ChicagoGenealogy: Research Insights from Study and Serendipity

Cook County Clerk,  Genealogy Online (https://genealogy.cookcountyclerk.com). So, big news. First the Cook County Clerk's Genealogy Online  website moved to a new URL ( https://genealogy.cookcountyclerk.com ) and now it's been changed in a significant way. It used to be that researchers could log into the website to search for births, marriages, and deaths. If a good match was found, the corresponding record could be purchased online and downloaded immediately. If not, it was possible to dig around the site to locate a hard-to-find pdf order form that could be mailed in to request a manual search. The new website simply provides a multi-screen form that visitors can fill out to request a vital records search. I'm ambivalent about the loss of the old search feature because, frankly, I almost never used it. I found it much more productive to search indexes on FamilySearch and/or Ancestry for the records I needed. If I found a match, I'd check to see if the reco

I'm a firm believer in taking the time to figure out a record set before diving in. Recently, I've been exploring the Mount Carmel Cemetery registers that are available on FamilySearch under the catalog title Interment Registers and Burial Logs, 1900-1955 . This blog post will summarize what I've learned and suggest possible ways that the registers might be used. The Four Types of Registers Interment Registers: Chronological list of burials providing date, name of deceased, burial location, age, date of death, residence address, cause of death, clergy name, and remarks. Burial Logs: Arranged chronologically with one page per day. Early registers list time, name, lot, location, box, and undertaker. Beginning in 1940, registers are titled "Funeral Order Register" and list time, deceased, description (lot, block, section), location, box, and notes. Name in "deceased" column may be lot owner. Relationship of deceased to lot owner may be indicated