Web-based and Community Resources

There are many excellent guides to genealogical sources available on the web. Cyndi's List is one of the best places to start when searching for online resources, with links to tens of thousands of web sites organized in subject categories.

Some online databases are available only by subscription. Ancestry.com is one of the most popular, and although the UIUC Library does not subscribe to Ancestry.com, it is available at the Champaign County Historical Archives in the Urbana Free Library. There are other subscription-based databases that are available to UIUC affiliates (requiring a Net ID). In addition to the web resources listed below, you can consult the master list of the library's subscription-based online resources.

Selected Online Resources
*available in UIUC Libraries or off site with UIUC net id

The UIUC Library subscribes to many online services and databases that are accessible only with a UIUC net id (issued to faculty, staff, and students) or at a public computer in the Main Library or any of the departmental libraries on campus.  Some of the databases useful for genealogical research include WorldCat, Biography Reference Bank, Biography and Genealogy Master Index, Heritage Quest, Digital Sanborn Maps (Illinois), and the Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online.  All of these databases are available at https://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/

WorldCat contains over 60 million records for books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, scores, and audio-visual materials held by thousands of libraries mainly in North America.  You can use WorldCat to identify materials by subject or to locate specific works.

Biography Reference Bank contains biographical information on approximately half a million people, living and dead, throughout the world.  The data is drawn from a wide variety of biographical reference books.  Also included are references to biographical profiles published in periodicals.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index provides references to individuals listed in more than 1,000 current and retrospective biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias covering all time periods.

Heritage Quest provides access to the census enumeration forms for the decennial federal census from 1790 to 1930.  The digital images are browsable by locality and indexed by personal name.   In addition, the database includes the full text of approximately 20,000 family and local histories, the Revolutionary War Era Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, the Freedman’s Bank records (1865-1874), and PERSI, the Periodical Source Index, a comprehensive subject index covering more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals written in English and French (Canada) since 1800.

The Columbia Gazetteer of the World is a searchable database of place names with descriptions for more than 165,000 places.

Digital Sanborn Maps (Illinois) are the digitized versions of the Sanborn fire insurance maps.  These are large-scale maps designed to provide the detailed data needed to estimate risk.  In addition to street names, property boundaries, sidewalks, railroads, and wells, the Sanborn maps include information on buildings (outline, dimensions, construction materials, location of windows and doors, and function).  The Sanborn Map Company was founded in 1867.  A total of 660,000 maps of more than 12,000 communities throughout the country were issued.  We have access only to the maps of Illinois cities and towns.

Other Community Resources

As the official repository for non-current Champaign County records, the Champaign County Historical Archives offers a wealth of resources for genealogy and local history.  In addition to a rich collection of material pertaining to Champaign County, there are resources for other localities in Illinois and for many of the states east of the Mississippi River.  In addition to print resources, the Archives maintains subscriptions to Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, the Digital Sanborn Maps for Illinois, and the ten-year archive of the News-Gazette.