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McHenry County, Illinois
Map
Location in the state of Illinois, United States Genealogy
Location of Illinois in the U.S.
Facts
Founded:	January 16, 1836
County Seat	Woodstock
Courthouse
Address	McHenry Co. Government Ctr 2200 North Seminary Avenue Woodstock, IL 60098 (815)334-4000
Website: mchenrycountyil.gov
Named for: William McHenry

United States Genealogy Illinois, United States Genealogy McHenry County

Civil Records

Record Type:	Birth	Marriage	Death	Census	Land	Probate
records begin:	1877	1837	1877	1840	1841	1840

Birth

Birth records for McHenry County are available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Northern Illinois Univeristy:

• Birth Certificates, Delayed - 1849-1900
• Birth Records, 1877-1902
• Birth Record Index, 1849-1916

Birth records from 1877-present can be ordered directly from the McHenry County Clerk using the Vital Records Application Form.

Marriage

1837-1900	Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900
1837-1923	Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) - Northern Illinois University
1877-present	McHenry County Clerk - Vital Records Information and Request Form

Search the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763–1900 at the Illinois State Archives web site for McHenry County marriages from 1837-1900.

Marriage records from 1837-1923 are available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Northern Illinois Univeristy.

Marriage records from 1877-present can be ordered directly from the McHenry County Clerk using the Vital Records Application Form.

Marriages in McHenry County may also have been mentioned in area newspapers.

Death

An Index to McHenry County Death records from 1916-1950 is available as part of the Database of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916-1950 on the Illinois State Archives web site.  Use the index to discover the death date and death certificate number for an ancestor, then contact the McHenry County Clerk to order the corresponding death certificate.

McHenry County death certificates prior to 1916 are not included in the Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre–1916 on the Illinois State Archives web site (as of July 2011).

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1840	2,578	—
1850	14,978	481.0%
1860	22,089	47.5%
1870	23,762	7.6%
1880	24,908	4.8%
1890	26,114	4.8%
1900	29,759	14.0%
1910	32,509	9.2%
1920	33,164	2.0%
1930	35,079	5.8%
1940	37,311	6.4%
1950	50,656	35.8%
1960	84,210	66.2%
1970	111,555	32.5%
1980	147,897	32.6%
1990	183,241	23.9%
2000	260,077	41.9%
2010	308,760	18.7%
Source: "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau.

Court

22nd Judicial Circuit Court, Public Case Access to search for family court cases.  Database also includes traffic violations, small claims, and criminal complaints.

Land

Walk-In:
McHenry County Recorder
Administration Building
667 Ware Rd.
Woodstock, IL 60098

By mail:
McHenry County Recorder
Government Center
2200 N. Seminary Ave.
Woodstock, IL 60098

Land records are extraordinarily accessible in McHenry County.  The County Recorder's web site includes a free web search.  The index to deeds, mortgages, affidavits, liens, and more can be searched by name and/or document type and/or date.  The system can return a maximum of 200 hits, and begins with the most recent transactions first. Because the index contains thousands of entries, searchers may need to include a date range as well as surname, to ensure that the oldest records are included in the results.

Records from the original leather-bound first volume of the McHenry County Commissioners’ Court Minutes from 1837 - 1848 are available in PDF format online at the County Recorder's site, as well.  This Board established precincts (townships would come later), set the rate for taxable property, and began the process of laying out roads and determining the location for the county seat. Because Lake County wasn't divided off until March of 1839, early Lake County information is included.

Family Maps of McHenry County, Illinois (2008) plats the land of many nineteenth-century McHenry County residents. The publisher's bookstore includes a free online surname index. FHL Book 977.322 E7b

Military

Civil War

Civil War service men from McHenry County served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies or regiments that were formed from men of McHenry County.

-3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry, Company A (at right, 1863).

-36th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company H.

-52nd Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Company I.

-95th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I.

World War II

Draft cards have been digitzed and indexed, and are available at FamilySearch.org.

