Genealogy Resources

Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition provides unprecedented access to family history via documents that record the lineage of individuals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more with billions of unique, full-text primary sources and enhanced images.

Family Search

Search billions of ancestor profiles, photographs, and historical documents at once—absolutely free. Family Search gathers a variety of important documents that you can use to tell the story of your family. Those documents record key life events of your ancestors, including: cemetery records, birth/death/marriage records, census records, obituary records, and more.

Fold 3

Fold 3 provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served. Search popular U.S. history resources and popular genealogy resources.

Heritage Quest

With more than 4.4 billion records, Heritage Quest delivers an essential collection of genealogical and historical sources—with coverage dating back to the 1700s—that can help people find their ancestors and discover a place’s past.

Newspapers.com

With Newspapers.com, search for obituaries, marriage announcements, birth announcements, social pages, national and local news articles, sports, advertisements, entertainment, fashion and lifestyle pages, comics, and more.

Newspaper Archive

Explore your family history and discover key historical events with Newspaper Archive, one of the world’s largest online newspaper archives. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy for you to quickly explore historical content.

America’s Historical Newspapers

Explore early American history to support genealogical and local history research, school homework assignments and more with America’s Historical Newspapers. Features more than 1,100 historical newspapers from all 50 states. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device.

HeritageHub

Explore your family history with the premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704 – today. HeritageHub helps you easily identify relatives, uncover new information and potentially unknown family members. Includes deep coverage from all 50 states, hard-to-find content from the mid 1900’s, and original obituary images. Access is available 24/7.

America’s News

America’s News helps you explore and stay informed on local and national topics, people and events in areas such as business, health, education, jobs and careers, political and social issues and more. Features a wide variety of credible, vetted news sources spanning the U.S. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device.

NewsBank

NewsBank includes archived full-text articles published in the Mt. Vernon Register from 2007 to 2018 featuring local news, obituaries, issues, events, people and much more.

Note: Library card barcodes that start with the numbers “22864” will not work for remote access. Substitute those numbers with “20183” for access.

Illinois Newspaper Project

The objective of the Illinois Newspaper Project is to make all the information the University of Illinois has discovered about Illinois newspapers available to you. It contains comprehensive information about the newspapers identified and titles preserved by microfilming.

American History & Genealogy Project

The American History & Genealogy Project accumulates genealogy data into an online home where users can easily navigate and find the information they need, if available. This project website consolidates the material collected and spread across the web into one domain and a unified design, making it easier for you to find the information you are looking for.

Yesterdays of Hamilton County, Illinois

Yesterdays of Hamilton County, Illinois contains genealogical information and documents pertaining to Hamilton County and Southern Illinois. Also contains links to many other genealogy resources.

Note: If the above links are unavailable, check the WaybackMachine for access.

Digitally Archived Texts

Wall’s History of Jefferson County, Illinois

By John A. Wall; published by B. F. Bowen & Co. in 1909. Full text of this book, from the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

History of Jefferson County, Illinois

By William Henry Perrin; published by Globe Pub. Co. in 1883. Full text of this book, from the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Clinton, Washington, Marion and Jefferson Counties, Illinois

Published in 1894 by Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, IL. Contains biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with biographies and portraits of all the governors of the state and the presidents of the United States. Full text of this book, from the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

United States official pictures of the world war showing America’s participation; selected from the official files of the War department with unofficial introductory photographs

Selected from the Official Files of the War Department, this is a captivating Pictorial Account of America’s participation and role in World War I. Profusely Illustrated with Sepia Photos (many full page) with descriptive captions. Contains Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients with their Photos & Biographies. Combat units listed with their commanders and movements, and many others. Includes the Final Report submitted by General John J. Pershing.