Illinois Newspapers

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United States

U.S. Newspapers

Illinois

Newspapers

Chicago Herald Examiner

Online Resources

• See United States Newspapers for more databases
• 1800s-1999 U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999 at Ancestry - index ($)
• 1800-Current Illinois, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's-current at Ancestry — index & images ($)
• Illinois Newspapers, 1840-2009, MyHeritage ($)
• Illinois Newspaper Archives (1818–2010) at Genealogy Bank, index.
• Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection, index.
• Illinois Newspaper Project
• Historical Newspapers in Illinois, Newspapers.com ($)
• Chronicling America - Illinois Newspapers
• Illinois Newspapers ($)
• Illinois Online Historical Newspapers
• Illinois Newspapers
• Names and Stories in Newspapers from OldNews.com™ (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois) at MyHeritage — index & images ($)
• USNPL
• NewsLink
• Chronicling America
• 50 States.com
• Newspaper Archives ($)
• Genealogy Bank ($)
• Illinois Newspapers (Illinois Genealogy)

Inventory on the Internet

• Over 6,500 Illinois newspapers are cataloged on the Illinois Newspaper Project. The web site briefly lists the newspaper’s title, town, life span, and repositories researchers can contact to obtain further details. Check prices at your local library for ordering microfilm copies through interlibrary loan.
• The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC) website is an online archive of digitized historic newspapers and trade journals from Illinois and other parts of the United States. There are currently over 1,000,000 pages of newspaper content ranging from 1831-2011.
  
• The U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present is a national directory from the Library of Congress of over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.
• The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library holds newspapers titles for all Illinois counties. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library was created in 1889 from the Illinois State Historical Library and was charged with the responsibility of collecting and preserving records which would be useful to the historian. Among its holdings are a noteworthy collection of newspapers. Microfilmed newspapers are available through interlibrary loan, or the Newspaper/Microfilm Department can do searches for a fee. An online obituary search is provided.
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a Newspaper Database as well as a collection of Historical Newspapers.
• Some library web pages offer a searchable index of births, marriages, and deaths mentioned in local newspapers. Digital images may or may not be linked to the index entry. The Quincy Public Library's Quincy Historic Newspaper Archive covers Quincy newspapers from 1835-1919, and includes digital images. The Urbana Free Library's Local History On-line includes indexed summary information gleaned from Champaign/Urbana newspapers, official Champaign County court records, and other local history resources. The Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin includes a vital records surname search as part of their Local Newspaper Index of events mentioned in the Courier News and Daily Herald.
• Check PublicLibraries.com to see if the community you are researching has a public library. Many listings include hot links to the library's web page.

Published Inventories

• Newspapers in the Illinois State Historical Library. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1998. Other Libraries (WorldCat)FS Catalog book 977.3 J53n) Most libraries in Illinois receive copies of this inventory; it is not available to individuals.
• Newspapers in the Illinois State Historical Library. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Library, 1964 and 1970. FS Library fiche 6125938-39
• Illinois Libraries Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Library, 1955–. Other Libraries (WorldCat) FS Library book 977.356/S1 A35i and selected volumes on 4 fiche beginning with FS Library fiche 6125940 (first of 7 fiche)
• Scott, Franklin William Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814–1879. Springfield, Illinois: Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, 1910. Other Libraries (WorldCat) FS Catalog book 977.3 B4i, vol.6; FS Library film 1697636 item 2. A full view copy of this book is available on Google Book Search as well as on Internet Archive.
• James, Edmund Janes A Bibliography of newspapers published in Illinois prior to 1860 (1899). Springfield, Illinois: Phillips Bros. State Printers. A full view copy of this book is found at Internet Archive (free). Other Libraries (WorldCat)
• Boss, Henry Rush Early newspapers in Illinois: read before the Franklin Society of the City of Chicago (1870). Chicago: Franklin Society. A full view copy of this book is found at Internet Archive (free). Other Libraries (WorldCat)

Digital Issues Online

NewspaperArchive.org ($) has a large collection of Illinois newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries under the name Access NewspaperArchive.

Additional Resources

• Many periodicals publish information from newspapers. These are referenced in the "Places" section of the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) described in the "Periodicals" section.
• See the "Newspapers" and "Obituaries" Wiki articles for help in locating other newspapers in Illinois. See Illinois Obituaries for help in finding obituaries.
• The FS Library has very few Illinois newspapers. However, the library does have some transcripts for Chicago and Rock Island County.

• Vital Records From Chicago Newspapers. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Genealogical Society, 1971–. Other Libraries (WorldCat) FS Library film 844952 item 5; book 977.311 V2c. Includes Death, marriage, and birth announcements in Chicago newspapers from 1833 to 1848.
• Chicago Marriage and Death Indexes. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1983. FS Library film 1321939. Chicago, Illinois marriages from 1833 to 1871 and deaths from 1856-1889. These typescript indexes to marriage and death records from Chicago newspapers are also known as the Sam Fink Collection.
• Pease, Janet K. Genealogical Abstracts From Rock Island County, Illinois, Newspapers.38 volumes. [Arvada, Colorado: Janet K. Pease]; Rock Island, Illinois: Blackhawk Genealogical Society, 1973–1995. film 928133 items 1-5 (first of 26 films); book 977.3393 B38p. Abstracts in 38 volumes for the years 1850 - 1906. Many volumes are on film only.

• Ruth E. Browning abstracted names and events from The Christian Messenger and created an every– name index. The Christian Messenger was a religious newspaper during the 1800's which included "letters with information about the churches, obituaries, death notices, names of subscribers, letters from preachers, etc." The information abstracted from this newspaper came from numerous counties in Illinois.
• More resources on local Illinois newspapers may be found in the FamilySearch Catalog and at Worldcat.org. Explore how to search the FamilySearch Catalog and Worldcat.org. It is usually best to start with a search at a local level such as city or town and then to try county or state.