Chicago Birth Certificates

= Chicago Birth Certificates =

Chicago and Cook County birth records seventy-five years or older, back to late 1871, are available from the Cook County Clerk's Office. Birth records for some years can be purchased and downloaded at Genealogy Online: Historical Cook County, Illinois Vital Records. Birth records for years not yet available on that website can be obtained by requesting a manual search (scroll to the very bottom of the page for information) from the clerk's office. It is important to remember, though, that many early Chicago and Cook County births weren't reported to the county and there may be no civil record available.

Some Chicago birth records can be found on microfilm available through Family History Centers.The sections below will guide you through the process of locating Chicago birth records using Family History Center resources.

Finding Chicago Birth Records Before 1871
Original birth records are not available before late 1871 because the Chicago Fire (October 8) destroyed the county's vital records. Alternate sources of information include


 * Baptismal records
 * County histories
 * Death certificates
 * Delayed birth certificates
 * Family records including bible records
 * Pension records
 * School records
 * Social security applications

Step 1
Check the Cook County Birth Index, 1871-1916. It's available at research facilities such as the Illinois State Archives, IRAD at NEIU, the Family History Library in Salt Lake, and the Wilmette Family History Center.

When you search the index there are a few important things to remember:


 * A child who wasn't named when the report was made will appear in the index under the father's initial and the mother's given name with "&amp;" in the initial column. A child born to James and Helen Bielby might appear as "J Helen &amp;."
 * Juniors appear at the end of the surnames. Look for Adam Smith, Jr. after Zachariah Smith.
 * Children sometimes appear under unexpected given names. A child known as "Mae Townsend," might actually have been registered as "Louisa Mae Townsend." If you have a birth date, check the index for matching dates with any given name.
 * Surnames may not be spelled in the way that you expect. Lena Hanson might be in the index under "Hansen" or even "Hauson."
 * Many Chicago births weren't reported; there may be no civil birth record to find.
 * Just because one sibling's birth was reported doesn't mean they all were.
 * This index seems to include very few births from 1916 and it may actually end with 1915 births.

If you find a matching entry, proceed to Step 2a. If you don't find a matching entry, proceed to Step 3a.

Step 2a
Note the birth date, the certificate number, and whether the birth was in "Chicago" or "Cook County" (meaning outside the city).

If it was a Chicago birth, proceed to Step 2b. If it was a Cook County birth (outside the city), proceed to Step 2c.

Step 2b
Check the certificate number.

If it is preceded by "DS" or "ODS" it means that the record is a delayed birth certificate. In other words, the birth was reported much later than it took place, probably in the 1940s. Check with the Cook County Clerk's Office to see if they can provide a copy of the certificate.

If the birth is before 1879 and the certificate number is preceded by "A," "B," "C," "D," or "E," those letters refer to early birth register books. You can access the Chicago birth registers,1871-1915 through your local Family History Center or send in a request to the Cook County Clerk's Office.

If the certificate number is not preceded by letters, then you can access the Chicago birth certificates, 1878-1922 on microfilm through your local Family History Center or send in a request to the Cook County Clerk's Office.

Important! If you are ordering birth certificate films through your local Family History Center, please be aware that the certificate numbers repeat two or more times each year. If there are two repeats, the first group generally includes births for January through June and the second group covers July through December. If there are three groups, each one will usually cover four months BUT in some years the first group will cover December-March, the second group, April-July, and the third group August-November. If you want to order films and have a question about which reel to choose, you may contact the Wilmette Family History Center (il_wilmette@ldsmail.net) for assistance. They have a key (a work in progress) which tells which months appear on which films.

Step 2c
If the certificate is a "Cook County" record before 1894, you can request a copy of the record from the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) or you can access the Cook County Birth Certificates (outside Chicago), 1878-1894 through your local Family History Center. Some "Cook County" birth certificates after 1894 were filmed with the Chicago birth certificates.

Step 3a
There are a number of reasons why a name might not appear in the birth index.

The birth might not have been reported when the child was born. A January 1912 article in the Chicago Tribune, for example, suggests that as few as 50% of infants born might have actually been registered at that time. If the individual lived into the 1940s, consider checking the Chicago Delayed Birth Index.

The surname might be spelled in an unexpected way in the index. If you have a birth month and year (from the 1900 census, for example) and you think the surname might be spelled incorrectly in the index, try searching entries in the Chicago Birth Registers, 1871-1915. These pages can serve as an alternate index.

Other sources of birth information include:

 * Newspaper Notices (though very few, if any, births seem to have been mentioned in the Chicago papers)
 * Baptismal records
 * School records (check Chicago Board of Education proceedings)
 * World War I draft registration cards (available at Ancestry.com)
 * Later passenger lists for United States citizens returning from abroad (available at Ancestry.com)
 * Passport applications (available on FHL microfilm and at Ancestry.com)