Illinois History

Effective family history research requires some understanding of the historical events that affected your family and the records about them. Learning about wars, governments, laws, migrations, and religious trends can help you understand political boundaries, family movements, and settlement patterns.

State, county, and local histories often contain biographical sketches of local citizens, including important genealogical information. This may be one of the best sources of information for some families.

The following are important events in the history of Illinois that affected political boundaries, record keeping, and family movements.

1699:  French priests founded a mission at Cahokia, the oldest permanent white settlement in Illinois, in what is now St. Clair County. Another early settlement was Kaskaskia, now in Randolph County, founded by the French in 1703.

1763:  France ceded the Illinois country to Great Britain after the French and Indian War.

1778:  Illinois became a county of Virginia after Americans captured Kaskaskia, the British seat of government. Virginia relinquished its claim in 1784.

1787:  Congress made Illinois part of the Northwest Territory. The Northwest Territory was divided in 1800 when the area that is now Illinois became a part of Indiana Territory.

1809:  The Illinois Territory was formed when the Indiana Territory was divided.

1818:  Illinois became a state after the Wisconsin region was transferred to the Michigan Territory.

1832:  The last serious Indian threat to white settlement ended when Sauk and Fox warriors were driven from the state during the Black Hawk War.

1838–1856:  Improvements in transportation hastened immigration to the northern counties. The National Road reached Vandalia, now in Fayette County, in 1838. The Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848 and ran from Chicago to LaSalle on the Illinois River. The Illinois Central Railroad was completed in 1856, linking southern Illinois to Chicago.

1839–1846:  Latter-day Saints (Mormons) from Missouri and Ohio built the city of Nauvoo before their westward exodus. See the Tracing LDS Families Research Outline for records of Latter-day Saints in Illinois.

1861–1865:  About 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.

1871:  Fire destroyed much of Chicago and its public records.

The Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah has a sizable history collection for the state of Illinois consisting of two main types of records. First there are published histories of the state, its counties, and towns. They often contain maps, information on religious and civic organizations, and biographies of individuals and families who have lived in the area.

Second, there are copies of documents on microfilm and in published form that broaden a genealogist’s understanding of the times and places their ancestors lived in. Many of the documents include names of individuals involved in the event being documented.

State Histories
The Family History Library has acquired many volumes of:

Bateman, Newton, et. al. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois. Chicago, Illinois: Munsell Pub., 1906–. Each volume focuses on a different county and contains historical and biographical information on that county. The Illinois State Archives has a biographical index to most of the Bateman volumes but may not have all volumes. Each volume of the collection is cataloged separately and can be found in the Family History Library Catalog by using a Place Search under:

ILLINOIS, [COUNTY]- HISTORY

ILLINOIS- HISTORY

Useful sources for studying the history of Illinois are:

Howard, Robert P. Illinois: A History of the Prairie State. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1972. (FHL book 977.3 H2hr)

Davidson, Alexander, and Bernard Stuvé. A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1884: Embracing the Physical Features of the County [Country], Its Early Explorations, Aboriginal Inhabitants. Springfield, Illinois: H.W. Rokker, 1884. (FHL book 977.3 H2d; film 889341; fiche 6051133 [set of 13])

The Centennial History of Illinois. Six Volumes. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Centennial Commission, 1917–1920. (FHL books 977.3 B4icvols. 0 [zero], 3, 4; film 1697272, item 3 [Volume 5) Reprint, The Sesquicentennial History of Illinois. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1987. (FHL book 977.3 B4ic 1987 volumes 1 and 2.) Each volume has a different author and title representing a period of the state’s history. The Sesquicentennial History is an exact reprint of the original series. Some of the Centennial books are being microfilmed. To find the film numbers in the Family History Library Catalog, use the Author/Title Search under "The Centennial History of Illinois."

Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library. (FHL book 977.3 B4i.) Each publication in this series of at least 38 issues is published under a different title. Some issues have been bound together and some have been microfilmed. This collection includes land records and correspondence from the 1700s, court records, census returns, laws that were enacted, records of the Black Hawk War, election returns, and diaries. It includes French and English versions of the early records from the Kaskaskia settlement. The best way to locate the series or any of its parts in the Family History Library Catalog is to search for the series name, Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, using the Author/Title Search. The Family History Library does not have all the volumes of this series.

Illinois. Secretary of State. Blue Book of the State of Illinois. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Secretary of State, 1903–. (FHL book 977.3 N2ib.) The Blue Book includes many items relative to state government and contemporary history, including a roster of state officials and employees. The Family History Library has volumes for 1921–24, 1951–52, 1955–58, 1969–1970, 1985–86.

