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United States Illinois  McHenry County

McHenry County Organization
County records are most often kept at the County Courthouse or another local repository. For further information about where the records for McHenry County are kept, see the McHenry County Courthouse page.

Historical Facts
McHenry County was named for who was a pioneer of White County, a soldier and was involved in politics as both an Illinois State Representative and Senator



McHenry County was created 16 January 1836 from Cook County.

Boundary Changes
Historically, all or part of the present county were parts of the following counties :

1831–1836  Cook 1831–1836   LaSalle 1825–1831   Putnam 1823–1825   Fulton 1821–1823   Pike 1819–1821   Clark 1816–1819   Crawford 1815–1816   Edwards 1812–1815   Madison 1801–1812   St. Clair 1795–1801   Knox, Northwest Territory

If your ancestor lived in what is now McHenry County prior to the county formation in 1836, you may find records mentioning your ancestor in one of the counties listed above.

McHenry County borders the following counties:


 * Boone
 * Cook
 * DeKalb
 * Kane
 * Kenosha County, Wisconsin
 * Lake
 * Walworth County, Wisconsin

Family History Centers
Crystal Lake Family History Center

480 N Walkup Ave Crystal Lake, IL 60014 815/459-7475

Family History Centers are branches of FamilySearch's Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and circulate microfilm and microfiche from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Contact the Crystal Lake Family History Center to learn more about their facilities and resources.

Cemeteries
Illinois cemetery records often identify birth, death, relationship, and military information, as well as religious affiliation.


 * Find A Grave can be searched by the name of a person or family to find where a person is buried. Usually gives birth and death dates often with a picture of the tombstone.  May give obituaries, names of family members and links to their information in Find A Grave.
 * Find A Grave also gives a list of cemeteries in McHenry County and links to the information for the individuals buried there.
 * McHenry Co. IL USGenWeb Tombstone Project usually gives the names of the deceased in alphabetical order by last name with birth and death dates plus any remarks.
 * Illinois Cemeteries by county.
 * The Family History Library Catalog lists . Some of the books or others may be on Google Books or available at public libraries.
 * ePodunk list of McHenry County cemeteries gives the names of the cemeteries in the county with a link to more information such as address, phone number, and web site.

Church Records
An index to the Early Records of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Johnsburg, McHenry County, Illinois, Volume I, 1852-1868 has been created by the McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society.

Court Records
22nd Judicial Circuit Court, Public Case Access to search for family court cases. Database also includes traffic violations, small claims, and criminal complaints.

African American
The following have information concerning African American research.


 * African American Research (US) has more information about the kinds of records


 * Illinois State Archives pamphlet on African American Research describes what records are at the State Archives with an online method for ordering records.
 * African-American Resources for Illinois

History
History of McHenry County, Illinois : together with sketches of its cities, villages and towns, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens : also a condensed History of Illinois, embodying accounts of pre-historic races, aborigines, Winnebago and Black Hawk wars, and a brief review of its civil and political history. Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co., 1885, 991 pgs. (Heritage Quest)

History of McHenry County, Illinois; Chicago: Munsell Pub. Co., 1922, 1076 pgs. (Heritage Quest)

Land and Property
1830–present Original land and property records for McHenry County are available at the County Recorder's Office.

Land records are extraordinarily accessible in McHenry County. The County Recorder's web site includes a free web search. The index to deeds, mortgages, affidavits, liens, and more can be searched by name and/or document type and/or date. The system can return a maximum of 200 hits, and begins with the most recent transactions first. Because the index contains thousands of entries, searchers may need to include a date range as well as surname, to ensure that the oldest records are included in the results.

Records from the original leather-bound first volume of the McHenry County Commissioners’ Court Minutesfrom 1837 - 1848 are available in PDF format online at the County Recorder's site, as well. This Board established precincts (townships would come later), set the rate for taxable property, and began the process of laying out roads and determining the location for the county seat. Because Lake County wasn't divided off until March of 1839, early Lake County information is included.

