Guide to Online Marriage Indexes for Cook County: Which Ones to Use When (with links)

Handy Links to the Indexes Mentioned in this Post

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Cook County, Illinois, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1833-1889 (Ancestry)
Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (Illinois Secretary of State)
Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920 (FamilySearch)
Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 (Ancestry)
Cook County, Illinois Marriage Indexes, 1912-1942 (Ancestry)
Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 (Ancestry)
Historical Cook County Illinois Vital Records (Cook County Clerk)

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This is the second in a series of three posts focusing on the Chicago and Cook County vital records indexes that are available online. In this article, I'll give you links to the Cook County marriage indexes that I use regularly and summarize their strengths and limitations to help you decide which one(s) will work best for your search.

Once you've found an index entry, the records can be obtained from a number of different places but the rule of thumb is this:

• get records from 1921 forward from the the Cook County Clerk's Office ($15 + a handling fee if you buy the records online at www.cookcountygenealogy.com)


• get records up through 1916 from the Illinois Regional Archives Depository at Northeastern Illinois University (reimburse IRAD for the copy costs; you can visit in person or submit requests by telephone); from Family History Library microfilm (the cost of a photocopy if you have local access to the films; $7.50 if you need to order a film from the FamilySearch catalog and have it sent to your local Family History Center);  or from me through Genlighten ($6.00 each with quick turnaround; discounts for batch orders)


• get records from 1917-1920 from Family History Library microfilm (see above)


• get the 1833-1871 newspaper notices/articles mentioned in Sam Fink's Index from an online Chicago Tribune source if the code is * or from a repository that holds newspapers for any of the other codes

Cook County, Illinois, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1833-1889 (Ancestry.com)

Quick Advice: This is actually a newspaper index known as "Sam Fink's." Use it when you want to find mention of pre-fire marriages, 1833-1871, in newspapers. To learn more about this index, refer to my "Sam Fink's Marriage-Death Index Available on Ancestry" post.

Strengths:

• can be search by bride and/or groom name
• can be searched by marriage date
• page images can browsed
• index page images include the newspaper title symbols needed for finding the matching articles

Limitations:

• must have a key to the newspaper title symbols in order to follow up (see below)
• entries for marriages appear twice because the marriage index appears twice on the film

Newspaper Key (for marriages and deaths):

Chicago Tribune *

Chicago Times %

Chicago Evening Journal $

Chicago Democrat #

Chicago Democratic Press #

Chicago Evening Post ?

Chicago Record-Herald "

Chicago Daily News @

Chicago Examiner [cent sign]

The Inter-Ocean :

Additional Information: These index entries are included in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 with FINK in the license number column but that index doesn't provide the newspaper codes so it's best to use the one at Ancestry. The marriages in this index end in 1871; it's the death entries that go through 1889.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (Illinois Secretary of State)

Quick advice: The entries in this index are covered by Sam Fink's Index (see above) and the Illinois Cook County Marriage Index, 1871-1920 (see below). Use this index when you need to locate or confirm a license number for a record found in the FamilySearch Index or when you think the marriage might have taken place outside Cook County.

Strengths:

• includes entries for other Illinois counties
• may include spellings different than the FamilySearch Index

Limitations:

• doesn't provide newspaper codes for the Fink entries
• if you find matches up through 1900, it takes an extra step to find the corresponding FamilySearch microfilm numbers

Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920 (FamilySearch)

Quick advice: Use this index first if you're looking for marriages for 1871-1920. 

Strengths:

• can be searched by bride or groom or by bride and groom using the spouse field
• can limit search results by approximate birth year
• provides ages for bride and groom
• provides FamilySearch film numbers as "Reference ID"

Limitations:

• the search form offers birth place and parent name options but the information isn't in the index so you'll get no results if you use those fields
• some index entries don't include license numbers; you can get them up through 1900 from the Illinois Secretary of State index listed above

Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 (Ancestry.com)

Quick advice: This index overlaps the FamilySearch index listed above. 

Strengths:

• easy to search
• can save results to an Ancestry.com tree

Limitations:

• lists film numbers but doesn't provide the license numbers needed to find the records on film

Cook County, Illinois Marriage Indexes, 1912-1942 (Ancestry.com)

Quick advice: Use this index when you need to find marriages from 1921-1942. If you find a match for 1930 forward, go to cookcountygenealogy.com to purchase and download the matching record. If you find a match for 1921-1929, try the county site but know that you will probably need to mail a Genealogy Record Request Form to get a copy. If you are looking for a 1912-1920 record, use the FamilySearch Index if you plan to get the record from FamilySearch microfilm.

