Chicago: A Windy City Genealogy Guide

By Katharine Andrew Premium
Aerial view of Chicago skyline with tall buildings, a large lake, sandy beaches, green parks, and a curving road along the shoreline under a partly cloudy sky.
Chicago skyline. Image by marchello74 on Canva.

Chicago’s been called a lot of things over the years—the Windy City, Second City, City of the Big Shoulders and the “most American of American cities.” Chicago has come to represent what many think as “American”: jazz, skyscrapers, diverse cultures and communities, and a can-do, reinventive spirit in the face of hardship.

One unfortunate event, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, destroyed countless records and can be a major roadblock to family historians. But it’s far from the end of the trail. Chicago’s story is one of constant rebuilding and growth, shaped by waves of immigration, economic growth, innovation and resilience.

That same resilience lives on in the records that do survive—and in the stories waiting to be uncovered. So even if the trail gets a little windy or you hit a research pothole, don’t give up—such setbacks are basically a rite of passage for Chicagoans.

In This Article

A Deep-Dish Slice of Chicago History

The name “Chicago” comes from a French interpretation of the indigenous Miami-Illinois name Šikaakonki. That, in turn, is related to šikaakwa, which can refer either to “skunk” or the “ramp,” a wild onion that grows in the area.

Long before European settlers arrived, the region we now call Chicagoland was home to many indigenous people. Of note were the Council of the Three Fires—comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations—as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo and Illinois nations. These communities built extensive trade networks across the Great Lakes region, some of which can still be seen today in Chicago roadways.

In 1673, French-Canadian explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet passed through the area. About a century later, in the 1780s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who was of African descent, established a permanent settlement near the mouth of the Chicago River. Du Sable is widely recognized as the founder of Chicago. (And yes, the busiest stretch of Lake Shore Drive named after him.)

A series of treaties with the fledgling US government, including the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis, led to Native land cessions in the Chicago area. Fort Dearborn was built as a result of land given to the U.S. government in one of these treaties in 1803, destroyed in 1812, and later rebuilt. The later 1833 Treaty of Chicago forcibly removed the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi west of the Mississippi as part of larger federal Indian removal policies, ending widespread Native settlement in the region.

The Town of Chicago was officially incorporated on 12 August 1833, with a population of around 200. Chicago’s population grew rapidly, achieving cityhood on 4 March 1837 and reaching 6,000 residents by 1840. It was made the county-seat of Cook County.

Chicago quickly became a booming industrial and transportation center. Its position between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River made it a valuable port city. And major infrastructure projects (such as the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River) and early railroads made travel faster and less cumbersome. Between 1850 and 1890, the population skyrocketed from under 30,000 to over one million.

Its economic and industrial growth drew people from all over— immigrants and rural Americans alike—for employment. Irish, Germans, Czechs, Swedes, Poles and Italians poured into the city, building communities that shaped the city’s identity.

Even though the Great Fire of 1871 destroyed a third of the city, growth didn’t slow. Chicago expanded by annexing nearby townships, including a major expansion in 1889. By the end of the 19th century, it was the fifth-largest city in the world—rebuilt in steel and stone, and known for the architecture that still defines it today.

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By the late 1800s, labor unrest and reform movements shaped Chicago. The 1886 Haymarket Affair and 1894 Pullman Strike reflected tensions in the growing workforce. And reformers like Jane Addams (founded Hull-House to support immigrant families) were active in the city.

Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Drawing more than 27 million visitors, it was one of the most influential world’s fairs in history—and a chilling backdrop for the infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes.

Chicago’s industrial boom continued through World War I and the 1920s. Navy Pier was built during this time as a shipping and recreational facility, serving briefly as a jail for draft-dodgers.. Later, during World War II, the pier served as a training facility for the U.S. Navy.

The promise of jobs brought thousands of African Americans from the South during the Great Migration. Their arrival sparked the Chicago Black Renaissance—an explosion of creativity in literature, art and music (especially jazz) that left a lasting cultural impact.

