Got a questions about where grandpa is buried in Barrington?  Are you wondering if Lipofsky's is still around?  Are you trying to find an ancestor's home?  Fellow researchers (and the library) are assisting genealogists and local history researchers with questions related to the Barrington area.  If you need assistance with your Barrington research, consider signing up for this email listserv or subscribe to their rss feed.

To subscribe send and email with the word "subscribe" to il-barrington-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or il-barrington-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).

Planning a reunion? Looking for former classmates? Wondering what school your grandfather might have attended? A new website, http://www.cpsalumni.org/ can help. cpsalumni.org has information on every school that existed in the Chicago Public School system, and plans to register alumni and display historical photos and stories about each school.

The Northwestern University School of Law discovered and makes available online, more than 11,000 homicide records from the Chicago Police Department.  The cases are indexed by keyword, victim, defendant, case number and more.  It is useful for anyone studying Chicago history, criminal justice, and for finding secrets in your genealogical closet.  Be sure to check out some famous cases or the "Case of the Day" at http://homicide.northwestern.edu/.

If your ancestors have any connection to the state of New York, you might consider the German Genealogy Group's website:  http://www.germangenealogygroup.com/otherdb.stm. This is a huge and well-done undertaking by the German Genealogy Group of New York. Scroll down the page to examine all the databases that are available to the genealogist.  Records are not limited to those of German descent.  Naturalization records are accessible for a number of counties in New York.  Marriage records are indexed with both the bride and groom's name for easy searching.  One may search the New York City Death Index for the years 1891-1947.   Left click on the Databases button on the left side of the page.  Here one is able to bring up even more databases -- yearbook information and church records.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the premier repository for materials relating to the history of the Prairie State. The Library is a public, non-circulating research facility that contains material on all aspects of Illinois' history. Particularly noteworthy are the Library's holdings in published resources, manuscripts, newspapers, audiovisual, and Lincolniana.  Visit their website at:  http://www.alplm.org/library/library.html.

CAGG-NI is a group of amateur genealogists who are attempting to more effectively leverage computers in support of their research activities. CAGG-NI is actively:

• assisting its members in their genealogical research and using computers in this endeavor
• keeping its members informed on new technologies and techniques to support their research
• providing genealogical and computer mentoring for its membership
• undertaking projects which support the genealogical community in the region
• presenting over 20 programs per year

The website includes software and genealogy databases, links to local library resources, a searchable surname list, tools and tips and much more.  Visit them at:  http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcaggni/

For those genealogists seeking out ancestors of Norwegian descent, the Norwegian Historical Data Centre (NHDC) offers a most useful website.  Censuses from 1865, 1875, and 1900 can be found online, as well as some parish records.

Easy and advanced search options are available, with the advanced search allowing the genealogist to search up to six fields.

Castle Garden is a database of 10 million immigration records from 1830 through 1892.  Before Ellis Island opened, immigrants to America came through Castle Garden.  There is a Quick Search feature to type in your ancestor's name and a date range may also be selected. 

Results include:  occupation, age, sex, date of arrival, country of origin and ship name, invaluable information for genealogists.