FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Illinois

Welcome to the Illinois WikiProject! We're delighted you found this page, and hope you'll be part of our team!

There are 102 counties in Illinois currently, plus one county (Dane), that no longer exists. Pages have already been created for every county, and headings for a basic outline of record types have been added.

Please add whatever you know about the records available for counties and/or communities and cities in Illinois. Working together, we can all benefit from the knowledge of community members on the Wiki.

If you have questions, or need some guidance on what to add or how to do so, feel free to contact the project leader or other team members.


 * Lise Embley, Project Leader
 * Thomas MacEntee, Project Manager Lise Embley, Illinois Moderator

Current Tasks in need of volunteers:

 * County boxes
 * Courthouse images. I'll do this one. Murphynw 23:50, 1 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Origin of county name, info, pictures (this information is often identified at Wikipedia)
 * Historic Population Charts    I can do this one  Jane
 * Quick Date boxes
 * Public Library addresses and website link. Use PublicLibraries.com and/or internet searches.  Check library collections for "Local History" room or collections, or on-line obituary index, etc.
 * Family History Center addresses
 * Town or city halls -- The Illinois State Archives web site has location and contact information about each county in Illinois tied to a Region Map of IRAD. The site also provides a basic historical timeline for the county, and links to Illinois State Archive databases relevant to that county.
 * Churches in the towns and cities of IIllinois -- This is a Google Task -- We need to identify churches, current and historical, in the towns and cities of Illinois..
 * Counties -- Add a list of known publications or links about the history of each county. See Owyhee County (Idaho) or Adams County (Idaho) as examples.
 * Counties -- Cross link to information on ILGenWeb pages
 * Newspapers in the towns and cities of Illinois -- Locating and copying the list of newspapers available in the Illinois Newspaper Project for each city or town to their respective page, then adding links to the microfilm numbers and/or digital versions.

*Other tasks will be added later

Completed Tasks:



Project Scope
Illlinois has 102 existing counties, including one that began as one name (Dane) and was later renamed.

Items of Information

 * Photographs of the county courthouse in each county are needed to be added to the county page, similar to what has been done for Adams County.
 * Names of populated places and communities within each county need to be identified and added, similar to what has been done for [blank] or [blank] County

Record Types

 * For each of 15 record types, general and specific statements about existing collections, their use, and their accessibility need to be compiled. A general statement regarding records, similar to the one for Ada or Bannock Counties, should be in place for each of the 44 counties. Many have already been added.

Cemetery Records
For cemetery records, a table showing all known cemeteries and any transcriptions or online photos of tombstones needs to be compiled. -- '''First cut at lists of cemeteries in all 44 counties has been completed. If additional cemeteries are identified or if additional links are found, they need to be added.'''

Census
A brief statement referring the user to the state census page has already been included. If there are peculiarities for each county, they should be added under this heading (see Oneida County for an example of a specific note).

Church
A partial list of wards and other church units of The Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has been added. Details of church records of other denominations is sorely lacking and should be added.

Court
A summary of microfilmed court records available at the Idaho State Library and Archives (PARL) and at the Family History Library needs to be added (see Ada County for an example). A sub-heading regarding Judgment Books will be added under this heading.

Histories
Any published county histories or histories of the county available online should be listed and linked.

Land and Property, including Mining Claims and Water Rights
A summary of microfilmed land and property records available at the Illinois State Library and Archives (PARL) and at the Family History Library needs to be added (see Ada County for an example).

Maps
If possible, at least one fairly modern map and one historical map for each county, available online, should be identified, with a link provided.

Military
World War I Draft Registration statements have been added to all counties. Some discharge records, etc. from the counties have been added. Others should be added as they are located.

Miscellaneous Series
This set of records exists in most counties and includes a variety of subjects of interest to genealogists and family historians. A descriptive statement regarding them will be added.

Naturalization and Citizenship
Statements regarding naturalization and citizenship have been added for some counties. These records for other counties should be researched and added.

Newspapers
Current and historical newspapers should be identified and listed, at least to the level of detail as for those for Ada County. PARL has an inventory of historical newspapers in their collection, arranged by town. They can be summarized at the county level, and details of titles and years covered could be added to a town or city page, if one has been created.

Pension
Statements regarding Mothers' Pensions and Old Age Pensions, where they apply, have already been added to each county.

Probate
A summary of microfilmed probate records available at the Idaho State Library and Archives (PARL) and at the Family History Library needs to be added (see Ada County for an example). These records should also be listed under the court records heading.

Taxation Records
Statement such as that for Bannock County Taxation needs to be added under that subject for all counties with no statement about Taxation. Any tax records transferred to the Idaho State Historical Society's Public Archives and Research Library should be identified and listed.

Vital Records
A statement similar to the one for Ada County needs to be compiled and added for each county.

Libraries and Historical Societies
Information about local libraries and/or historical societies with manuscript collections regarding the history of the locality and genealogy of its residents should be indentified and added, with links as appropriate.

Important Websites
Websites of importance to those doing research in each county need to be compiled, including links to USGenWeb and other websites, and added.

Contributors
Project Leader -- Lise Embley

Team members --

Project members: you can also add User WikiProject Illinois to your user page to identify yourself as a member of the project and add your name to the Category:WikiProject Illinois participants.

Current Sprint: 3 May 2010 to 1 June 2010
Focus for this sprint will be on continuing to add content to the County pages. We will also continue to add internal links between counties, state, city, and topics pages. 