Is there a free site to find death records in the Chicago area? I am trying to find a lost and old relatives.?

Question

Is there a free site to find death records in the Chicago area? I am trying to find a lost and old relatives.?

Answer 1

The best place to start is the archives of the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribu...

http://www.suntimes.com/search/index.htm...

Then there's Legacy.com which is the modern obit archiving service:

http://www.legacy.com

Jesse White has done awesome things as the Secretary of State. Here's a page of public links through his office:

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/depart...

Otherwise, both the Harold Washington and Sulzer libraries have complete copies of all old newspaper films and the Vital Records office in the basement of the Daley Center, as well as the Cook County Clerk's office across the street from the Daley Center on Clark St., all have the complete copies of death records, as well as marriage and birth records, for both the City of Chicago and Cook County.

The National Archives Center at 75th and Pulaski (across the street from Daley College) is the repository for all federal records and researching in there is completely free. It's a glorious place to spend the day. Just call a day or two ahead to reserve your time.

Finally, the LDS Family History Center in Wilmette is a wonderful place to do local Chicago Research.

Answer 2

Hey Pat,

Start with the LDS site.  SSN records.  People finders is pretty good too.  If you use Zaba search, you can find living people - you might think have passed on but did not yet.

Answer 3

The state of Illinois provides two statewide death indexes online.

One is pre–1916 and the other 1916-1950.

NOT ALL COUNTIES are available. You can test your specific county by selecting your county and entering the surname SMITH. If there are no hits, then that county is not included in the index yet.

Illinois offers other databases at the link below.