Strengths:

• can be searched using combinations of names and dates
• index entries are linked to an index page that can be attached to an Ancestry.com tree
• entries include the spouse name on the same line as the indexed person
• search is more flexible than the one at cookcountygenealogy.com

Limitations:

• doesn't provide FamilySearch film numbers
• doesn't provide a quick link for getting the record from Cook County

Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 (Ancestry.com)

Quick advice: Use this index when you need to find marriages from 1930-1960. If you find a match, click through to purchase and download the matching record from cookcountygenealogy.com.

Strengths:

• can be searched using combinations of names and dates
• index entries can be attached to an Ancestry.com tree
• entries include the spouse name
• search is more flexible than the one at cookcountygenealogy.com
• if you find a match, you can click through to purchase and download the matching record from cookcountygenealogy.com; the item will appear in your cart after you log in

Limitations:

• few, if any

cookcountygenealogy.com (Cook County Clerk)

Quick advice: The search capability on this site seems to be limited to exact spellings within a year range. Create a free account on this site but use the 1930-1960 index at Ancestry.com to search it (see above). It offers more flexibility and you can easily click through to purchase and download records from this site. 

Strengths:

• records are available for immediate purchase and download
• entries provide spouse names, license numbers, and event dates

Limitations:

• must create an account and log in before searching
• can only be searched using exact spellings
• searches can only be limited by a date range
• doesn't appear to include marriages before c. 1930

Additional Information: Marriage licenses are available if they are 20 years or older but the online collection is, to the best of my knowledge, incomplete. If you can't find what you need online, you can mail in a search request using the Genealogy Record Request Form.

Guide to Online Death Indexes for Chicago: Which Ones to Use When (with links)

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Handy Links to the Indexes Mentioned in this Post
Illinois, Cook County Death Certificates, 1878-1922 (FamilySearch)
Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 (FamilySearch)
Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916 (Illinois Secretary of State)
Illinois Statewide Death Index, 1916-1947 (Illinois Secretary of State)
Cook County, Illinois Death Index, 1908-1988 (Ancestry)
Cook County Genealogy, Certificates 20 Years or Older (Cook County Clerk)

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If you're searching for Chicago and Cook County death records, there are a number of overlapping online indexes to choose from. In this post, I'll give you links to the indexes I use regularly and summarize their strengths and limitations to help you decide which one(s) will work best for your search.

Once you've found an index entry, the records can be obtained from a number of different places but the rule of thumb is this:

• get records from 1948 forward from the county or state ($17 + a handling fee if you buy the records online at www.cookcountygenealogy.com)

• get records up through 1947 from microfilm available through Family History Centers or in Springfield (the cost of a photocopy if you have local access to the films; $7.50 if you need to order a film from the FamilySearch catalog and have it sent to your local Family History Center; $6.00 + a $.50 handling fee if you get them from me through Genlighten).

Illinois, Cook County Death Certificates, 1878-1922 (FamilySearch)

Quick advice: If you're going to get records from microfilm, use this index for searches up through 1915. If you don't find a match, search the Pre-1916 Illinois Statewide Death Index. If you still can't find a match, email me through chicagogenealogy.com. I can check an alternate index on film and sometimes that helps. If you're searching for records 1916-1922, use the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 first. It's mentioned below.

Strengths:

• includes extracted information like birth date, birth place, occupation and place of burial and, after 1907, parent, spouse, and/or informant name
• allows multi-field searching on fields such as parent and spouse
• gives Family History Library film numbers which makes it easy to retrieve the records
• can be attached as a source to a FamilySearch tree
• an be used to distinguish between people who have the same name using the extracted information

Limitations: 

• doesn't index coroner's death certificates up through 1911
• when name are spelled in unexpected ways or transcribed wrong, it can be tough to find them
• certificate numbers usually appear in the index as "cn 00000" listed under "Reference ID" but early certificates can have two or three numbers on top; if indexers choose the non-sequential number it can't be used to find the record in microfilm (but there are ways around that)
• unless you've bookmarked the search page, it takes time to click through to find it

Something You Should Know:

From 1908-1915 there are two sets of Chicago records included in the microfilmed series and this index includes both. It's common to find two entries for the same person with two different film numbers leading to two different records. The information should be the same but one record will likely be an original and one will likely be a handwritten copy. I will share more about this in another blog post.

Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 (FamilySearch)

Quick advice: If you're going to get records from microfilm, use this index first. If you can't find the name you're looking for, try any of the other indexes that cover the same years. If you can't find a name from 1916-1933 in any online index, email me through chicagogenealogy.com. I can check an alternate index on film and sometimes that helps. 

Strengths:

• can be searched using parent and spouse names
• can be searched using birth place and a span of birth years
• often includes extracted information such as birth place, birth date, parent names, spouse name, occupation, cemetery name
• provides film number that can be used to find the record
• can be attached as a source to a FamilySearch tree
• because it has extracted information, it can be used to distinguish between people who have the same name
• includes deaths from all Illinois counties
• includes stillbirths

Limitations:

• when name are spelled in unexpected ways or transcribed wrong, it can be tough to find them
• sometimes the certificate numbers aren't the ones that lead to the records on film, but in those cases the correct numbers can be found using another index
• unless you've bookmarked the search page, it takes time to click through to find it

Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916 (Illinois Secretary of State)

Quick advice: This was the go-to index for years and it's still good. If you can't find a name here, try other indexes or try accessing it with Stephen Morse's One Step search page. If you're planning to get the matching records from microfilm, copy the entire index entry. You'll need the full death date and place ("Chicago" is different from "Cook County." If you're going to order film through a Family History Center, don't use the catalog to find the film number. Without going into a complex explanation, let me just say that in many cases it won't work. Use the FamilySearch death index (linked above) instead.

Strengths:

• includes names not found in the FamilySearch index, including individuals who had coroner's death certificates
• if the certificate is hard to read, the name is more likely to be spelled correctly in this index than in the index at FamilySearch
• certificate numbers are accurate

Limitations:

• can only be searched by name unless you access it with Stephen Morse's One Step search page
• unless you use a key like the one I created for Wilmette Family History Center patrons, choosing a film from the Family History Library catalog is a guessing game and it's easy to get it wrong

Illinois Statewide Death Index, 1916-1947 (Illinois Secretary of State)

Strengths: 

• index entries can be used to easily find records on film
• includes deaths from all Illinois counties

Limitations:

• can only be searched by name unless you access it with Stephen Morse's One Step search page

Cook County, Illinois Death Index, 1908-1988 (Ancestry.com)

Quick advice: If you want to pull up a list of deaths that happened on a certain day or if you're looking for death records from 1948-1988, this is the index to use. If you find records before 1948 and you don't need instant access, get them from film; it's much less expensive. For records after that, just click through to www.cookcountygenealogy.com, pay the fee, and do the download.

Strengths:

• allows you to search by date of death with or without a name
• provides certificate number that can be used to find the record on microfilm
• index entry can be attached to Ancestry.com trees
• a "Purchase from Cook County" link will take you to a page where you can purchase record images online for immediate download

Limitations:

• index information limited to name, death date, and certificate number
• it's a subscription site (but you should be able to get free access through a library or FamilyHistory Center)

Something you should know: 

The rollover text for the "Purchase from Cook County" link says "images and original certificates are only available through the Cook County Clerk's office and clicking will take you to www.cookcountygenealogy.com where they can be purchased for download for $17 + a $1.75  cart handling fee. For records from 1948 forward, this is true, but records up through 1947 can be printed from microfilm available through FamilySearch or the Illinois State Archives in Springfield for the cost of a photocopy.

Cook County Genealogy, Certificates 20 Years or Older (Cook County Clerk)

Quick advice: Start here if you need records from 1948 forward. If you find index matches, click through and purchase the records online. If you don't, check the index at Ancestry.com. If you can't find the record for download here, you can mail in a search request to the county clerk or you can ask Genlighten's provider mollykennedy for help. She has access to later Illinois death certificates in Springfield and she will do her absolute best, even submitting multiple requests, to have the clerks find what you need.