Probate

An unspecified number of McHenry County probate records are available in the FamilySearch collection Illinois, Probate Records, 1819-1970.  Records include Non-Probated Wills 1886-1976, Probate Records 1840-1843, Probate Records v. 4 1844-1985,and overlapping collects of Will Records: 1898-1923 and 1915-1919.

Voter Registration

The 1877 Biographical Directory of the Tax-payers and Voters of McHenry County includes listings of men registered to vote or who paid taxes in 1877. Some listings include brief biographies giving his occupation, the date and place of birth for both the man and his wife, their marriage date, and the number of children.

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Community Records and Resources

Ethnic Research

African American

The following have information concerning African American research.

• African American Genealogy (US) has more information about the kinds of records

• Illinois State Archives pamphlet on African American Research describes what records are at the State Archives with an online method for ordering records.
• African American Resources for Illinois

Cemeteries

Illinois cemetery records often identify birth, death, relationship, and military information, as well as religious affiliation.

• Find A Grave can be searched by the name of a person or family to find where a person is buried.  Usually gives birth and death dates often with a picture of the tombstone.  May give obituaries, names of family members and links to their information in Find A Grave.
• Find A Grave also gives a list of cemeteries in McHenry County and links to the  information for the individuals buried there.
• McHenry Co. IL USGenWeb Tombstone Project usually gives the names of the deceased in alphabetical order by last name with birth and death dates plus any remarks. 
• Illinois Cemeteries by county.
• The Family History Library Catalog lists some records of cemeteries in McHenry County.  Some of the books or others may be on Google Books or available at public libraries.
• ePodunk list of McHenry County cemeteries gives the names of the cemeteries in the county with a link to more information such as address, phone number, and web site.

Church Records

McHenry County has had congregations of the following Christian denominations at some point in time:

Catholic

An index to the Early Records of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Johnsburg, McHenry County, Illinois, Volume I, 1852-1868 has been created by the McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society.

Baptist

The Baptist church of Woodstock was organized in the old court house on May 12, 1847, Elder Adams officiating. The society started with about twenty members and erected their first house of worship in 1858. Unable to manage the debt, the property was sold first to the Methodists, then to the Universalists, and eventually to the German Lutherns. That church burned in 1893. In 1866 the Baptist society built a church west of the court house.

Local Histories

History of McHenry County, Illinois : together with sketches of its cities, villages and towns, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens : also a condensed History of Illinois, embodying accounts of pre-historic races, aborigines, Winnebago and Black Hawk wars, and a brief review of its civil and political history.  Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co., 1885, 991 pgs. (Heritage Quest)

History of McHenry County, Illinois; Chicago: Munsell Pub. Co., 1922, 1076 pgs. (Heritage Quest)

Maps

http://gis.mchenrycountygis.org/athena/

Libraries and Societies

Algonquin Area Public Library

2600 Harnish Dr.
Algonquin, IL 60102
(847) 458-6060

Genealogy and Local History collections at the Algonquin Area Public Library are described in the document Genealogy Pathfinder for Algonquin Library. Digital resources include the Algonquin Area Obituary Index, a searchable listing of selected obituaries mentioning Algonquin or Lake in the Hills from from the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier News beginning January 1, 2005.

The Illinois Digital Archives includes a collection of Algonquin and Lake in the Hills photos and documents.

Crystal Lake Family History Center

480 N Walkup Ave
Crystal Lake, IL  60014
815/459-7475

Family History Centers are branches of FamilySearch's Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and circulate microfilm and microfiche from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Contact the Crystal Lake Family History Center to learn more about their facilities and resources.

Crystal Lake Historical Society

PO Box 1151
Crystal Lake, IL  60039-1151

The Crystal Lake Historical Society is located in the Colonel Palmer House at the intersection of Illinois Route 176 and Terra Cotta Road in Crystal Lake. Their Research/Archives Room resources include newspapers from 1875, published county and local histories, atlases, maps and family files. On-line resources include the Index to Death Notices/Obituaries in the Nunda/Crystal Lake Herald, which provides details of name, age, date of death and date of burial for more than 33,000 people, dating back to 1875.

