ISGS is blogging!

The Illinois State Genealogical Society has a blog, under the stewardship of versatile geneablogger Thomas McEntee. Keep it on your radar screen -- the Memorial Day offering is a list of the state archives' online veterans' databases.

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.

My recommendations for hiring a professional in a specialized area?

From time to time, clients (or non-clients!) ask me for recommendations as to who they should hire that specializes in some area of research that I don't (often overseas). Not being omniscient, usually I am more comfortable with recommending places to look than I am with recommending specific individuals. Three particular places come to mind:

Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG)

International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen)

Association of Professional Genealogists (APG)

APG is a professional membership organization; a member has to pay dues and sign a code of ethics (it's at the bottom of the application form).

ICAPGen or BCG credentials are earned by passing different rigorous tests (described at the links).

The same person can be a part of any one, two, or three of the above. If I were looking in online marketplaces (such as Ancestry's ExpertConnect) or in particular libraries' or archives' list of researchers, other things being equal I would tend to favor someone with an earned credential, or failing that at least someone who was serious enough to join a professional organization. (The higher and harder the brick wall in question, the stronger my tendency to do so.)

Of course it is possible that someone with none of these affiliations might do an excellent job of research, but the odds are not as good.

Methodology Monday with IGHR record

Samford University Library's Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, a one-week intensive premier genealogical learning opportunity, reports on Facebook that it will have a record 306 students and faculty next month.

Six states make up just over half the group: Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Maryland, Florida, and California. Thirty Midwesterners are expected: 12 from Illinois, 10 Ohio, 4 Indiana, 4 Wisconsin, 0 Michigan.

If you think this might be a possibility for you in future years, click on the individual courses for details.

Sepiatown!

SepiaTown: From Here to Then is a mapped photo collection, open to additions -- a cool idea without much Midwest coverage yet. (Search on "Chicago" and start zooming out, and you will see some.) Can you help add to this would-be "world-wide window on the past"? With good citations too?

JISHS resources, an idiosyncratic index #1

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

Spring 1950, volume 43(1)

Morgan County, 1876

Illinois State Fair, 1853 (Sangamon County)

Summer 1950, volume 43(2)

Warren County, 1800s

Fort Massac, 1750s-1760s

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society!

The Internet Scout Project brings the welcome news that more than half a century of Illinois' quarterly historical journal (1950-2006) has been digitized and is browsable by issue. This may not be the ideal situation, but it's way better than having boxes full of the magazine around the house (as I did for years) and having to browse every issue manually, provided you could locate it.

There are many wonderful microhistorical sources in this archive. One of my favorites is in the Autumn 1982 issue, "Eight Weeks on a St. Clair County Farm in 1851: Letters by a Young German," but the link now has mysteriously quit working for me. Another goodie is in the winter issue of that year, when Edward R. Kantowicz wrote at length on the French Canadian settlements in Kankakee County.

Although this site has no index of its own, it can be searched via Google, using first site:http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ as the search term, and then at the bottom of the resulting search page, clicking on "search within results" and inserting what you actually want to find.