Of course, the 1920s also brought organized crime. Prohibition-era Chicago became notorious for gang violence, with figures like Al Capone fighting both rivals and law enforcement in the streets.

The Great Depression hit Chicago hard. The city’s economy, heavily dependent on industry, collapsed. By 1933, more than half of the industrial jobs were gone. However, Chicago recovered after the Great Depression. More people came to the city to fill jobs in steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards.

Today, Chicago is the third-largest city in the country and a central hub for migration and immigrant stories, neighborhood identities and family histories that reflect the broader American experience.

TIP: There are 178 official neighborhoods in Chicago. Communities may have unique records including those from past organizations, social groups and businesses, and unique local newspapers. The Newberry Library has a great research guide to neighborhood-specific records and resources. Also look at the Chicago Collections Consortium’s online Explore Chicago Collections website, which gives access to over 100,000 digitized photos, maps, letters and more.

North Side to South Side: Covering All Your Record Bases

Many Chicago records can be accessed through the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD), which is the Illinois State Archives’ depository system. Chicago and Cook County records are archived at the Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) regional depository. You can search IRAD’s holdings can be searched online by locality in its Local Government Records Database. Or request records from IRAD-NEIU by postal mail or phone.

Note: Due to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, nearly all local records were destroyed. As a result, most records begin in 1872—aside from a few rare exceptions and those kept at state or federal level.

Vital records

Illinois did not have a consistent system for recording births and deaths until the late 19th century. While legislation in 1819 required doctors to log this information and send it to their medical societies—which then published the information in local newspapers—compliance was spotty at best. Another law passed in 1843 allowed relatives of the deceased to report a death to the county clerk (but like the earlier effort) was entirely voluntary.

That changed in 1877, when the State Board of Health was established and made birth and death registration mandatory. County clerks were now supposed to receive this information directly from physicians. But without strong enforcement and few penalties for non-compliance, many births and deaths still went unrecorded.

To make matters worse, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 wiped out most earlier records held in the Chicago. To find information on vital events before the Chicago Fire, search local newspapers, church records and censuses. Newspapers published information on births, marriages and deaths, and those may be the only surviving record of these vital events. Sam Fink’s marriage (1833-1871) and death (1856-1889) indexes are available on Ancestry.com. It is also available on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library.

It was not until 1915 that the record-keeping process became more reliable, with local registrars now tasked with collecting birth and death data and forwarding it to the county and state. By 1919, compliance had improved significantly—an estimated 95% of births and deaths were being properly recorded and preserved by what’s now the Illinois Department of Public Health.

You can order non-certified copies of vital records for the purpose of genealogical research through the Cook County Clerk’s office. Keep in mind that access is limited by privacy laws; records must fall outside of the restricted timeframes in order to be released for genealogy purposes. Birth records are restricted for 75 years after the event, as are marriage records for 50 years and death records for 20 years.

Birth records

IRAD-NEIU has birth records from 1871 to 1916. Imaged scans of the records are not online, but you can request copies. FamilySearch has two collections of birth records for Cook County (including Chicago): birth certificates (1871–1953) and birth registers (1871–1915). You can search indexes of these records online, but you’ll need to go to a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library to view the images.

Marriage records

IRAD’s “Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763–1900” database has over one million marriages indexed. It is searchable online, but you can’t view record images—request copies from IRAD-NEIU. Likewise, FamilySearch’s Illinois, County Marriages, 1810–1940 includes Chicago marriage indexes, but you’ll have to visit a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library to view images.

Subscription site Ancestry.com has three index collections specific to marriages in Cook County: Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871–1920, Cook County, Illinois Marriage Indexes, 1912–1942 and Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930–1960.

Death records

IRAD has two searchable databases for deaths that occurred in Illinois: the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916 and Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1972. Copies of files found in these indexes can be ordered from the Cook County Clerk’s office.

Also available on IRAD’s website is the Cook County Coroner’s Inquest Record Index, 1872–1911 and the Chicago Police Department Homicide Record, 1870–1930. Copies of files found in these indexes can be obtained by mail or telephone from IRAD-NEIU. The Coroner’s Inquest Records are also digitized and available at a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library.

