Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD)

United States Illinois  Archives and Libraries 

IRAD is a system of Illinois Regional Archives Depositories managed by the Illinois State Archives, housing the archival records of local Illinois counties, townships, municipalities and school districts. The seven Regional Depositories are housed on state university campuses scattered throughout Illinois.

Contact Information
Review the Regional Map and Contact Information page to determine the Regional Depository that holds the records for the county you want to research.

County Records

 * County board proceedings files and meeting minutes
 * Records of births, deaths and marriages
 * Land deeds, mortgage and tax sale records
 * Assessors' and collectors' tax books
 * Poll books and voter registers
 * Naturalization records, including declarations of intent
 * Probate records, including wills and will records, case files, administrators' and executors' records, guardianship records, and inventory and appraisement records
 * Civil and criminal court case files, chancery court case files (including divorces), docket books and court proceedings, and insanity proceedings and records
 * Coroner's inquest records and inquest files
 * Miscellaneous county records, including almshouse/county home records and jail registers.

Township, municipal, and school records

 * Township meeting minutes
 * Highway commissioners' minutes
 * School trustees' minutes
 * Pupil registers
 * School land sale records
 * City council proceedings files
 * Meeting minutes
 * Ordinance records
 * City election records

Pre-1871 City of Chicago Records

 * City Council proceedings files (1833-1942)
 * Plats, atlases, and Sanborn Maps
 * Election registers (1888, 1890 and 1892)
 * Ordinance records (1837-1916)

How to Use IRAD
There are three ways (links are within regional pages listed above):


 * Records held at regional centers Discover what county records are held there.


 * 1) Click on the "IRAD Holdings" in the blue bar above.
 * 2) Click on “IRAD Local Governmental Records Database”.
 * 3) Click on “Search the Local Governmental Records Holdings Database”.
 * 4) Select your county of interest and submit query.
 * 5) Results are records held by IRAD-EIU for your county.


 * Databases extracted from records at the regional centers Discover what records are extracted and included in local, county or statewide databases.


 * 1) Click on your county of interest.
 * 2) Scroll to the bottom of the page to view databases pertinent to your town, county, or state.

How to Get Copies
IRAD welcomes mail and telephone requests for research help. No e-mail requests are available at this time. There is no charge for research help, except for photocopy costs. You will be informed if your copies exceed $5. Otherwise you will be billed for your copy requests. IRAD requests that you limit your request to 2 names at a time and that you wait for that response before submitting additional requests. Send your request directly to the IRAD regional depository holding the county records of interest. You may send requests to up to 5 different depositories at a time.