Strengths:

• matching records can be purchased and downloaded immediately

Limitations:

• can only be searched using exact name spellings and a year range
• only provides name, death date, and certificate number

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How to Find EDs using alookatcook.com

I'm writing this post as a quick response to a Chicago Genealogy Facebook page question about how to use an address to determine a 1920 Census ED using the maps found on alookatcook.com.

1) Find the address using Google Maps. I'm going to try 2711 Hillock.

2) Once you've found the address, note the large cross streets. In this case, the canal/river is prominent and I notice that the address is southwest of the curve.

3) Go to alookatcook.com and click on the 1920 Ward map.

4) Notice how prominent the canal is. Based on the Google map, I guess that the address is part or the 4th ward so I click on the number 4 to see the map of EDs within the ward.

5) Going back to the Google map, I look for large streets and try to find them on the ED map.

I see that the address is west of Halsted and south of Cermak. Does that help?

Yes. I see Halsted on the ED map so that narrows down the eastern border.

6) I go back to the Google map and look for other streets close to the address. I see names like Throop, Grove, Loomis, Lock, Poplar.

7) I go back to the ED map and try to find those streets.

I see that Throop and Loomis are boundaries for some EDs and I notice that the river, Archer, Lyman, and 31st are the north/south boundaries.

8) I go back to the Google map to find the Archer, Lyman, etc. and finally I'm able to say that my address looks like it's south of the river and north of Archiver between Throop and Loomis.

9) ED 218 is a good guess so from there, I go to Ancestry.com (or another site with the census) and scroll through looking for the Hillock address. Most times when I do that I refer back to the map(s), and I can often tell the path that the enumerator was taking. It can help me to guess whether I need to look at the beginning, middle, or end of the image set.

Hope that helps! It's not an easy process--lots of trial and error--but it does work.

Requesting Images from FamilySearch's Photoduplication Services

In a previous post, Some Images No Longer Available on FamilySearch, I noted that the FamilySearch Wiki article on Illinois, Cook County Death Records mentioned that digital images could be obtained through FamilySearch's Photoduplication Services. In order to be able to better answer questions about the service, I decided to try it myself.

Submitting the Test Request
On January 29, I sent an email asking for a copy of a New York City church baptismal record for Sarah Catherine Trafford. She appears on my husband's family tree and it was a record that we sincerely wanted. I provided a link to the FamilySearch index entry and included the index information. I also provided my name, address, telephone number, and email address, as requested.

Reply to the Test Request
Today I received an email with the subject "You have received a file from photoduplication Shared." It included a link, good for 14 days, that I could use to download the file. Clicking on it took me to a page that let me download a zip file.

The zip file contained two files -- a jpg and a pdf, both of which were created on February 14. The jpg was large (2416 x 2966 pixels) and very readable. The pdf was a cover letter that told me the record was the "best copy available." It also gave me details on how to order additional records by email and wished me success.

Why I'll Continue to Order Films
So, in summary, I received a quality image by email for free in three weeks. Can't beat that! I'm grateful to the volunteer(s) at FamilySearch who retrieved the image and forward it to me, but I don't think I will use the service again. Why?

Well, for one thing, a new message has been added to the current Photoduplication Services FamilySearch Wiki page:

I have easy access to a Family History Center and so I can't justify asking someone else to obtain records for me. I'm pretty sure the image retrieval service wasn't meant to take the place of film ordering.

But there's more to it than that. Looking at the record that I got today, I saw an entry for Sarah Catherine Trafford, born to Abraham and Basilia, but two lines below I also saw an entry for an Abraham--an adult. I think Sarah's father might have been baptized a year and a half after she was born. It made me wonder if other family members might have appeared on the reel?

I also found myself wishing that I had a title page from whatever volume the page was from (I probably should have asked for it,  but I didn't think about it when I sent in my request) and it's likely that the baptism was just a one-page entry but some registers span two pages and I'd feel more comfortable if I had seen the register myself. I guess I'm just an independent sort at heart. : )

How This Relates to Chicago Record Retrieval
So, how does this relate to the Chicago vital records that were taken offline? It's an awkward question for me to answer in an unbiased way, but I'll try.

If you're not in a hurry for a record and you don't have access to a Family History Center, then I'd say it's a great way to go!

If you do have access to a Family History Center, then it's up to you to decide whether to use the service or to order in a film.

