I Need More Help With Family Tree (Chicagoans, please!)?

Question

I asked a question a while ago about my family tree. (Well, not a while ago it was today...) Anyway, where in Chicago can I go to view records (e.g. Census records, marriage records, death records, etc.) I tried a bunch of libraries and they were of no help. I am in southern Chicago, not too far from downtown. So: Where can I go, what's the address, what can I view there, and will the people there help me out?

Answer 1

The Newberry Library is one of the best genealogy libraries in the country, and it's right downtown at 60 West Walton (just a couple blocks over from the Drake hotel).  Here's their website:

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/chicag...

You can also visit the Great Lakes Region branch of the National Archives, which is at 7358 South Pulaski, right by Midway Airport.  http://www.archives.gov/great-lakes/

If you have Catholic ancestors from Chicago, you can stop by the Chicago Archdoicese Archives (downtown at 711 West Monroe - a few blocks away from Union Station) and view baptism and marriage records from all the Chicago area parishes.  http://archives.archchicago.org/

And as someone has already said... your local LDS (Mormon) church gives you access to billions of records from all over the world, which you can borrow from the main library in Salt Lake City and view right there in your own hometown.  You can search the library catalog online:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/...

Then visit your nearest LDS church to order the microfilm:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/...

Answer 2

Call the LDS church Family History Center.  They are in the phone book.  You should have a big one in you city.  They do not charge a penny for you to use their center to look at any of the census or any other record of the past that they have at the center.

Click here and they can find one nearest you

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/...