Genealogy
For research, please contact Genealogy Lead Carol Zoladz at czoladz@lions-online.org, or call 815.939.4564 option 4.
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A volunteer is available to assist you in our Genealogy Department on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
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Our Genealogy Department provides patrons access to Ancestry.com
and is available for use anytime the Library is open.
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We also have microfilm of Chebanse and St. Anne newspapers. Please inquire for more specifics.
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Black and white copies and scans of 8.5"x11" pages are $.15 each.
Color copies and scans are $.50.
Helpful Databases
Kankakee County Clerk's Office - vital records, tax information, population information, genealogy records, passports, elections, forms
The Office of the Illinois Secretary of State - listings of Illinois State archives and databases
The Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society, serving the Kankakee County area and sharing information including cemetery records and listings, obituary indexes, county birth and death records, township maps and information, and more
In May 2019, The Daily Journal provided copyright clearance for the Kankakee Public Library to digitize the microfilm archive of The Daily Journal for the purpose of making it available online to the general public free of charge. The Kankakee Public Library used gift funds and grant support from the Community Foundation in order to digitize the Daily Journal microfilm. Olivet Nazarene University and Benner Library host the archive in their Institutional Repository, Digital Commons @ Olivet.
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Copyright clearance covers July 1854 through one year before the current date. Only the years 1854-2014 have been digitized from microfilm. As time permits, these files are manually combined into issues and added.
HeritageQuest Online provides genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, with coverage dating back as early as the 1700s.
