Illinois Public Records Information

The state archive of Illinois like the other states in the United States has a system of regional archives depository known as the IRAD or Illinois Regional Archives Depository. This system is responsible for the management of the public records arising from the local governments in the state. The archive includes records from the regional depositories such as the school districts, municipalities, townships as well as the various counties of the state of Illinois.

As per the state laws in the Illinois State, the state archives act as the depository for the Illinois public records as well as for the public records arising from the local governments. The records include information on the legal, administrative, historical as well as other records which are of great value for research purpose. The archives do not keep newspapers, manuscripts or records from the sources that are not official in nature.

Records Available With the IRAD

The records available with the IRAD include public records that have been transferred to the custody of the Archives from the various official sources at the state as well as the local levels. The types of records available with the IRAD include:

• The records of deaths, births and marriages
• Tax sale, mortgage and land deeds records
• Collectors’ and the Assessors’ tax books
• Voter registers and the poll books
• Proceedings of the county board including minutes of the meetings
• Naturalization records
• Inquest files and the coroner’s records
• Criminal and Civil court records, files
• Records and cases from the chancery court containing the docket books, court proceedings, divorce cases and records as well as the records of the insanity proceedings
• Probate records containing records of the wills, wills, guardianship records, executors’ and the administrators’ records, and  the records of the appraisement and inventory
• Miscellaneous records such as the records from the county homes as well as the jail registers
• Municipal, township and the school records that contain information such as the minutes of the Highway Commissioners’ meetings, township meetings, minutes of the trustees of schools, pupil registers, records of the school land sale , election records of the cities, proceedings of the meetings along with the minutes of the city councils as well as the ordinance records.

In addition the IRAD has a special division that houses the records from the Chicago City containing almost 35,650 documents previously unknown and dating back to the Great Chicago Fire(1871). It also includes records of the Chicago City council proceedings from 1833 to 1942, election registers for the years 1892, 1890, 1888, Sanborn maps, plats and atlases and ordinance records from the years 1837 through 1916.

For more information on the availability of the IL public records you can visit: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/archives.html.

Accessing the Illinois Public Records

The records of the local government can be accessed from the IRAD over the Internet. Individuals can search the IL public records from this resource by title or by county or by mentioning the name of the depository or by using a combination of these.

Information on the Illinois public records at the local levels can also be obtained from “A Summary Guide to Local Governmental Records in the Illinois Regional Archives, Second Edition (1999), 265 pp.”  The guide has two parts- records of the local government by title or by the county name.

Making a Request

Individuals can send their requests to the IRAD via telephone or mail but the individual depositories at the regional level cannot receive or respond through the e-mail. There are 7 regional depositories of the IRAD with one completely dedicated to the Cook County and the next 6 dedicated to serving the regions from the 14 to 23 neighboring counties.

When you make a request make sure that you contact the regional depository which is responsible for keeping the records for the county that is of interest to you. For the list of the seven depositories and their contact details please visit: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/irad/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/iradregn.html.

For information on the IRAD’s research policy please visit: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/irad/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/refpol.html.

For information on the visiting hours of the regional depositories of the IRAD please visit: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/irad/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/iradaddr.html.