Copies of the original records are available as follows:


 * 1841-1945 Deed Index IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records. Information about how to use IRAD
 * 1841–1901 Deed Indexes
 * 1845-1945 Deed Record IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records. Information about how to use IRAD
 * 1845–1871 Deed Record first of 31 films

Addtional land records are also available:


 * Boyd, Gregory A. Family Maps of McHenry County, Illinois. Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Pub. Co.,2008. Plats the land of many nineteenth-century McHenry County residents. The publisher's bookstore includes a free online surname index.
 * McHenry County (Illinois) Land Atlas and Plat Book, 1985. Rockford, Illinois : Rockford Map Publishers, 1985.

Maps
http://gis.mchenrycountygis.org/athena/

Civil War
Civil War service men from McHenry County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies or regiments that were formed from men of McHenry County.

-3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry, Company A (at right, 1863).

-36th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company H.

-52nd Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company I.

-95th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I.

World War II
Draft cards have been digitzed and indexed, and are available at FamilySearch.org.

Crystal Lake Herald
Marriages, 1880-1979 -- These indexes represent a list of couples whose notice of marriage license issued, or marriage performed or wedding conducted, or news items for anniversaries celebrated, appeared in the weekly Crystal Lake Herald newspaper. Information was not necessarily limited to residents of Crystal Lake and/or Nunda Township. Researchers should look for variant spellings within each index.

The Index, broken down by 10 year intervals, gives:


 * Bride’s name
 * Groom’s name
 * Issue date and page

Woodstock Independent
1987-present

Algonquin
The Algonquin Area Newspapers Index includes obituaries appearing in the Northwest Herald and Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Countryside from January 1, 2005 - Present. Selected obituaries mentioning Algonquin or Lake in the Hills from the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier News are also included.

Crystal Lake/Nunda
The McHenry County Genealogical Society has created an index to the names of deceased individuals whose notice of death appeared in the weekly Crystal Lake Herald newspaper. Information was gleaned from obituaries, death notices, police reports, and newspaper articles and is not necessarily limited to residents of Crystal Lake and/or Nunda Township. It was not unusual for a death notice to appear months and even years after the event, particularly in the case of war dead. Researchers should scan several indexes when searching for the name of a specific individual and look for variant spellings within each index.

Index to Deaths Appearing in the Nunda (Crystal Lake) Herald


 * 1880-1890
 * 1891-1895
 * 1896-1900
 * 1901-1903
 * 1904-1905
 * 1906-1910

Index to Deaths Appearing in the Crystal Lake Herald


 * 1911-1915
 * 1916-1920
 * 1921-1925
 * 1926-1930
 * 1931-1935
 * 1936-1940
 * 1941-1945
 * 1946-1950
 * 1951-1955
 * 1956-1960
 * 1961-1965
 * 1966-1969
 * 1970-1973
 * 1974-1976
 * 1977-1979

Probate Records
An unspecified number of McHenry County probate records are available in the FamilySearch collection. Records include


 * 1886–1976 –Non-Probated Wills 1886-1976,
 * 1840–1843 –Probate Records 1840-1843,
 * 1844–1985 –Probate Records v. 4 1844-1985,and overlapping collects of
 * 1898–1923 –Will Records: 1898-1923 and 1915-1919.

County Courthouse
County records are most often kept at the County Courthouse or another local repository. For further information about where the records for McHenry County are kept, see the McHenry County Courthouse page.

IRAD
IRAD is a system of Illinois Regional Archives Depositories managed by the Illinois State Archives, housing the archival records of local Illinois counties, townships, municipalities and school districts. The seven Regional Depositories are housed on state university campuses scattered throughout Illinois.

Public Libraries
Algonquin Area Public Library

2600 Harnish Dr. Algonquin, IL 60102 (847) 458-6060

Genealogy and Local History collections at the Algonquin Area Public Library are described in the document Genealogy Pathfinder for Algonquin Library. Digital resources include the Algonquin Area Obituary Index, a searchable listing of selected obituaries mentioning Algonquin or Lake in the Hills from from the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier News beginning January 1, 2005.

The Illinois Digital Archives includes a collection of Algonquin and Lake in the Hills photos and documents.

Crystal Lake Public Library

126 Paddock Street Crystal Lake, IL 60014 815.459.1687 815.459.9581 fax

The Crystal Lake Public Library has a genealogy collection that is helpful in McHenry County research. On-line resources include indexes to the the Lake Avenue, Mt. Thabor, and Union cemeteries.