Northwestern University’s Chicago Historical Homicide Project expands on the IRAD database, providing more details in a verbatim transcript of the original handwritten records.

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Other unique Chicago death-related collections at IRAD-NEIU include Cook County Hospital death records (1944–1946) and burial permit stub books for Hyde Park (1884–1886). Copies of files found in these indexes can be obtained by mail or telephone from IRAD-NEIU.

FamilySearch offers several collections as well: Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878–1994 and Illinois, Cook County, death records, 1918–1998 are available online, but the images can only be viewed at a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library. There’s also a collection of obituaries from 1970 and 1990.

Don’t overlook the Illinois Mortality Schedules, which were created in conjunction with the federal census. These can help identify deaths that occurred in the year leading up to the census and are available from 1850 to 1880 on FamilySearch.

Biographies and genealogies

The Newberry Library has a Chicago Biography and Industry File, which is an index of biographical and industrial sketches that appeared in 48 collective guides like Chicago and Its Distinguished Citizens, Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois: With Portraits, Official Reference Book of the Press Club of Chicago and Manufacturing and Wholesale Industries of Chicago. All of these volumes were published between 1876 and 1937.

Business, commerce and occupational records

IRAD-NEIU has License Records from 1867 to 1955. The records are not digitized or indexed online, but can be requested. IRAD’s online database (with images) of Register of Licensed Physicians and Surgeons includes the names of all physicians and surgeons who registered for licenses from August 1877 to February 1937. The Chicago Public Library, Chicago History Museum and the Newberry Library each have archival collections of business records. CARLI has digitized records of the Newberry’s Pullman Company records.

Cemeteries

Chicago City Cemetery

From 1843 to about 1866, the Chicago City Cemetery served as one of the city’s main burial grounds. It was divided into sections for Catholic and Jewish burials, along with a potter’s field for those without means. Roughly 20,000 people were buried there including around 4,000 Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Douglas and were laid to rest in the potter’s field.

Dis-interments began in the early 1860s when families started relocating their relatives to newer cemeteries like Rosehill, Wunders, Graceland and Calvary (in neighboring Evanston). After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, efforts to clear the cemetery accelerated, and eventually the land was repurposed into a public space—what we now know as Lincoln Park.

Today, the cemetery is gone, empty of all graves except for the Ira Couch family mausoleum (it was deemed too expensive to move and may be empty) and the (alleged) 116 year old Boston Tea Party’s David Kennison. However, digs in the Lincoln Park neighborhood over the years, as recently as 2013, have revealed human bones.

A well-researched account of the Chicago City Cemetery is available at Hidden Truths: The Chicago City Cemetery & Lincoln Park.

Find more cemetery resources online at:

Censuses

Chicago first appears in the federal census in 1820. In addition to the federal census, Illinois took its own territorial and state censuses throughout the 1800s. The Illinois State Archives has indexes for the territorial censuses of 1810 and 1818, as well as surviving state censuses from 1820 through 1845. These are available to view in person. You can find the 1810 and 1818 Illinois census returns on Ancestry.com, and FamilySearch has the 1855 and 1865 state censuses.

Church and religious records

Religious records are an incredibly useful resource when researching family in Chicago—especially for the years before consistent civil registration or when official records are missing. This is particularly true for events that took place before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The Newberry Library’s Guide to Chicago Church and Synagogue Records is the best way to locate Chicago congregational histories and records there and in other repositories. The guide also refers to collections held by the FamilySearch Library, many of which are available on FamilySearch.

Additional resources include:

Roman Catholic

The Archdiocese of Chicago was established in 1843. It serves the Catholic population of Cook and Lake Counties. Per its policy, the Archdiocese has made private genealogical certificates and information from sacramental records created later than 1 January 1926. Officials only provide certificates from closed parishes, schools and orphanages. After that date, these records are only available to the person in the record or their next of kin (if they are deceased). A complete list of the Archdiocese’s archival holdings is available here. You can request a record from the Archdiocese (for a fee) on the website. Some closed institutions have records held elsewhere.

