Cook County, Illinois Genealogy

United States &gt; Illinois &gt; Cook County

County Courthouse
Board of Commissioners 118 N. Clark St Chicago, IL

Quick History
Named for Daniel Pope Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history, who served as the second U.S. Representative from Illinois and the first Attorney General of the State of Illinois.

Wikipedia

Parent County
15 January 1831: Cook County was created from Putnam County by an act of the Illinois State Legislature as the 54th county established in Illinois.(source:Wikipedia)

The unincorporated Fort Dearborn settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River became the new county's seat.

May 7, 1831: Cook County elected its first officials.

==== Boundary Changes ====

Several counties were set off:

16 January 1836: McHenry County

12 Jan 1836: Will County

9 February 1839: DuPage County

Record Loss
8-10 October 1871: Original marriage licenses for Cook County were destroyed by the Great Fire of Chicago. Marriages in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index for Cook County prior to the fire are found in the Sam Fink Index. A copy of the Sam Fink Index is available on microfilm at the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. The only additional information that this depository can provide is the name of the newspaper in which the marriage appeared. FHLC #1321939

Populated Places
Chicago, New Trier, Arlington Heights, Elmhurst, Berwyn Township, Schaumburg Township, more...

Neighboring Counties
DuPage | Kane | Lake | McHenry | Will | Lake County, Indiana

Biographies
The following might be helpful with Cook County, Illinois research:


 * The Chicago History Museum has a tremendous collection of on-line resources useful to family history researchers. Of particular interest are the Biographical Dictionary of Chicago, part of the Encyclopedia of Chicago, and a photo index of portraits taken by early Chicago photographers. The Society's collection includes tens of thousands of images from early photographers E.L. Brand and C.D. Mosher, among others, all indexed by the name of the person in the photograph, as well as by photographer and studio. Their collection can be searched at the Chicago Historical Society Research Center.

Census

 * Ward and ED Maps for 1870-1930 Censuses

Naturalization
Cook County Clerk of Circuit Court has posted an index to their Natualization Declaration of Intentions. If you find the record in the index, you can order these records for a small cost. They also hold the petiti ons and naturalization certificates for the Superior Court. An index to the petitions and naturalization certificates from the Superior Court may be found in the Family History Library Catalog, film numbers 1,023,967-1,023,968.

Vital Records

 * Cook County Genealogy Online -- has more than 8 million birth, marriage, and death records for Cook County available online. (Fees are charged for obtaining copies.)
 * Wilmette Family History Center - has a large collection of Chicago and Cook County resources on microfilm. Available records include Chicago birth certificates, 1878-1915; Cook County marriage licenses, 1871-1916; and Chicago death certificates, 1878-1947. The Center also has all of the available Archdiocese of Chicago parish microfilms (records to 1915) and a complete set of Chicago city directories on microfilm. For more information, contact the center at (847) 251-9818.
 * Labs.familysearch.org Cook County, Illinois Marriages 1871-1920  Name indexes and images of marriage licenses and returns recorded at Cook Co., including Chicago.
 * Cook County, Illinois Birth Certificates, 1878-1922 Free indexes and images at FamilySearch-Record Search  Records include such information as name of child, birthdate and place, gender, race, maiden name of mother, name and occupation of father and record number.

Web Sites

 * The Cook County ILGenWeb Project, an member of The ILGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Cook County
 * Newberry Library Genealogy Collection and Links
 * FamilySearch.org Family History Library Catalog for Cook County.