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DeKalb County History and Information |
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County History |
Court Records |
Vital Records |
CENSUS Records |
TAX Records |
Military Records |
Church & Cemetery | Maps & Atlases | Genealogy Addresses | Genealogy Related Sites | |
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DeKalb County was created on March 4, 1837 (Laws, 1837, p. 97) and was formed from Kane County. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Kane County (1836–1837), LaSalle County (1831–1835), Putnam County (1825–1831), Fulton County (1823–1825), Pike County (1821–1823), Clark County (1819–1821), Crawford County (1816–1819), Edwards County (1815–1816), Madison County (1812–1815) and St. Clair County (1795–1812). The County was named for Johann de Kalb, a German baron, who served in the Colonies during the Revolution, and was mortally wounded at Camden, South Carolina in 1780. The County Seat is Sycamore . Prior County Seats was Orange—Name later changed to Sycamore (1837–1839), Coltonville (1839–1840) and Sycamore (1840–Present). See also County History for more historical details. Counties adjacent to De Kalb County are Boone County (north), McHenry County (northeast), Kane County (east), Kendall County (southeast), LaSalle County (south), Lee County (west), Ogle County (west), Winnebago County (northwest). DeKalb County Townships include Afton (Formed from DeKalb and Clinton on February 18, 1856), Clinton, Cortland (First named Richland, then changed to Pampas on November 20, 1850 and to Cortland on February 1, 1865), DeKalb (Name changed from Orange on November 20, 1850), Franklin, Genoa, Kingston, Malta (Formed as Etna from DeKalb in September, 1856; name changed from Etna in December, 1858), Mayfield (Name changed from Liberty on November 20, 1850), Milan (Formed from Shabbona and Malta on February 23, 1858), Paw Paw (Formed in March, 1850), Pierce (Formed from Squaw Grove and Pampas before 1853), Sandwich (Formed from Somonauk on July 14, 1896), Shabbona, Somonauk, South Grove (Name changed from Vernon on November 20, 1850), Squaw Grove, Sycamore, Victor (Formed from Clinton about 1853) Cities, Towns and Communities include Cortland, DeKalb, Genoa, Hinckley, Kingston, Kirkland, Lee, Malta, Maple Park - Mostly in Kane County, Illinois, Sandwich, Shabbona, Somonauk, Sycamore, Waterman
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The Official County website is located at http://www.dekalbcounty.org/. All departments below at located at the DeKalb County Courthouse, Administration Building, 110 E. Sycamore Street, Sycamore, IL 60178 , unless a different address is listed below. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. DeKalb County Circuit Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1837 and Court Records from 1838 and is located at 133 West State Street, Sycamore, IL 60178; (815) 895-7138, FAX: (815) 895-7140; Hours: 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M., mjosh@dekalbcounty.org DeKalb County Recorder has Land Records from 1838 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (815) 895-7149, FAX: (815) 895-7148, sholmes@dekalbcounty.org DeKalb County Clerk has Birth / Death Records from 1877 and Marriage Records from 1837 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (815) 895-7149, FAX: (815) 895-7148, sholmes@dekalbcounty.org
Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Court Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Court Records by clicking the link below:
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Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, 605 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL 62702-5097. It can take up to 6 weeks to get a vital record from Illinois. A number of resources are available for individuals doing genealogical research using vital records filed in the state of Illinois. Births and deaths before January 1, 1916 and marriages before January 1, 1962 are recorded only in the office of the county clerk where the event occurred. Most county clerks have indexes to the records that are prior to 1916 that are available for the purpose of genealogical research. These indexes generally provide the name, date and place of occurrence and are located in county courthouses located throughout the state. Although self-service access to the indexes is generally permitted, the law limits physical access to the individual records to the clerk's staff. When you locate a record from the index, it will be necessary for the clerk to pull the record for you once you have paid the appropriate search fee. Please check with the county clerk for fees and policies on reviewing indexes.
Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
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Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for DeKalb County, Illinois are 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your Family Tree in DeKalb County, Illinois are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880.There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms. See Also Statewide Records that exist for Illinois Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Census Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Census Records by clicking the link below: |
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Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Ohio and other states. You can view rotating animated maps for Illinois showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Maps. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Maps by clicking the link below: |
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The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Military Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Military Records by clicking the link below:
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The first known tax authorization in Illinois fell under the jurisdiction of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio. The tax was based on every hundred acres of unimproved uncleared prairie or wood land, divided into three classes based on quality of earth surface and soil. The rates were thirty, twenty, and ten cents, to be paid annually. Property with delinquent taxes was sold at public auction. There do not appear to be any surviving tax records from this territorial period. Beginning with statehood, tax records form a large part of county archival material. The 1819 laws provided the first taxation process, imposing taxes on land, bank stock owned, slaves and indentured negroes or mulattoes, plus a poor tax. The tax was collected by the county with income divided between the county and state. Taxpayers lists were eliminated in 1824, and in 1825 a county road tax and school taxes were enacted. Original and microfilmed tax records at Illinois Regional Archives Depositories include taxable land lists, assessors books, railroad tax books, road tax records, and collectors books, the earliest record dated 1817. Other county tax records are located in county seats. Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Tax Records by clicking the link below: |
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The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over. Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
