. Coverage varies by county, so check each database’s description. You can order noncertified copies of death records indexed here from 1916 to 1947 from either the archives or the Illinois State Genealogical Society.
The state archives also maintain IRAD, a system of local archives maintained at universities throughout Illinois. Each covers a region of counties (except Northeastern Illinois University, which covers only Cook County and Chicago). See a list of IRAD’s local government records—including vital records for many counties.
As we’ll discuss, the state archives and IRAD also have collections of other kinds of records. Don’t miss these valuable resources!
Illinois first appeared as a state in its own right in the 1820 federal census. (Some areas that are now part of Illinois were covered in earlier censuses, but records have been lost.) Records through the 1950 census are widely available online, though only a few pages of Illinois 1890’s census survive. Non-population census schedules for Illinois, including agricultural and mortality listings, are also available. Illinois took several of its own censuses, both as a territory and as a state. Territorial censuses in 1810 and 1818 helped paved the way for Illinois to become a state. Counts taken every five years between 1820 and 1845 (then again in 1855 and 1865) can supplement information in federal censuses. Originals are held by the Illinois State Archives.
AccessGenealogy has USGenWeb-created transcriptions for many Illinois censuses. Search state-era censuses (minus 1820 and 1840) at Ancestry.com. FamilySearch also has individual collections for some Illinois censuses, including 1855 and 1865.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield holds more than 5,000 newspaper titles from every Illinois county. An obituary index and a list of holdings is available online. The University of Illinois’ Illinois Newspaper Project has digitized more than 1.5 million pages of local papers. Visitors can browse titles by county or date, or search them by keyword at the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections website.
Illinois papers are also in the collections of subscription mega-websites Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, NewspaperArchive and OldNews.
The USGenWeb Archives has a wide collection of Illinois county and plat maps, railroad maps and atlas images that are useful in locating your ancestor’s property and town. Find other historical maps through the David Rumsey Map Collection and the Library of Congress.
A public-land state, Illinois used the rectangular survey system to divide then sell land as standard parcels. Offices in Vincennes, Ind., and Kaskaskia, Ill., sold land to the public as early as 1804. Find records through the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office (GLO) website.
Cyndi’s List: Illinois
FamilySearch Research Wiki: Illinois
Illinois Digital Archives
Illinois GenWeb Project
Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) System
Illinois State Archives Databases
Linkpendium: Illinois
Chicago and Cook County: A Guide to Research by Loretto Dennis Szucs (Ancestry.com)
How to Research a Family with Illinois Roots by Lowell M. Volkel (Heritage House)
Finding Your Chicago Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide to Family History in the City and Cook County by Grace DuMelle (Lake Claremont Press)
NGS Research in the States Series: Illinois by Diane Renner Walsh, CG (National Genealogical Society)
Origin and Evolution of Illinois Counties (Illinois State Archives)
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum
Chicago Genealogical Society
Illinois State Archives
Illinois State Genealogical Society
Illinois State Historical Society
Newberry Library: Genealogy
National Archives at Chicago
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