Access sacramental registers (1833–1925) and cemetery records (1864–1989) for Chicago parishes on FamilySearch at no cost. Subscription site Findmypast also has a significant collection of Chicago Roman Catholic Records.

City directories

Chicago city directories begin in 1839. The Newberry Library has one of the most comprehensive physical collections (1839–1929). But more are available online at Ancestry.com (going until 1947), and some of the Newberry’s collection has been digitized on its ChicagoAncestors.org website. Many directories are also available on the Internet Archive.

ChicagoAncestors.org is a great resource for researching the city by place and address, and includes links to items from the Newberry Library’s digitized collection. Note that street-numbering and names in Chicago have changed multiple times throughout its history. Refer to these sources for information regarding the changes to addresses in Chicago: 1909 Chicago Street Numbering Changes, 1911 Chicago Loop Street Numbering Changes and Chicago Street Name Changes (compiled in 1948). Steve Morse also has a great resource for figuring out street name changes on the One-Step website.

Chicago also had many specialty directories. Some notable ones are:

  • The Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names of Chicago and Suburban Towns: A directory that contained the names and addresses of prominent residents and was published in the late 19th century through 1910s. Many editions of the Chicago Blue Book are available for free on the Internet Archive.
  • Colored People’s Blue-Book and Business Directory of Chicago: A 1905 edition of this directory is available on Ancestry.com.
  • The Bon–Ton Directory: Published in the late 19th century, these directories gave the names, addresses, and reception hours of “the most prominent and fashionable ladies residing in Chicago and its suburbs. There are editions available on the Internet Archive including the 1879-1880 edition.

Court records

The city does not have a municipal court. Rather, all court cases are handled by the Circuit Court of Cook County. Because of the 1871 fire, the Cook County court records only go back to 1871.

The Archives Department of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County has records: available to researchers including divorce records, name change decrees, probates, chancery cases, and naturalization records. They charge separate fees for searching indexes and for photocopies of records.

IRAD-NEIU also houses the Circuit Court records and indexes (1871–1936), the Superior Court case files index (1871–1923) and Chicago Collector’s Books (1873–1874) available by request.

Naturalization and immigration records

The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court has a database of naturalization petitions from 1871 to 1929. More than 400,000 of these are from 1906 to 1929. If you find the record in the index, you can order these records for a small fee. They also hold the petitions and naturalizations for the Superior Court, which is also available on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.

IRAD-NEIU has the following Cook County collections available by request:

  • Naturalization Declarations of Intent: Circuit Court (1874–1929), County Court (1874–1906), Criminal Court (1871–1903) and Superior Court (1871–1929)
  • Naturalization Petition Records: Circuit Court (1906–1929) and Superior Court (1907–1929); Women in the Superior Court (1923–1924) and Soldiers in the Circuit Court (1920–1924)
  • Naturalization Record Indexes: Circuit Court (1871–1906), County Court (1867–1906), Criminal Court (1871–1903) and Superior Court (1906–1929)
  • Naturalization Records: of Minors in the County Court (1874–1906), of Minors in the Superior Court (1905–1908), of Soldiers in the Circuit Court (1872–1902), of Soldiers in the Superior Court (1905–1906), Final Records in the Circuit Court (1871–1906) and Final Records of the County Court (1874–1906)
  • Naturalization Referral Record: County Court (1918–1927)

After 1929, local county courts stopped granting naturalizations and the federal government took over. These can be found at the National Archives at Chicago.

The Northern District Petitions for Naturalization from 1906 to 1994 are available on FamilySearch. Ancestry.com also has declarations and petitions in its Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856–1991 collection.

Other records of note:

Probate files

The Cook County Circuit Court offers probate records dating back to 1871. You can request records for a fee. IRAD-NEIU also has probate records and indexes in their physical archives and you can request copies there.

Online resources:

Property records

Researching property history and accessing land records in Chicago is notoriously difficult. Brave researchers can use tract books (which lists areas by subdivision) in person at the Cook County Clerk’s Recordings Division. The online Record of Deeds search portal has online records going back to the early 2000s. All other recordings must be searched in-person; many researchers opt for substitute records. The University of Illinois at Chicago has a collection of Chicago building permits from 1872 to 1954. 