Federal Papers Regarding Illinois
An important source with historical information about persons involved in the settlement of Illinois from 1800 to 1818 is:

United States. Department of State. The Territorial Papers of the United States. 26 volumes. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0721. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1934–1962. (FHL book 973 N2udt; on 15 FHL films beginning with 1421059.) Volumes 2 and 3 pertain to The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1787–1803, which included present-day Illinois. Volume 7 contains The Territory of Indiana, 1800–1810, and volumes 16 and 17 contain The Territory of Illinois, 1809–1818. Each volume has an every-name index and contains thousands of names of residents in the area that is now Illinois. The volumes contain lists of residents, taxpayers, and petitioners, and information about persons associated with forts, land offices, Indian interpreters, express riders, and post offices. The original records are in the National Archives.

The Draper Manuscript Collection
The Draper Manuscript Collection is a significant regional source that includes records of Illinois.

Draper, Lyman Copeland. Draper Manuscript Collection. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Library, 197–?. (On 147 FHL films beginning with 889098.) The collection consists of nearly 500 volumes of manuscripts, papers, and books collected by Lyman Copeland Draper about the history of the trans-Allegheny West, a region including the western areas of the Carolinas and Virginia, all the Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley from the 1740s to 1830. The collection is divided into 50 series. Some series are titled by geographic area, some by the names of prominent frontier leaders, and some by topic. The bulk of the collection consists of notes from interviews, questionnaires, and letters gathered during Draper’s extensive travels and research to learn about frontier history. Personal papers are much more rare than government or military records. The collection includes many items of a genealogical or biographical nature. For an inventory and partial indexes, see:

Harper, Josephine L. Guide to the Draper Manuscripts. Madison, Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1983. (FHL book 977.583/M1 A3h.) This guide gives series and volume descriptions for some of the Draper manuscripts. There are several indexes at the end of the book, including a name and subject index, an additional personal data index, and a list of references to Illinois.

Wolfe, Barbara Schull. Index to Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts. Logansport, Indiana: B.S. Wolfe, 197–?. (FHL book 977.583/M1 A3w.) The name index gives the series and volume numbers, but is not complete.

Kaskaskia and Cahokia Records
Kaskaskia and Cahokia were important early Indian and French settlements. Their records include:

Kaskaskia Manuscripts, 1714–1816. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1975. (FHL films 956798–814.) These records were filmed at the Randolph County Clerk and Recorder’s office in 1975. These manuscripts were created by the early French Kaskaskia settlement in Randolph County. Records include tax lists, debts, wills, adoptions, land records, marriages, and selling of slaves. Most of this collection is in French and is not indexed. Some records have been translated into English and are indexed. A partial index to the historical records in this collection is:

Alvord, Clarence Walworth, ed. Kaskaskia Records, 1778–1790. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Volume 5. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1909. (FHL book 977.3 B4i v.5; film 978493.) The preface states that a number of papers have been omitted from this work because "they are of a private character and add very little to knowledge of the history of the period."

The Raymond H. Hammes Collection maintained at the Illinois State Archives is an excellent collection of early land and other historical records from Kaskaskia in Randolph County and settlements along the Mississippi River, including the Cahokia settlement in St. Clair County, which at the time covered a large portion of present-day Illinois. Most of the Hammes collection has been microfilmed and can be found as 10 entries in the Family History Library Catalog in an Author/Title Search under the title Raymond H. Hammes Collection. It is indexed in Consolidated Index for the Raymond H. Hammes Collection cited in the "Land and Property" section.

Local History Bibliographies
A bibliography of older local histories for Illinois is included in:

Wolf, Joseph C. A Reference Guide for Genealogical and Historical Research in Illinois. Detroit, Michigan: Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, 1963. (FHL book 977.3 A3w.) A similar but less complete list is included in:

Gooldy, Pat, and Ray Gooldy. Manual for Illinois Genealogical Research. Indianapolis, Indiana: Ye Olde Genealogie Shoppe, 1994. (FHL book 977.3 D27g.) The source gives addresses of county courthouses, genealogical societies, and record repositories and gives Illinois locations of record categories such as census, land, military, and church records.

A few recent titles not in Wolf's list are in the Gooldy list.

A more recent bibliography of historical sources for Illinois is:

Whitney, Ellen, comp. Illinois History: an Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995. (FHL book 977.3 H23w.)

County and Local Histories
County and local histories often contain biographical and historical information about residents and their families. They may provide the occupation, previous residences, birth date, birthplace (city, county, and state or country), names of parents, maiden name of mother, maiden name of spouse, and names of children and their spouses.

Information about a family may be found in a history under the married name of a daughter or sister. Relatives or clues are often found by studying the pages that have biographies of residents or that tell the history of the town or township where an ancestor lived.

See the "Biography" section for information about the card indexes to biographies from county histories at the Illinois State Archives and the Illinois State Historical Library as well as other biographical collections. See also the "Biography" section of the United States Research Outline for nationwide collections.

Histories are found in the Family History Library Catalog by using a Place Search under:

ILLINOIS- HISTORY

ILLINOIS, [COUNTY]- HISTORY

ILLINOIS, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- HISTORY

For other record types that also provide historical background, see the "Church Records," "Emigration and Immigration," "Military Records," "Minorities," and "Native Races" sections.