Research Tips

Marriage Records
It'll pay to learn the difference between a Marriage Certificate/Record and a Marriage Register.

Ever wonder why some transcriptions of marriage records have all the data you'd ever want to know about a person, while some records are names and dates only?  That's the difference between the marriage record/certificate, and the register, which was kept by the county clerk's office.

If you write away for a marriage "record" (and we're talking time period from the 1875's and on) and only get 2 names and a date, what you really wanted to ask for was the copy of the page from the Marriage REGISTER that the county clerk kept.  That's where all the good data is written down.  Asking for a marriage "certificate", and sometimes even just the generic marriage "record" will get you a nice flowery piece of paper with name, date, maybe the witnesses names depending on the time period, and the name of the person who performed the ceremony, and not much else.  So ask for that REGISTER page ....and don't take no for an answer - all county clerks kept registers at some point in time - it just may be that the people you've written to don't have them.  But somebody does...  keep hunting!
Unfortunately, before 1870, there aren't a lot of options... but ask just in case, and also make sure to ask the clerk or librarian to include any consent forms or other notes that are attached to that record... you may get lucky.

 

Illinois Research
Your first stop for online researching,  after our own Illinois Genealogy Trails sites of course, is the State Archives site.  They have databases for marriages and deaths, but perhaps their best is the Civil War muster rolls.  A wealth of information is contained in those muster rolls, including a physical description and place of birth for those soldiers!
Check it out at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

CENSUS
When looking at an original census, whether on microfilm or online at a pay-fer site, view the last page of the previous township and view the next page of the next township.  Enumerators didn't always start a clean page for a new township and they didn't always end perfectly at the last line of a page.

1940 Census is coming soon!
Archives.com has partnered with the National Archives to provide the public with free digital access to the 1940 Federal Population Census on April 2, 2012. The 1940 Census images will be available at 9:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time) April, 2, 2012. Access to the images will be available on any computer with internet access, and will not require payment or registration. The name of the website created to host the images will be announced at a later date. (stay tuned!)

On April 2nd, researchers will be able to search by address, Enumeration District (ED), and geographic location. Researchers will be able to browse images by ED number directly, or use address or geographic information to locate the appropriate census schedule.
At launch, a name index will not be available.
Here's a PDF template: http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/1940.pdf

ORIGINAL RECORDS
Just ponied up some cash and sent away for the original birth/death/marriage record from the county clerk's office?  Big tip here --- turn the page over to make sure the helpful clerk didn't type something on the opposite side.  I once sent away for a death record hoping against hope for a maiden name of my GGG-gm.  I finally found one of her kids who actually had a death record and I sent my money off to Vigo County, IN and when it came (quite quickly!) in the mail, opened it up only to see nothing typed in the parents section.  Bitterly disappointed since this was pretty much the last chance, I left the certificate sitting on my desk to be filed... a couple of weeks later, it was still sitting there (I have a BIG to-do backlog!), I knocked it to the floor where it landed back-side up... and there on the back, the county clerk had typed everything  they had.... maiden name, counties of birth, and all.  So - lesson learned --- turn that record over and make sure you're not missing something!