Crystal Lake Public Library

126 Paddock Street
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
815.459.1687
815.459.9581 fax

The Crystal Lake Public Library has a genealogy collection that is helpful in McHenry County research. On-line resources include indexes to the the Lake Avenue, Mt. Thabor, and Union cemeteries.

Illinois State Historical Society

P.O. Box 1800
Springfield, IL 62705-1800
217/525-2781

The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1950-2006)

Illinois Heritage (1997-2008)

Marengo-Union Library

200 S. State St.
Marengo, Illinois 60152
815/568-8236

Woodstock Public Library

414 W. Judd Street
Woodstock, IL 60098
815/338-0542
http://www.woodstockpubliclibrary.org/

A significant genelogical resource available through the Woodstock Public Library's Genealogy and Local History web site is the on-line searchable Woodstock Surname Index, an every-name index of 13 local history publications. 

Many of the library's local history pamphlets and local ephemera have been digitized are available on the LookAtIllinois web site. How to Research Your Old House is an excellent research guide to library collections and county records.

The library has made its local historic photos collection available on-line through Flickr, in the Woodstock Illinois Historic Photographs collection. 

Reference librarians are very knowledgeable about Woodstock-area genealogical resources, and are accessible through the library's Contact Us on-line reference request form.

Newspapers

Crystal Lake Herald 

Marriages, 1880-1979 --  These indexes represent a list of couples whose notice of marriage license issued, or marriage performed or wedding conducted, or news items for anniversaries celebrated, appeared in the weekly Crystal Lake Herald newspaper. Information was not necessarily limited to residents of Crystal Lake and/or Nunda Township. Researchers should look for variant spellings within each index.

The Index, broken down by 10 year intervals, gives:

• Bride’s name
• Groom’s name
• Issue date and page

Woodstock Independent

1987-present

Obituaries

Algonquin

The Algonquin Area Newspapers Index includes obituaries appearing in the Northwest Herald and Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Countryside from January 1, 2005 - Present. Selected obituaries mentioning Algonquin or Lake in the Hills from the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier News are also included.

Crystal Lake/Nunda

The McHenry County Genealogical Society has created an index to the names of deceased individuals whose notice of death appeared in the weekly Crystal Lake Herald newspaper. Information was gleaned from obituaries, death notices, police reports, and newspaper articles and is not necessarily limited to residents of Crystal Lake and/or Nunda Township. It was not unusual for a death notice to appear months and even years after the event, particularly in the case of war dead. Researchers should scan several indexes when searching for the name of a specific individual and look for variant spellings within each index.

Index to Deaths Appearing in the Nunda (Crystal Lake) Herald

• 1880-1890
• 1891-1895
• 1896-1900
• 1901-1903
• 1904-1905
• 1906-1910

Index to Deaths Appearing in the Crystal Lake Herald

• 1911-1915
• 1916-1920
• 1921-1925
• 1926-1930
• 1931-1935
• 1936-1940
• 1941-1945
• 1946-1950
• 1951-1955
• 1956-1960
• 1961-1965
• 1966-1969
• 1970-1973
• 1974-1976
• 1977-1979

History and Geography

McHenry County was created 16 January 1836 from Cook County.  Historically, all or part of the present county were parts of the following counties:

1831–1836   Cook
1831–1836   LaSalle
1825–1831   Putnam
1823–1825   Fulton
1821–1823   Pike
1819–1821   Clark
1816–1819   Crawford
1815–1816   Edwards
1812–1815   Madison
1801–1812   St. Clair
1795–1801   Knox, Northwest Territory

If your ancestor lived in what is now McHenry County prior to the county formation in 1836, you may find records mentioning your ancestor in one of the counties listed above.

Neighboring Counties

McHenry County borders the following counties:

• Boone
• Cook
• DeKalb
• Kane
• Kenosha County, Wisconsin Genealogy
• Lake
• Walworth County, Wisconsin Genealogy

Web Sites

• Family History Library Catalog
• McHenry County, Illinois Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)