Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection includes an index to birth records from 1871 to 1915.

Early records were kept in register books beginning in 1877. By the early 1900s most events were recorded on pre-printed forms.

Legislation in 1819 required physicians to record births and deaths for their practices. The physicians then transmitted the information to their medical society, which published the information in the newspapers. In 1843, a law was passed allowing relatives of a deceased person to appear before the clerk of the county commissioner’s court and report information regarding the death. The recording of vital records was voluntary until 1877, so few births and deaths were recorded. A fire in 1871 destroyed the Cook County Courthouse and nearly all previous records housed there. The few existing originals that the county clerk created may be found in the county clerk’s office or in one of the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD).

In 1877 the State Board of Health was created to supervise registration of births and deaths. All births and deaths were to be reported to the county clerk by physicians. However, many were still not registered because the penalties for non-compliance were weak. In 1915 the state of Illinois gave the responsibility of recording births and deaths to local registrars, who reported the information to the county clerk and the State Board of Health (now known as the Illinois Department of Public Health). By 1919 an estimated 95% of the population was recorded in the vital records.

The records are kept by register books, which usually comprised one to two years' worth of births arranged in chronological order. However, some months may appear more than once in a given volume.

The Cook County Clerk's Office issues certified copies of Cook County birth certificates for events that occurred in Cook County, Illinois.

Image Visibility
Due to the provisions and guidelines of a revised contract with Cook County, FamilySearch has removed all images for Illinois, Cook County vital records from its historical records collections online; free indexes to the collections will remain. The images are available at Cook County Genealogy, a third party affiliate, for a fee. The images can be downloaded from the site.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Information found in most Illinois birth records may include:


 * Child’s name
 * Child's birth date and place of birth
 * Child's gender and race
 * Child's order of birth
 * Nationality and birth place of father
 * Nationality and birth place of mother
 * Full name and age of mother, including maiden name
 * Full name and age of father and his occupation
 * Name of medical attendants and and their address(es)

After 1916, the following information was added:


 * Birth date
 * Birth place
 * Full names of parents
 * Birth place of parents

How Do I Search This Collection?
To begin your search you will need to know:


 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate date of birth.
 * The names of the child's parents.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

Keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each parent to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Be aware that not all births are found in both the registers and the certificates, so you may need to search both collections to find your ancestor's birth record.
 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the parents. This is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify siblings and other relatives who may have been born in Cook County. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * The information in the records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after 1900.
 * Information can vary between one record to another.

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties.
 * If you know their religion, search for a church record of the birth.

Citing this Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

"Illinois, Cook County, Birth Registers, 1871-1915." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Citing Cook County Clerk. Cook County Courthouse, Chicago.
 * Collection Citation:

Top of Page