Helpful Links

General Genealogical Societies Serving Our Region

Chicago Genealogical Society 

Elgin Genealogical Society

Kane County Genealogical Society

McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society

North Suburban Genealogical Society

Northwest Suburban Genealogy Society

South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society 

Ethnic Genealogical Societies Serving Our Region

BIGWILL – The British Interest (Genealogy) Group of Wisconsin and Illinois

German Interest Group – Meetings held in Janesville, WI

Chicago-Area Information Sites

Cook County Genealogy Online – Award-winning site from the Cook County Clerk’s Office provides access to vital records ($ / index is free)

The Newberry Library's ChicagoAncestors.org – Discover your past by address

General Resource Sites

Ancestry.com – Genealogy, Family Trees and Family History ($ / free search)

Family Search – Family History and Genealogy Records (free)

Fold3 – The place for original historical military documents ($)

USGenWeb and WorldGenWeb – Volunteer organization, links, queries, state and county info.

Rootsweb – Oldest and largest free genealogy website, offers specialized search engines and databases, message boards, mailing lists and family trees.

Member Favorites

Eastman’s On-Line Genealogy Newsletter – “The DAILY newsletter for genealogy consumers, packed with straight talk.”

Steve Morse – One-step searching through multiple repositories, including vitals, censuses and manifests

DeathIndexes.com – Online Death Indexes, Records and Obituaries

Specialty Research – Obituaries & Newspapers

Genealogy Bank – Newspapers, obits and more ($)

Find A Grave – 49 million free cemetery records (free)

Newspaper Archive - 1759 – Present, 2500+ newspaper titles ($)

Legacy – Current obits, 2003 to present (free)

Specialty Research - Ethnic

French-Canadian: BMS2000 ($ / free indexing) parish record indexes

The Internet Polish Genealogical Source – 37,000 surnames and extensive links for Polish specialty research