The Local History & Genealogy Room

The Local History & Genealogy Room contains information in the following formats: print, maps, microfilm, and microfiche.  Please check the library’s catalog for specific titles.  If we don’t have the specific title that you are looking for, remember that we can Inter-Library Loan most items with your Peoria Public Library card.

Some of the contents found in this room are:

Print

• American Genealogical and Biographical Index
• Atlases – atlases include some landowner and biographical information
• 1873 Peoria County Atlas
• 1896 Peoria County Atlas
• Cemetery indexes
• Current issues of society quarterlies (brown file cabinet, please ask a staff person for assistance)
• Family Group Sheets  (brown file cabinet, please ask a staff person for assistance)
• Family histories
• Federal Census Index
• Genealogy quarterlies and newsletters  - current year copies
• Journals, magazines, and periodicals – such as the Illinois Historical Journal
• Marriage records
• Obituary indexes
• Peoria City Directory (print from 1961 forward, earlier years are on microfilm)
• Peoria history manuscripts (brown file cabinet, please ask a staff person for assistance)
• Periodicals pertinent to Local History & Genealogy
• Society quarterlies
• WPA Manuscripts  (brown file cabinet, please ask a staff person for assistance)
• Microfiche (Two gray cabinets with a contents index on top)
• Includes family genealogies, vital records, county histories, diaries, and magazines

Microfilm (Several gray cabinets along the North wall)

Includes:

• Newspapers
• Peoria newspapers
• Peoria Journal Star and its predecessors
• Chicago Tribune newspaper 1972 –
• Peoria Labor newspapers  1900-2002
• German language Peoria newspapers (see our library catalog for details)
• Peoria Daily Record/Legal Record  1933-2000
• Penny Press and Observer (see our library catalog for details)
• Shooting Times  1960-1996
• Selected county newspapers such as:
• Princeville, Chillicothe, Brimfield, Glasford, Elmwood
• (See our library catalog for details)
• Other materials on microfilm are
• 1880 and 1900 Illinois Soundex   (Soundex Index to the federal census for Illinois)
• Adjutant General Index for Illinois for the Civil War, Mexican War, Black Hawk War, and Spanish American War
• Census - Illinois State Census 1825-1865
• Census - selected Illinois counties of Federal Censuses 1820 – 1930
• New England Historical Genealogical Record (through v. 59), 1847 –1905
• Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
• Papers of Robert Ingersoll
• Peoria City Directories from 1861—1960
• Peoria Delinquent Tax records 1837 – 1910
• Peoria Telephone books from 1923 – 1962
• Shooting Times 1960-1996
• Springdale Cemetery Index and Interment Records from 1857 – 1991

For your use, the equipment in the Local History and Genealogy Room includes:

• computers for local history and genealogical research
• microfilm and microfiche cabinets
• microfilm/microfiche reader/copiers
• photocopier (8.5”x11” paper, black and white copies only)
• worktables

All copies from the computers, microfilm/microfiche reader/copiers, and the photocopier are $.10 per page.