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There are many churches and cemeteries in DeKalb County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the DeKalb County Tombstone Transcription Project. Despite the early Catholic missionaries in Illinois, their church had almost totally disappeared from the state by the time of the American Revolution. Later migration of English-speaking Catholics reestablished the church in the state. In 1850 the largest religious denomination in Illinois was the Methodists. Baptists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Congregationalists followed. Episcopalians had organized in the state in 1835, the Disciples of Christ were in Illinois prior to 1830, and the Lutherans grew in numbers with the German and Scandinavian emigration of the 1840s. The Genealogical Society of Utah and the Daughters of the American Revolution have compiled cemetery records for the state of Illinois. Soldiers' Burial Places in State of Illinois for Wars 1774-1898 is available on thirty-one reels of microfilm from the FHL. Local genealogical societies may have information and possible printed records of cemeteries in their locale. Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
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When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for DeKalb County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing DeKalb County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
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DeKalb County was officially formed on March 4, 1837. It had first been formalized as part of Kane County a year earlier. For a long time before that it had been known as the Kishwaukee country - a land of giant trees, fertile soil, abundant game and many native American villages. The popular thought among many historians is that the first non-red Americans to come to DeKalb County were the troops under the direction of General Winfield Scott in pursuit of Black Hawk in 1832. But within the villages of native Americans in or near what is now Sycamore, Cortland, Kingston, Somonauk, Paw Paw and Shabbona Grove it was not uncommon to find families with surnames such as LeClair, Crouix, Peltier and Caldwell. Perhaps it should be remembered that at one time those who were not members of the white race were regarded as less than human or at least not worthy of mention in chronicles of history. In the earliest of census reports of DeKalb County there were either a couple of African Americans, or lunatics, since both were lumped into the same category. The African Americans were here as early as the late 1700s as some historians have reluctantly had to admit that indeed it was Jean Baptist Pointe DuSable, and not Hubbard and Kinzie, who first settled in the city now called Chicago. One of Rockford's founding fathers was Lewis Lemons who arrived as a slave and purchased his freedom. Certainly after the massacre of Black Hawk's band of Sac at Bad Axe Wisconsin in 1832, DeKalb County and northwest Illinois received a lot of attention in the eastern press. Reports of rich, tillable soil grabbed the attention of farmers in the east who were longing to have their own farms. In the Spring of 1835 all the remaining Potawatomi, except Shabbona's village, were gathered at the Paw Paw Grove Rendezvous and forced to march at gun-point to Jacksonville where they joined other Potawatomi in the Trail of Death march to Council Bluffs, Iowa. After this removal settlers began pouring in. The old Galena Trail which ran through Genoa was, in part, also once known as Mound Builders Trail - reflecting a time when the Mississippian culture was dominant in the area. The Illini, Kickapoo, the Sac, Fox, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Chippewa and Winnebagos all at one time treasured this area for its abundance of game and ease for corn growing. The French colonialists once thought so much of this area they deemed it New France. Their first glowing reports of this area appear in the 1630s. Not long after they found themselves in competition for fur trade with the British and eventually lost the competition and the French and Indian War of 1763. No sooner had the British established a monopoly in the fur trade with area tribes than did the competition begin with the Americans. And war soon followed. A treaty of peace ending the American Revolution, signed by Britain and America on September 3, 1783, ceded all previously held British territories to the new American government, except existing British forts throughout the northwestern territories, including northern Illinois. After the Revolutionary War the American government sought to improve relations with the Potawatomi, Sac and Winnebago of this area in hopes of weaning their loyalty to Britain. The Indian Affairs Ordinance of August 7, 1786 banned white settlers, except those with diplomatic credentials or official business with the tribes, from entering or trading in the Indian country. This effort was undermined by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company who had by 1808 established an extensive trading network with the tribes of this area - and had introduced whiskey as a form of currency. The American Fur Company maps identify the villages in the Kishwaukee country that became DeKalb County as early as 1809. These villages were identified as trading centers so it is likely that white traders indeed were in DeKalb County. With the population boom of Galena in the 1820s there were many travelers coming through what is now Genoa and Kingston via the Galena Trail. The DeKalb County Courthouse stands as a silent witness to 93 years of the county's history. It is not the original courthouse. It is the third generation, "born" in 1905 at a price of around $100,000. Somewhere within the four fluted columns, in the walls made of Bedford buffed stone, lies a testimony of the fortitude of Sycamore's founding fathers. Not everyone thought it a good idea for the courthouse to be located in Sycamore. There were numerous efforts to have the courthouse, and the designation as DeKalb County's seat, placed in other communities. Some have called these efforts "skullduggery," but the verdict handed down in history reflects that Sycamore is the county seat and home of one of the grand courthouses in the country. The county had just been formed in 1837 and the title of county seat was coveted. Rufus went so far as to hold an election to determine the site of the county seat ó without bothering to notify anyone who was not a resident of Coltonville. This maneuver was cancelled by an act of the Illinois Assembly and finally Sycamore was chosen as the county seat. Perhaps Madden and Colton were right to put so much effort into gaining the title of county seat for their communities. Brush Point and Coltonville did not last long after the decision was made in favor of Sycamore. A log structure, serving as the courthouse, was erected in 1839. For 11 years this two story building, located across State Street from the present courthouse, kept an increasingly busy schedule. By 1850 the county had grown substantially and the need for a new courthouse was evident. E.P. Young, Kimball Dow and J. C. Kellogg were appointed to contract for the new building at a cost not to exceed $6,000. An addition to the second courthouse was constructed in 1863, and it served the county well up to the turn of the century. The present courthouse was built amidst controversy as another attempt was made to wrestle the title of county seat away from Sycamore. Two wealthy industrialists from DeKalb, Jacob Haish and Isaac Ellwood, pledged $20,000 each to help defray the costs of building a new courthouse, to be built in DeKalb. Residents of Sycamore collectively raised $70,000 to keep the courthouse in town. Despite legal fights and escalating pledges (Jacob Haish once pledged $103,000 of his own money) the county seat remained in Sycamore and the present courthouse was constructed. |
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