Introducing new member features! Thanks for being a part of our community and for your support!

For technical assistance with any of these features (or questions about digitization for your own family), please reach out to Jason at opensourceancestry@gmail.com

Over the last 4-5 months we have digitized many new things. City Directories, Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Obituaries, old historic photos, and more. We’re making these available to all of you.

In addition to new scanning equipment we’ve deployed a suite of open-source cloud-based apps for managing our growing catalog but also for making our materials more widely accessible.

From this main page we will keep an updated list of links to these new features and other useful things.

Please keep in mind this is all still a work in progress but we would love for you to check it out welcome feedback or questions anytime. We’re also happy to help you and your family with your own genealogical research and historical preservation.

Updated 01-18-2025

Resource	Link	Notes
Illinois Societies Finder	CLICK HERE	Quickly find genealogical and historical societies all across Illinois with our new tool for 2025. * Exclusively for Members only.
Member Videos*	CLICK HERE	The beginning of what’s to be an educational and entertaining video library. Curated just for our member community. Beginning with our “Who Lived in My Home” webinar. * Exclusively for Members only.
Collections*	CLICK HERE	Advanced open-source cataloging software. Please request access via e-mail. * Exclusively for Members only.
– City Directories*		* Exclusively for Members only.
– Birth Certificates*		* Exclusively for Members only.
– Death Certificates*		* Exclusively for Members only.
– Publications*		* Exclusively for Members only.
– Obituaries*		* Exclusively for Members only.
	*	Have questions? Please reach out via e-mail.