McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society

08/11/2025

Check out the Illinois Genealogical Society's Regional Conference -

08/08/2025

CAGGNI, one of the co-hosts of the recent Northern Illinois Genealogy Conference offers a variety of programs to area genealogists. Check out their calendar and location/type of meetings here https://caggni.org/Events

08/08/2025

Do you need help researching your Jewish ancestry? There is also the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois with monthly meetings at Temple Beth-El in Northbrook. Take a look at their upcoming meetings on their Events Calendar

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois (JGSI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping members collect, preserve, and perpetuate the records and history of their ancestors. We serve as a resource for the worldwide community to research their Chicago area Jewish roots.

08/08/2025

There are always many ways to increase your knowledge. Conferences, like our recent Northern Illinois conference are easy, local ways. Here's an upcoming, relatively close opportunity to attend another conference.

More details can be found athttps://cgsifiles.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/drupal/2025-07/CGSI%202025%20Conference%20Registration%20Booklet_0.pdf

08/08/2025

07/16/2025

Please join us on Thursday, August 14th, 7pm CDT at The Pointe to learn how to use charts and forms to visualize your research.

07/12/2025

Congratulations and thank you to all of the societies, volunteers, speakers, and vendors that made the 1st Northern Illinois Genealogical Conference a success! The photos of the event can be found at https://mcigs.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/nigc/EojD1qA4HERLtEEEKz66TC8B_W9rwvWLB98OLIaIrlDMOA?e=gRiLB4

06/08/2025

Today is the last day to register at the early bird price!

05/19/2025

Have you registered for the 2025 Northern Illinois Genealogy Conference yet? It's gonna be fun!! Go to: https://www.mcigs.org/conference.html for more deets!!

We have Peggy Clemens Lauritzen coming who will present the following:

Finding Substitutes for Foreign Records
Following the Money Using Tax Records
Migration Trails Across America
Quaker Migration Into America

05/16/2025

Yes, we're BACK at the Pointe! Our speaker June 12th will be Dan Jungclas. His presentation will be AI & GENEALOGY.

Join us! Need help? Come early at 6:30pm and ask for help. The programs begin at 7pm.

05/12/2025

MCIGS had a personalized tour of the Chicago & North Western Archives on Saturday 10 May led by Archivist Craig Pfannkuche. Craig had given a presentation to the Society which gave us but a glimmer into the wealth of knowledge possible in the Archives.

An important thing to remember: your ancestor did NOT have to directly work ON the railroad to be included in these records. Perhaps they BOUGHT land from the railroad, perhaps they SOLD material to the railroad, perhaps they were victim of a railroad accident.

This and MORE can be found here. But, it is a resource to use IN PERSON as there are limited finding tools, as of yet. Craig and other volunteers at the Archive have a pretty got handle on the wealth of information here.

The C & NW Archives are located on the campus of the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois. Their website www.cnwhs.org.

Reach out to them via email at archives@cnwhs.org

04/20/2025

In case you haven't heard! MCIGS has partnered with several other local genealogical societies to bring you the Northern Illinois Genealogical Conference.

https://www.mcigs.org/conference