This Site is Available for Adoption
Many thanks to long time host Judy Edwards
for all her hard work on this site!
Her data remains on the site with her permission.
Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data for
the free use of all researchers.
We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online and are interested in helping this project
be as successful as it can be. If you are interested in joining Genealogy Trails, view our Volunteer Page for further information and then contact Kim.
(Enough knowledge to make a basic webpage and a desire to transcribe data
is required)
We regret that we are unable to perform personal research for
folks.
All data we come across will be added to this site. We thank
you for visiting and hope you'll come back again to view the updates we make to this site.
If you would like to be kept informed of our state and county website updates,
subscribe to any or all of our mailing
lists
Illinois is covered under its own mailing list.
Shelby County was formed in 1827 out of Fayette County. It was named in honor of Isaac
Shelby, Governor of Kentucky and hero of the Revolutionary War
From Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois, 1881:
The county seat, Shelbyville, is located on the western shore of the Kaskaskia
River which was dammed to create Lake Shelbyville.
Shelbyville, Shelby County and Lake Shelbyville derived their names from Isaac Shelby, an officer of the revolution.
The population of the county, according to the census of 1870, was 25,476, and in 1880 (was) given at 29,951, and
(was) principally composed of persons of English, Irish, German, and French extraction, with a few colored persons.
A number of settlements and communities have disappeared from maps but appear in newspaper accounts and other documents
of other eras.
Shelby County consists of the following townships:
Ash Grove, Big Spring, Cold Spring, Dry Point, Flat Branch, Holland, Moawequa, Oconee, Okaw, Penn, Pickaway, Prairie,
Richland, Ridge, Rose,
Rural, Shelbyville, Todd's Point, Tower Hill, Windsor
Shelby County Online Data