Genealogy and Local History

Getting Started: Interviewing your immediate elder family is a first step for everyone.
You can also do much of the initial genealogy research online with the links provided here. 

Looking for an obituary or other past news article?

If you’re looking for an obituary that was published in a Southern Illinois newspaper, you can email a librarian to look up the obituary you’re seeking and send you a copy. This service is free! All we need you to provide is the person’s name, his or her date of death, and your contact information. You also contact the Herrin History Room Researcher, Lisa Carnaghi, to book time to do research in the Herrin History Room. Use of the Herrin History Room is by appointment only.

Send a message to Herrin City Library: 

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    Herrin City Library Subscriptions

    Use these services while you are here at the library to find detailed information about ancestry. Most of these resources also offer either a free trial or limited access to information if you are unable to come to the library. (See below for free resources on the internet.)

    Ancestry.com  – In Library Use Subscription

    This, of course, is the most popular genealogy website on the internet, and with good reason. It has literally millions of genealogy records on the site from all over the world for you to peruse, as well as millions of other members with whom you may share ancestry who you can contact.  Most records are indexed, but you can browse the ones that aren’t, and records are mostly digitized, as well. You can even find old photos of your ancestors on this site. There is something here for everyone, no matter from where your family hails.

    Newspapers.com & NewspaperArchive.com– Librarian’s Subscription Only

    We have a librarian use only subscription to both of these, so please use the Send A Message link above to send us a question or article request.

    Free Genealogy Websites

    Here is a list of the top genealogy websites for beginners to get you started in the right direction. With these websites, you can get the information you need to put more branches on your family tree, increase your skills and go deeper with your genealogy research.

    AccessGenealogy – Free Genealogy – United States Genealogy

    AccessGenealogy.com contains the largest collection of free genealogy for your United States research. Find hundreds of thousands of free websites with billions of names you can use to further your family genealogy! Specifically, we provide sources for birth records, death records, marriage records, census records, tax records, church records, court records, military records, historical newspapers, cemeteries, and ethnic records. We also provide some historical details about different times and people in America’s history. Our specialty, however, is Native American genealogy and research.

    AfriGeneas

    This free website is a hub for those who are doing African-American genealogy. It includes educational articles and resources, beginner guides and how-to’s, as well as access to send messages to other users. You will also find birth, death, surname, and slave databases here, all perfect for tracing your African-American ancestry.

    Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

    The boundaries of counties within the United States have changed over the centuries, sometimes many times. This can make tracing your ancestors a challenge when you think the record you need will be in one county, but it is actually in another because of changing boundaries. This website shows you how and when county boundaries changed, so you will always know the correct place to look for the genealogical records you need to conduct your research.

    BillionGraves.com

    BillionGraves.com

    This is a free website with a huge database of tombstone images, each of which is GPS tagged. You can upload images from your phone and add personal information on the people behind the stones, or use the database to search for the stones and information of your own ancestors.

    Chronicling America

    This is another free website which is owned by the Library of Congress. It is a portal to digitized historic newspapers from twenty-five different states and Washington, D.C., dating from 1836 to 1922. There is also an index to every known newspaper published right now, and where to find them. New content is added all the time and is a terrific place for finding interesting information on your ancestors that you might not find anywhere else.

    Database of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916-1950

    Use this database to find death certificates filed with the Illinois Department of Public Health between 1916 and 1950. Once you uncover an ancestor’s death certificate, come visit us at the library to search for his or her obituary on microfilm. This database is maintained by the Illinois State Archives in Springfield.

    Ellis Island: The Statue of Liberty

    This website will let you search for your relative’s arrival in their database of 51 million+ passenger records. Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. Become part of our “living” and interactive digital exhibit on historic Ellis Island, which features a mosaic of personally submitted portraits throughout the generations.

