Showing posts with label Western Illinois University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Illinois University. Show all posts

Monday, December 16, 2013

Good news for Illinois AND Indiana researchers

The indefatigable Michael John Neill points us to a treasure trove of Illinois statutes at Western Illinois University, both compiled statutes and session laws.

In another part of this site I discovered a link to a publication I'd never seen, hosted at Internet Archive, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Official Publications of the Territory and State of Indiana from 1809 to 1890, originally published as Indiana Historical Society Pamphlet No. 1. The publications are listed roughly by subject matter or agency, from the Adjutant General to the War Office.

The descriptions include explanations of the often obscure bureaucracy and how it functioned at the time to produce the records we seek now. For instance, it turns out that the first two reports of the Indiana State Health Commission, in 1879 and 1880, were published in the report of the chief of the State Bureau of Statistics and Geology. These might be of interest as this was when the idea of the state of Indiana collecting birth and death information was being considered and developed and discussed. But who would have looked there?



Harold Henderson, "Good news for Illinois AND Indiana researchers ," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 16 December 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Friday, May 28, 2010

ALL the laws of Illinois

Do you need to know what the divorce law was in Illinois in 1851? 1887? Western Illinois University and the Illinois State Library have digitized a great many of the publications of the Laws of Illinois going back to the beginning of statehood, and including private laws (such as provision made for the case of Edward Mlodzianowski, a Polish exile who died intestate in Morgan County 8 October 1840). There's genealogical gold here.

Hat tip to Research Buzz and the Rinn Law Library blog.