Marengo-Union Library

200 S. State St. Marengo, Illinois 60152 815/568-8236

Woodstock Public Library

414 W. Judd Street Woodstock, IL 60098 815/338-0542 http://www.woodstockpubliclibrary.org/

A significant genealogical resource available through the Woodstock Public Library's Genealogy and Local History web site is the on-line searchable Woodstock Surname Index, an every-name index of 13 local history publications.

Many of the library's local history pamphlets and local ephemera have been digitized are available on the LookAtIllinois web site. How to Research Your Old House is an excellent research guide to library collections and county records.

The library has made its local historic photos collection available on-line through Flickr, in the Woodstock Illinois Historic Photographs collection.

Reference librarians are very knowledgeable about Woodstock-area genealogical resources, and are accessible through the library's Contact Us on-line reference request form.

Societies
Crystal Lake Historical Society

PO Box 1151 Crystal Lake, IL 60039-1151

The Crystal Lake Historical Society is located in the Colonel Palmer House at the intersection of Illinois Route 176 and Terra Cotta Road in Crystal Lake. Their Research/Archives Room resources include newspapers from 1875, published county and local histories, atlases, maps and family files. On-line resources include the Index to Death Notices/Obituaries in the Nunda/Crystal Lake Herald, which provides details of name, age, date of death and date of burial for more than 33,000 people, dating back to 1875.

Illinois State Historical Society

P.O. Box 1800 Springfield, IL 62705-1800 217/525-2781

The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1950-2006)

Illinois Heritage (1997-2008)

Births
The original McHenry County birth records are held by the McHenry County Clerk and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Copies of birth records for McHenry County are available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Northern Illinois University and the Family History Library as follows:


 * 1849-1900–Birth Certificates, Delayed IRAD–NIU. Search for McHenry records. How to use IRAD
 * 1849-1916–Birth Record Index IRAD–NIU. Search for McHenry records. How to use IRAD
 * 1849-1900–Birth Certificates, Delayed
 * 1877-1902–Birth Records IRAD–NIU. Search for McHenry records. How to use IRAD
 * 1878–1902–Birth Record Index
 * 1878-1902–Birth Records

Marriages
The original McHenry County birth records are held by the McHenry County Clerk and the Illinois Department of Health.

Copies of McHenry County marriage records are available as follows:


 * 1837-1923–Marriage Records IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records. How to use IRAD
 * 1837–1923–Marriage Registers and Returns, 1837-1923
 * 1877-present– McHenry County Clerk - Vital Records Information and Request Form
 * Marriages in McHenry County may also have been mentioned in area newspapers.

The following indexes and abstracts of marriage records are available:


 * 1837-1900–Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 Search for McHenry County marriages in this online index then find the complete marriage record in one of the above-mentioned repositories.
 * 1837-1923–Marriage Record Index IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records. How to use IRAD
 * 1878–1899–Stengele, Linda, et al. McHenry County, Illinois, Marriages . Crystal Lake, Illinois: McHenry County Illinois Geneal. Society, 2003–2006.  FHL lacks volume 1 and it is no longer in print.

Deaths
1877–present - The original McHenry County death records 1877-present are housed at the County Clerk's office. The following copies are available:


 * 1877–1909 IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records. Information about how to use IRAD
 * 1878–1909 Death Records and Index, 1878-1909
 * 1877–1924 Death index IRAD-NIU Search for McHenry records.
 * 1916–1950 Index to McHenry County Deaths Use the index to discover the death date and death certificate number for an ancestor, then contact the McHenry County Clerk to order the corresponding death certificate.

McHenry County death certificates prior to 1916 are not included in the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre–1916 on the Illinois State Archives web site (as of July 2011).

Voter Registration
The 1877 Biographical Directory of the Tax-payers and Voters of McHenry County includes listings of men registered to vote or who paid taxes in 1877. Some listings include brief biographies giving his occupation, the date and place of birth for both the man and his wife, their marriage date, and the number of children.

Web Sites

 * McHenry County, Illinois Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * McHenry County, Illinois Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)