Where does my service fit in?
If you need a record in a hurry (I can visit the Family History Center on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday) or if you've decided, for whatever reason, not to use the free service, then I'm still here, ready to help. I'm planning to offer a discount on multiple-record orders going forward and I'll be updating my Genlighten.com offerings soon.

Valentines on Our Family Tree

Sarah Ann Valentine Burr Ackley

My husband and I have three Valentines on our family tree--Valentine Mink, Valentine Smith, and Sarah Ann Valentine. I love them all.

Valentine Mink was born in Germany in 1805 but lived much of his life as a farmer in Floyd, New York. He carefully crafted his will to divide his estate fairly among his children. “The Cow or the thirty five Dollars that I gave to Janetta C. and the Horse or one hundred and twenty Dollars that I give to my sons George Franklin and John Philip is to make them equal to the elder children and not be included in the one eighth which each of them is to have.” I love him for that.

Valentine Smith was born in Chicago in 1873. As a descendant of an early settler and successful entrepreneur, she inherited a place in society that gave her the freedom to focus on her passions and one of them was history. She served, briefly, as Chicago’s first archivist and spearheaded a number of important local history projects. Many people who worked with Valentine found her difficult and demanding, but in the early 1900s she served as a constant reminder to the city fathers that Chicago’s history was worth preserving and worth celebrating. I love her for that.

And then there’s Sarah Ann Valentine, born in Schodack, New York in 1837. As a young woman she married a widower with children and then, three years after his death, she became my great-great grandfather’s third wife.

Sarah’s life was simple. She cooked. She cleaned. She went to church. She mothered stepchildren in addition to her own. Sometimes she was happy. Sometimes she wasn’t. But, she was grateful for family and friends.

On 8 Feb 1883 she wrote: "quite a pleasant Day washed flanel sheets, Baked Bread, commenced Mr A shirts, sewed some. … roads drifted some. Alone with my little family this eve my heart rises with thanks … "

I feel a surge of emotion when I read those words. I love Sarah for taking the time to keep the journals that allow me to feel close to her.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and to the ancestors you love.

(This blog post originally appeared in the February 2013 Genlighten.com newsletter.)

Some Chicago Images No Longer Available on FamilySearch

This morning I received an email from a fellow researcher mentioning that the images for Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922 are no longer available online at FamilySearch. Unfortunately, it's true. The same is true for the Cook County birth register, birth certificate, and marriage license collections. On a positive note, the indexes remain. Two steps forward + one step back still = one step forward for Chicago researchers.

If you visit the FamilySearch Wiki page Illinois, Cook County Death Records and scroll down to the "Image Visibility" section, it explains that a new contract has been negotiated with Cook County and that the records were removed as part of that agreement. The article continues on to explain that "FamilySearch will receive an additional 4.7 million records for FamilySearch patrons." I don't know what that means, but I hope it's good news.

If you need access to the images that were removed, the Wiki page offers three suggestions including submitting a request to FamilySearch's Photoduplication Services, a way to get limited number of records for free. Also, for those of you in the Chicago area, most all of the films for the early records are available at the Wilmette Family History Center but check their holdings before you make the trip.

I can't fill in the gap by offering free lookups, but I will add these records back to the list of documents that I can retrieve through my chicagogenealogy store on Genlighten.com. I'm wondering about the possibility of offering to take quick iPhone camera photos of the records for a budget-friendly price. They'd be quite large and readable, but they wouldn't look like images scanned directly from film or like the images that I get when I print and scan a paper copy. What do you think? Would that be of interest?

Chicago Naturalization Searches: What the "730" Means

If you search the Illinois, Northern District Naturalization Index, 1840-1950 at FamilySearch, you'll probably come up with a card like this one:

If the court is listed as Circuit, County, Criminal, or Superior then the record is held by the Cook County Circuit Court Archives. If the court is listed as District, then NARA Great Lakes has the record. But, what if no court is listed?

Recently I had a client send me the two cards below and I wasn't sure how to follow up because no courts were given. (I removed the names for posting.)

A quick email to NARA solved the mystery. The "730" prefix is the code for the United States District Court in Chicago.

If you visit NARA's page on naturalizations you'll find a link that will let you order copies of naturalization records online for $7.50 (includes postage).

If you need naturalization records from the Circuit Court Archives, you can submit a request by mail or I can retrieve them for you for a $10.00 fee.

Many of these records are also available on Family History Library films. Search the catalog to check for availability.