Cook County, Illinois

Links to Online Data
Visit our Illinois Research Page at the main Illinois Genealogy Trails website for help with your Illinois research.
Included there are Illinois-related links to the archives and other general research sites.
Links all checked and updated July 17, 2007.
Notify us of broken links
Link Categories
(Sites with online data)
Please Email me if a link doesn't work
Click on a category to see what links to online data are availableGeneral Cook County Links
("How-to" sites, Maps, etc)
Look-up Offer!!! Plasticshoes@aol.com has a 1938 Des Plaines municipal directory if any one needs a look up. (Plasticshoes is seeking info on surnames KNABE< KUTZ< HARTUNG< DIEDERICH< RADE< BRENNER all from Niles Center, Glenview and Chicago area.)
Al Capone - A nice history presented by the Chicago Historical Society - with mug shots!
Al
Capone - 29 chapters of nothing but Al - presented by Court TV's Crime Library
Illinois Biographies Project: Cook County Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits 3rd ed. revised
and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895)
Chicago
Cemetery Photos - Search by surname or by cemetery. All photos (very graphic-intensive)
Graveyards of Chicago
Haunted Chicago - The Ghosts & Haunted Places of the Windy City.
[I hesitated to add this link, but often these types of websites mention the history of the place in question,
often naming individuals - ghostly or otherwise]
Roster of the Four
Hundred and Five Ex-Confederate Soldiers whose remains were buried in Oakwood
Cemetery at Chicago, IL
Directory of the City of Chicago
Illinois for 1843
1870 Census of the Orphanage in Lakeview
1880 Census for Chicago Protestant Orphan Asylum for Homeless Children
1880 Census for St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum in Chicago
1900 Chicago Census of the "HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM COLORED PEOPLE"
1900 Census Info for
Chicago Nursery & Half Orphans' Asylum, North Town, Chicago, Cook County
Chicago Orphan Asylum, Cook County
Children's Temple Home, North Town, Cook County
Englewood Infant Nursery, Lakewood Twp., Cook County
Epworth Children's Home, Cook County
Foundlings Home, West Town, Chicago, Cook County
Illinois Masonic Orphans' Home, Cook County
Norwegian Lutheran Children's Home, Cook County
Orphan Asylum, Auburn Park, Cook County
St. Anthony's Hospital & Orphanage, West Town, Cook County
St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, Southtown, Chicago, Cook County
St. Mary's Home for Children, West Town, Cook County
St. Mary's Mission House (Episcopal), West Town, Cook County
St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, Cook County
St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum & St. Joseph's Home (old folks home), Cook County
Uhlich's Orphan Asylum, North Town, Cook County
1900 Census of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans, 34th Ward, Chicago, Hyde Park Township
Cook County, Illinois, A.D. 1900
1910 Chicago Census: Names listed on the 1910 Federal Census of the CHICAGO HOME OF JEWISH FRIENDLESS at 5226 Ellis Avenue CHICAGO, IL (126 names)
1910 Chicago Census: 1910 Federal Census for Marks Nathan Home,1741 Blucher St., Chicago,
Illinois
1920 Chicago Census for the unnamed orphanage in Morgan Park on Prospect Ave, Chicago
Chicago-Specific Historical Links
1893 World's Columbian
Exposition - held in Chicago
1897 Faculty of Rush
Medical College, Chicago, Illinois A Century of Progress - 1933-1934 - Chicago's World Fair
Chicago Black Sox - 1919 World Series Scandal
Chicago Genealogy - at the Newberry Library
Chicago Landmarks - presented by the City of Chicago
Chicagology - This website
is broken down by eras of Chicago history: Early Chicago, The Great Fire, The Golden Age, The Columbian Exposition,
Sears. Lots of pictures if you have the patience to wait for them! The site is super slow to load.
Chicago State Hospital - Pictures from 1902-1933. Courtesy of the Chicago
Daily News
DA MOB - Chicago Mob History, Members, Murders/Events
Deaths, Disturbances,
Disasters and Disorders in Chicago - presented by the Chicago Public Library
Further
Info on the Riot
History of Chicago - This is a quick, one page, down and dirty synopsis of Chicago's History
National Register
of Historic Places Travel Itinerary for Chicago
The Chicago Fire - presented by the Chicago Historical Society
America's
First Serial Killer - H.H. Holmes, from Englewood, south of Chicago
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African
American Students at Chicago Normal College in 1938
Chicago Jewish Marriages
from the Sinai Congregation in Chicago - This is a database of information
on 526 marriages, contained in two small books with handwritten notations attributed to Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal.
Title: Marriage records, Sinai Congregation, Chicago, IL, records entered from 1861-1905. Compiled by Fran Loeb
Luebke
Chicago Jewish Obituary
Database - This is a database of over 8,800 obituary notices presented by
the Jewish Gen organization for the Chicago, Illinois area, compiled by Richard Hoffman and covering December 1994
through September 1998
Searching for
your Chicago-Italian ancestors
Pointers in Person - Chicago Chapter of POINT (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). A list of all Chicago churches,
with addresses and links to the corresponding records in the FHL catalog can be found here, along with other info.
