Illinois is the “Land of Lincoln”. Genealogists who are searching for more information about their ancestors who came from Illinois should check out this list of online Illinois genealogy resources. Most of them are free, and one of them offers some free collections from time to time.
Ancestry.com has a page filled with links to their many collections that are for Illinois. In order to have access to most of these collections of records, you must have an Ancestry.com membership.
Once in a while, they will offer access to some collections for free. Return to this page often. Ancestry.com will make it clear when a collection is new or has been updated. It also shows you which ones are free access.
FamilySearch has a Wiki page with a photo of President Abraham Lincoln on it. It also has links to Wiki pages about every county in Illinois. You can also find links to a variety of Illinois genealogy research tools, and more FamilySearch Wiki articles about Illinois collections that can be found at FamilySearch.
Internment.net has a page dedicated to Illinois Cemetery Records. You can browse cemeteries by county. Not every county has cemetery records attached to them, but the majority do. This is a good resource for genealogists who are looking for information about ancestors who are buried in Illinois.
The ILGenWeb Project is part of the USGenWeb project. You can search for records by county or by using the “IL City/Town List”. There are several links in their sidebar that will take you to more Illinois genealogy websites.
Cyndi’s List is probably the most comprehensive list of genealogy resources on the internet. If it is online, Cyndi’s List probably has a link to it! They have a website called “United States – Illinois” that contains several links to collections of Illinois genealogy resources. Choose from categories like: “Birth, Marriage, Death”, “Census”, “Counties”, “Military”, “Newspapers”, and many more.
The USGenNet has a page called “Welcome to Illinois Genealogy and History!” This is a good resource for genealogists who want to know some historical information about the state of Illinois. You can also find links to County Data, Historical Data, and the American Local History Network main page.
Illinois State Genealogical Society was formed in 1968. They are a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. Check out their website to find out about upcoming genealogy webinars that the Society will be involved with in 2013.
Image by David Paul Ohmer on Flickr