A Day at the Archives Enriches Research

At this year's StLGS annual Family History Conference, “Get in Your Car and Go,” speakers emphasized the importance of researching at archives, libraries, and other non-internet sources. Here is a recent, personal example of exactly how such a trip can enrich your family history research and even solve a few mysteries.

A friends’ reunion in Chicago gave your blogger (who, this week, will continue in first person) the impetus I needed for a day of on-site research. For what gas costs right now, it would have made sense to fly up from St. Louis, but the idea of spending a day in the Illinois State Archives in Springfield had a lot of appeal, so I decided to join my friends a day late and indulge in some hands-on work with Illinois death certificates. Although there is a statewide index online and FamilySearch.org does have some Illinois death certificates digitized, the whole collection, from 1916 through 1946, is all in one spot in a building just across the parking lot from the beautiful Illinois State Capitol (pictured here). 

(photo by Ilene Murray, June 2022, used with permission)

As a fairly experienced researcher, I did my homework ahead of time, and it included:

• Preparing in advance by using the archives’ website. 
• Knowing what I could bring into the reading room, where personal items could be stored, where I could park for free, and what information I would need to have with me so I didn't waste time when I arrived.
• Using the online statewide death index to create a list of the date of death, exact location of death, and the certificate number for each person. (However, as I discovered, often the certificate numbers on the death index do not match what is in the archives, so the date of death and location turned out to be most important.)

What I learned as I worked at the archives:

• I should have been organized enough to have my list in chronological order, since the first thing I had to do was acquire microfilm numbers for every certificate I needed. In this archive, those numbers are pulled from four thick binders arranged by date and then by county. 
• Once I knew what microfilms I needed, there was good news/bad news. 
• The good news was that there are two modern microfilm readers with software that will zoom in, increase contrast, and otherwise enhance the images on the film. 
• The bad news was that the room in which I worked is tiny, and without a lot of room to spread out. If there had been anyone else in there with me, I would have had almost no room to set down my laptop and my legal pad on which I was taking citation notes.

Was it worth the trip? Absolutely! I had four pages of dates and locations, and seeing the actual certificates of some of those people solved several longstanding mysteries. (No, I did not even come close to finding four pages’ worth of certificates in just a few hours! More for the next trip!)

Why does a twenty-five year old who is an assistant manager in a successful business die suddenly? The death certificate explained, “Apoplexy” due to acute alcohol poisoning.  

Why does a father write a will indicating that his only son, one of his daughters, and his grandson are all “insane”? What family health history might be discovered here? The answer appeared, sadly, in the death certificates of both of the adult children: Huntington’s disease, a rare inherited degenerative disease that causes nerve damage in the brain. From further research, it seems the disease was passed on to several of the grandchildren as well.

These family revelations help in understanding our ancestors. We can sympathize with parents who lost a son to the youthful over-indulgence of drinking, and our hearts truly go out to a family caught in the unrelenting pain of a disease that destroys the brain and even today has no cure. Would I have discovered these facts if I had just relied on what is online? No. Getting in the car and going was the way to fill in the blanks and complete my knowledge of these family tragedies. Hope you can do the same!

Two ways in which you can get started . . .

1. Register to watch the digital recordings of our Family History Conference. They will be accessible until mid-August and will give you many ideas on how to prepare for a research trip and make the most of working in a research facility. Learn more on the StLGS website.

2. Come with us to Salt Lake City in October. Spend a week in the largest genealogical library in the world with two experienced group leaders and others who share your interest in genealogy. Registration for this year's trip is open now, but early registration will end on 30 June. Learn more and register for the trip on the StLGS website.