The City of Chicago has a searchable Historic Resources Survey Database which is searchable online by street name, neighborhood, construction era, architect or style. It has information about buildings built pre-1940 that are of architectural or historical interest.

The Library of Congress has Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Chicago online. Sanborn Maps are also available at the Newberry Library, IRAD-NEIU, the Chicago Public Library, University of Illinois at Chicago and the Chicago History Museum.

Newspapers

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has the Illinois Newspaper Project, which includes the Illinois Newspaper Directory. You can search the Illinois Newspaper Directory to find newspapers published in Chicago. Many local papers are available on subscription sites Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com, GenealogyBank and OldNews. The Chicago Public Library, Chicago History Museum and the Newberry Library also have extensive collections of newspapers from city-wide publications to neighborhood titles available to view in-person, as well as access to online databases.

Because of the ethnic diversity and immigrant history of Chicago, numerous newspapers were published in languages other than English. Chicago’s largest and oldest Polish-language newspaper, Dziennik Zwiazkowy (now published as the Polish Daily News), can be accessed free online at the CRL Digital Delivery System for 1908–1917, May–June 1925 and December 1936. The Illinois Digital Archives has The Jewish Sentinel (also known as The Sentinel) from 1911 to 1949.

Fast Facts

  • Settled: 1780s
  • Incorporated: 12 August 1833 (Town of Chicago); 4 March 1837 (City of Chicago)
  • Nicknames: Windy City, Chi-Town, Second City, City of the Big Shoulders
  • State: Illinois
  • County: Cook
  • Area: 234.53 sq mi
  • Motto: Urbs in Horto (City in a Garden); I Will
  • Primary historical ethnic groups: African American, Czech, German, Greek, Irish, Slovak, Swedish, Polish
  • Primary historical industries: architecture, filmmaking, financial services, manufacturing, meat packing, steel, telecommunications, transportation
  • Notable people from Chicago: Jane Addams, Marlon Brando, Dick Butkus, Harry Caray, Nat “King” Cole, Al Capone, Harrison Ford, Ernest Hemingway, Michelle Obama, Studs Terkel, James D. Watson and many more.

Timeline

  • 1673: French-Canadian explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet pass through the area that will become Chicago on their way to Québec
  • 1780s: Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes Chicago’s first permanent settlement near the mouth of the Chicago River
  • 1803: The U.S. Army orders the construction of Fort Dearborn
  • 1812: Fort Dearborn burns after a battle
  • 1818: Illinois admitted as the 21st state
  • 1830: Chicago is platted and surveyed for the first time
  • 1831: Cook County is incorporated
  • 1833: The Treaty of Chicago forces Native Americans west
  • 1833: Chicago is incorporated as a town
  • 1837: Chicago is incorporated as a city
  • 1843: The Chicago City Cemetery is established in Lincoln Park
  • 1847: The first issue of the Chicago Tribune is published
  • 1856: The Chicago Historical Society is founded
  • 1871: The Great Chicago Fire kills 300 and leaves 90,000 homeless
  • 1886: A pipe bomb explodes at the Haymarket labor rally, later known as the “Haymarket affair”
  • 1893: The World’s Columbian Exposition takes place in Chicago
  • 1909: The Burnham Plan of Chicago is published, recommending a series of city improvements
  • 1919: Race riots start at a South Side beach
  • 1929: Seven gangsters are killed in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; the murders remain unsolved
  • 1933: The Century of Progress World’s Fair celebrates Chicago’s centennial
  • 1942: Enrico Fermi isolates plutonium at the University of Chicago
  • 1968: The Democratic National Convention in Chicago is marked by riots
  • 1973: The Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) is constructed

Toolkit

Websites

Publications

Organizations and Archives

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A version of this article was posted online in August 2025.

FamilyTreeMagazine.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated websites.

Illinois

Author

Katharine Andrew MS/LIS is a digital editor for Family Tree Magazine and professional genealogist.

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