Cook County Records

Cook
County
Records
Going
Online
By Dick Eastman
Genealogists researching Cook
County, Illinois ancestors will be
interested to learn that many of the
records they seek will soon be available
online. This beats the old method of
ordering by mail or traipsing down to a
musty office in Chicago's Loop. If all
goes as planned, newly digitized
versions of county records such as birth
and death certificates and marriage
licenses will be available beginning in
January.
The Web site is part of a massive
yearlong effort to digitize the county's
24 million vital records, which date to
1871, when record-keeping began after
the Chicago Fire wiped out previous
stockpiles.
Scanning and indexing each record
was completed in June, and the county
is uploading about 1 million files per
week into a server, a process that is
expected to be complete by the end of
the year. Documents available online
will include birth certificates that are at
least 75 years old, marriage certificates
more than 50 years old, and death
certificates more than 20 years old. No
Social Security numbers will be
available on the online documents.
For more information, you can read
an article in the Chicago Tribune,
written by Jason Meisner, at http://
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/
west/chi-digital07sep07,0,1385623.
story.
Posted by Dick Eastman on September
07, 2007
Permission granted to republish