    FamilySearch.org

    This famous, free website is owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints (aka the Mormons), famous for its devotion to genealogy. You will find millions of free digitized records from all over the world right here. In fact, the site is like a free version of Ancestry.com, without the DNA and easy ability to contact other members. Ancestry.com may have more records, but FamilySearch has some that Ancestry does not have, and vice-versa. Using the two sites together can really fill in those gaps in your genealogy research.

    FamilyTreeMagazine.com

    Another free website, this one has a plethora of genealogical tools geared toward beginners. There are free forms, cheat sheets, how-to articles, and past issues of the magazine. This is a real family magazine, too, with projects designed for adults to do with kids to get kids interested in genealogy.

    FindAGrave.com

    This is a famous free website similar to BillionGraves.com. It just has better name recognition. You can upload tombstone photos and biographical information on ancestors, and look up the same information on ancestors you may not know as much about as other genealogists.

    Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection

    This collection contains 118 newspaper titles, 139,488 issues comprising 1,480,288 pages and 6,887,660 articles. Since 2005, the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library at the University of Illinois has been developing unique digital newspaper content. The works collected here include digital facsimiles of newspapers and trade journals in a variety of fields. Users may search, browse, tag, and correct OCR text to improve search-ability and access

    ThoughtCo.com

    This is a free website that has dozens upon dozens of articles on genealogy and how to do it, where to find records, how to share information with other genealogists and preserving historical artifacts. This is more of an informational website than a records-finding website, but do spend some time looking at the articles and reading them. You will learn a lot about genealogy and how to get started with your search the proper way.

    US GenWeb Project

    This free website is a cornucopia of genealogical information from around the world. With different sections for countries, states, and counties, users contribute information to the site. Some sections of the site are sponsored by a “caretaker,” while others are not, so the quality of each section varies. However, since it is user-submitted content, you will find plenty of unique things here that will be of use to your genealogy research that you won’t find anywhere else on the internet.

    Mining Accidents in Illinois:

    Illinois Mining Accidents 1889 to 1925: Denver Public Library Digital Collections

    The Best Social Media Accounts for Genealogy

    Family Tree Magazine: Herrin City Library now subscribes to Family Tree Magazine. You may find this magazine in the Magazine and Newspaper section of the library.

    Facebook

    One of the main benefits of Facebook is the ability to join global forums such as DNA Detectives, national groups such as Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, and state- or region-focused groups.

    AccessGenealogy

    AccessGenealogy is a vast directory of free records and resources for US genealogy, especially Native American research. The AccessGenealogy Facebook page is a great way to keep up with the latest free resources and news from the site. Both the AccessGenealogy website and Facebook page are tools that every US researcher should keep in their back pocket!

    Evidence Explained

    Based on Elizabeth Shown Mill’s classic book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Genealogical Publishing Co.), this page is a great resource for those who “use, cite, and seek to understand historical records.” The posts here primarily link to the Evidence Explained website, which hosts an impressive number of forums for citation issues, evidence analysis and more. The Facebook page functions as a sort of highlight reel of what’s going on in the forums, and is a great place to dive into the nitty-gritty of record use and citation.

    Genealogy Center

    Many people are familiar with the Allen County Public Library for its Periodical Source Index, or PERSI. But the library also sponsors a Facebook page that provides a variety of helpful tidbits and opportunities for genealogists.

    The Center offers many free, virtual events on a variety of genealogy topics. Additionally, you can watch one of their short, informative videos on everything from finding records to preserving photographs. The admins are responsive and accessible, so this page is also a good place to bring your library research questions.

    Get a “tour” of the index here.

    Other Facebook Groups for Genealogy

    Twitter

    @LegalGen

    Judy G. Russell (aka The Legal Genealogist) is a pillar of the genealogy community, and her Twitter feed is a great way to keep up with what’s happening over on her blog. Russell tweets about genealogy news, research and more, all with her trademark focus on the legal and civic aspects of the genealogical world.

    article source: The Best Social Media Accounts for Genealogy.