Genealogy: Genealogy Sources--IL and Beyond

• DistantCousin
  DistantCousin is a free online archive of genealogy records and scanned images of historical documents from a wide variety of sources, such as newspaper obituaries, city directories, census records, ship lists, school yearbooks, military records, and more. In all there are more than 6 million genealogy records from over 1,500 sources online.

• Footnote
  Footnote has made available, through their partnership with the National Archives, original source documents that include information about an individual's birth, immigration history, marriage, occupation, death, and other genealogical research data. Requires paid subscription.

• GenealogyBank
  GenealogyBank is a subscription-based online genealogical resource from NewsBank, inc. Features a collection of primary material useful for genealogical research, including modern obituaries, over 2,400 historical newspapers, books, pamphlets, military records, government documents and more.

• Genealogy in the Illinois State Archives
  Links to the Illinois State Archives’ resources for genealogical research, including information on the Archives’ many online databases (Public Domain land sales, statewide marriage index, statewide death index, military records, etc.)

• Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD)
  Depositories of county and other local government records useful for research in Illinois genealogy and history. The seven depositories are located at state universities around the state of Illinois, and include records of birth, marriages, and deaths, a variety of court records, naturalization records, deed and tax records, and many others dating from the Territorial Period onward.

• ILGenWeb Project
  Collected links to genealogical resources in Illinois, organized by county.

• Illinois Vital Records
  The Illinois Department of Public Health’s Office of Vital Records preserves the state's records on births, deaths, marriages and divorces. Since birth and death records first began to be collected by the Department in 1916, 27 million have been placed on file, including some delayed records dating back to the mid 1800s. These records are not available online; copies may be ordered from the Office of Vital Records for a fee.

National Archives: Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians
A guide to the National Archives’ vast holdings of U.S. Federal records useful for genealogical research. While the majority of these records are not available online, some useful collections are, including selected military records, prisoner of war records, records related to WWII Japanese internment and Chinese exclusion, fugitive slave records, and Native American enrollments.

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