Illinois Research Tips and Strategies

Illinois Research Strategies
Below are links to different research strategy pages to help you locate your ancestors in Illinois


 * Illinois Online Genealogy Records
 * How to find Illinois Birth Records
 * How to find Illinois Marriage Records
 * How to find Illinois Death Records

Illinois Research Tips
These tips will help you as you research your ancestors in Illinois.


 * Birth information: Birth records in Illinois start on the county level in 1916 with compliance by 1922. A helpful substitute record to find birth information is a death record. However, date and place of birth on a death record is considered secondary information, as it was not recorded at the time of the birth event. The birth information should be corroborated with other substitute records to improve accuracy.
 * Finding Parents: The State of Illinois began recording deaths in 1877. They often will list the parents of the deceased and their birth information. Search Illinois death records
 * Look in all censuses: Always look for your ancestor in every possible census. There are clues regarding immigration, naturalization, and occupation that can lead to other records. Sometimes parents can be found living with their children later in life. Search U.S. Censuses.

Illinois Record Finder
This brief Record Finder is designed to help you determine the best record to search for the type of information you are looking for. It is most helpful for post-1850 research. For a more complete Record Finder, covering additional research needs, see Illinois Record Finder.

Further Illinois Research

 * Remember, for a more complete Record Finder, covering additional research needs, see Illinois Record Finder.
 * For online record collections, go to Illinois Online Genealogy Records.
 * For more research on Illinois, including research at the county level, visit the Illinois page on the Research Wiki.
 * Search all of the Illinois record collections at FamilySearch.

Diane Renner Walsh. Genealogical Research in Illinois. National Genealogical Society Quarterly. 94 #1 (March 2006):38-67. FS Library 973 B2ng