Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915
Name index of birth registers as recorded at Cook County, Illinois – including the City of Chicago.
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Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers
What is in This Collection?
This collection is an index to birth records in Cook County, Illinois, from 1871 to 1915. Before the early 1900s, most records were kept in ledger books. After that, preprinted forms were used to collect information. In 1819 a law was passed that required doctors to record births and deaths. The doctors then transferred those records to their medical society, who then published the data in newspapers. By 1843, a new law allowed relatives to report the death of a family member by appearing at the county court. Because that change was voluntary, few births and deaths were recorded until 1877. In 1871 there was a fire in the Cook County courthouse. The fire destroyed the building and nearly all records stored there. The surviving records may be found in the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD). An IRAD link is found on the bottom right of this page. The Illinois Board of Heath was created in 1877. Its purpose was to record births and deaths. It was doctors who reported these vital events, but it was not consistent. In 1915 the responsibility for recording births and deaths shifted to registrars in local areas within the state of Illinois. By 1919, 95% of the Illinois population was documented in state records.
Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.
What Can These Records Tell Me?
Birth records may include the following:
- Child’s name
- Birth date
- Birthplace
- Gender
- Race
- Order of birth
- Parents’ names (including mother’s maiden name)
- Parents’ ages
- Parents’ birth places
- Father’s occupation
- Name of doctor/midwife and his or her address
Collection Details
Location of Original Records
Cook County Clerk. Cook County Courthouse, Chicago
"Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 3 June 2025. Citing Cook County Clerk. Cook County Courthouse, Chicago.