Marriage Index for Polish Parishes
in Chicago through 1915 - Presented by The Polish Genealogical Society of
America. This is just the index which contains names of both spouses, the date of the marriage, the parish location
and town where the marriage took place and citation data (volume, page, etc...). Once you find your folks in this
index, you can order the microfilm containing the actual record through your local LDS.
View the other databases the Polish Genealogical Society of America has online
CARR
& PLO(E)GER Families of Chicago
CRANE Family - Read
the [free!] online book written by Tom Crane about his search for his Irish & Pennsylvania Dutch roots. The
book is called "Green Is The Valley, Blue Are The Hills." It's a .pdf file of 283 pages and will take
a few minutes to load.
Amerikin
Genealogy - specializing in these surnames: BINNIE-FAIRWEATHER-HANSON- KERR-OWENS-
SHINOE - SKOOG - YOUNG
Gregoryology.com which is dedicated to the research of the Gregory, McCullough, Devlin and Mohan families. Chicago
data is here
Data submitted by researchers to the Genweb Archives
Early Cook County Roads (pg. 1 and pg. 2) presented by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Illinois County Boundaries: 1790 - Present
The Illinois Alive! Collections
Cook County Railroads
(with aerial and satellite pictures!)
Chicago Street
Name Changes - Compiled by Daniel E. Niemiec or Read the Chicago Historical Society's 1948 version (.pdf file - long
download time)
Thompson Plat
Map-- 1830 - FIRST PLAT OF CHICAGO - available for downloading
Cook County Assessor's Office - Plug in an address, get a picture of the house. See where
your ancestors actually lived (as long as the house is still standing). Churches, and other institutions who do
not pay taxes, are not included. Awesome! (Sorry, bad link)
Clerk of the Circuit Court - Archives Department - Explanation of what they have from when. Count
on everything prior to the Chicago Fire being destroyed. Their "Holdings" page is here. These 2 pages work, but some of the other links don't - click
on them, go to the page, then get whisked away to another page before you can finish reading. Maybe they'll iron
out the website kinks....
Looking for Naturalization Records? Here are the instructions and forms from the County Clerk's office.
The South Suburban Genealogical and
Historical Society covers the townships of Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Lemont, Orland,
Palos, Rich, Thornton, and Worth in the southern part of Cook County, Illinois, as well as the Roseland and Pullman
neighborhoods of the city of Chicago.
Newberry Library
Obtaining Masonic records - Illinois Masonic records can be obtained by writing to:
Office of Grand Secretary
PO Box 4147
Springfield, Il 62708
Phone: 217-529-8900, 8:30 am until 4:00 pm weekdays.
Their e-mail address is: grsecy@afam-il.org
They will do genealogy research as time permits. Send as much information, lodge, year, etc. as possible.
"Vital Records from Chicago Newspapers 1833 - 1848" - presented by the Chicago Genealogical SocietyPhotographs from the Chicago Daily
News, 1902-1933. Presented by the Chicago Historical Society. Click here for the index to the pictures available, arranged
by subject
Newspaper Abstracts - for Cook County
ChurchAngel.com - Find the churches within an individual town/city
Archdiocese of Chicago's Joseph Cardinal
Bernardin Archives & Records Center.
711 West Monroe
Chicago, IL 60661
Phone: (312) 831- 0711
Fax: (312) 831- 0610
Vice chancellor E-mail: JTreanor@chgocatholicarchives.org
Genealogical Information Guide: "The Archdiocese of Chicago's Archives & Records Center welcomes genealogical
researchers. However, genealogical research is confined to records prior to December 31, 1915, unless searching
for his/her own records. In addition, Pre-1916 records are available for research on microfilm. For records from
still existing parishes, please contact the parish, since these records remain with that church. The archives holds
only records of parishes which have closed, and the earliest books of Old St. Mary's and St. Elizabeth's. A complete
list of these is available upon request."
Names &
Addresses of Chicago Churches - presented by POINTERS IN PERSON
Local Catholic
Church History and Catholic Ancestors of Illinois - Presented by the Archdiocese
of Chicago
First St. John Evangelical
Lutheran Church - in Chicago. Gives list of pastors & teachers; also instructions
for conducting research. Contains links to other Lutheran Church research areas.
Lutheran Churches
of Chicago - gives the history of the various Lutheran churches and tells
where their records are archived.
Parker High School Class
of 1922 Pictures - Courtesy of DeadFred.com
Proviso
East High School's Bataan WWII Commerative Research Project
Illinois
Archives Databases - Marriages
and Deaths
Online Chicago
& Cook County, Illinois Death Records & Indexes
Return to Illinois Genealogy Trails Main Page for Cook County
These outside links are provided as a courtesy to the researcher and do not reflect any type of endorsement whatsoever
by Illinois Genealogy Trails.
©2008 Kim Torp