| Death records
start in 1877; birth records start in 1878; marriage records start in 1853.
Birth and death records were irregularly recorded until 1916 so it is quite
possible that the record does not exist for the event. The society has the
index to all the early records and will check for anyone writing to the
society. We have posted the death records
index and are currently posting the birth
records index. For marriages, you may visit the
marriage records index posted by the ISGS and Illinois Archives.
For land records, the recorder of deeds is located on the second floor at 189 E. Court St. and has records starting in 1851 (before the forming of the county in 1853). The first City Directories for the county started in 1876. After that directory, the next one was 1896. After the turn of the century, the Kankakee Public Library has indexes for most years thereafter. The Kankakee Library also has microfilm copies of the newspapers back to the 1850's and has all of the Illinois available Federal censuses. The Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society has published quarterlies since 1979 and bound volumes in five year increments are available for purchase through the society. There are three indexes to these volumes available, one of Vol. 1-15, one for Vol. 16-20, and one for Vol. 21-25. The quarterly's for Vol. 1-21 are now online. For the quarterly's and our master cemetery index, please see our home page & web projects. |