A portion of membership dues and direct donations provide funds for expensive Society projects, the acquisition of genealogical publications and the addition of major record sets to the Society’s collections. These collections are available as publications, data on our websites, and/or among of the Society’s holdings at the Belleville Public Library. (off site)
Your membership or donation helps SCCGS continue these efforts.
Acquisitions: major projects funded by the Society
Some of SCCGS-funded acquisitions now at the Belleville Public Library
- Microfilmed Mount Hope Cemetery burial records (a $5000.00 project). Read about Mt. Hope and our project.
- Green Mount Cemetery [Non-sectarian] Sexton’s Records
- Booker T. Washington Cemetery records
- Zion Lutheran (Belleville) Church Registers
- Donated $10,000 to digitize Belleville News-Democrat (1901 – ), with remote access for SCCGS members
- Probate microfilm acquired 1770s – circa 1964 funding ($15, 255.00) was spread over a five-year period, and was completed in July 2010. Direct donations of 33.6% from members and the general public offset total costs. Possibly the Society’s most expensive project, the 776 reels are comprised of these subsets, in the SCCGS holdings at the Belleville Public Library:
—Probate Record, Reels 1 – 125 Wills [original will images]
—Non-Probated Wills, Rolls 1 – 28 [majority are 1930s – 60s]
—Probate Records of the Circuit Clerk, Rolls 1 – 623 [primarily intestate case files but includes other cases before the probate court.]
- Society-based collections, e.g., Research information file (questions answered by SCCGS on hundreds of families).
- Will record, guardianships, administrators records – probate-related microfilm 68 reels
- Catholic Parish Registers Diocese of Belleville through 1930 (170 microfilm rolls)
- Abstracts of Immaculate Conception Church records, Kaskaskia, late 1600s to 1900.
- E. St. Louis city directories, 1887, 1898, 1900-1928, microfilm.
- Closed Baptist church records, Metro East Baptist Association – funded microfilming and acquisition
- Shiloh Methodist church records, photocopies of; abstracts appear in the SCCGS Quarterly, volumes 22 and 23, (1999 and 2000)
- German Methodist church records, Belleville, photocopies with subsequent translation and publication of the German records
- St. Peter Cathedral, Belleville, Baptisms 1842-1900, photocopies of abstracts
- Purchased Kaskaskia Manuscripts: A Calendar of Civil Documents in Illinois, 14 reels with index
- Lebanon Advertiser newspaper, 21 microfilm reels
- O’Fallon Progress newspaper, all reels available
- Mascoutah Herald newspaper, all reels available
Milestone Achievements
1978 - 2024
2023 – Successful nomination to digitize the East St. Louis Daily Journal 1901–1928, chosen by the Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) advisory board.
2023 – Mount Hope Cemetery Lot Books (images), a Member benefit
2022 – Members’ access to Mount Hope Cemetery Lot Card Index and Burials
2022 – Members’ access to the Belleville Newspaper Abstracts (1840–present), entirely funded by the Society. And, access to digitized News-Democrat issues 1901–2002!
2021 – Bylaws (revised 2021) vote passed November 4. Effective immediately. Last revision was in 1994.
2021 – Chancery Court casefile Index (1870–circa 1920) acquisition approved (judgments, orders, and decrees, concerning divorce, injury, wills, real and personal property foreclosures, and partition of land)
2021 – ISGS Community Service Award (to Gloria Dettleff, as recognition for her transcriptions of Catholic church and other records donated to southwestern genealogical societies)
2021 – Online book shop debut (April)
2020 – Virtual program meetings began in Fall in response to the pandemic.
2018 – Public website gets a new look after 20 years; online membership applications debut.
2018 – ISGS Special Recognition Award to Judy Jennings, SCCGS volunteer, for promotion of genealogy in general and support of SCCGS purpose.
2018 – ISGS Community Service Award to Judy Jennings for preservation of 12,000 burials in Booker T. Washington Cemetery, Centerville, St. Clair County.
2017 – Society celebrates its 40th Anniversary
2012 – Member website debut, Society marks 35th anniversary
2011 – ISGS Community Service Award (Robert Buecher)
2010 – Probate microfilm acquisition ($15,255); 33.6% from donors.
1998 – Public website debut, grows to 600 pages by 2014.
1993 – ISGS Special Recognition Award for St. Clair County History, Volume II (Diane Renner Walsh)
1992 – St. Clair County History, Volume II published, proceeds to the Belleville Public Library Archives
1991 – Receives Illinois Humanities Council mini-grant 11171-0491 of $1350.00.
1991 – Cemetery Committee receives National Genealogical Society Award of Merit
1990 – SCCGS facilitates transfer of original county Will Record Books to IRAD .
1990 – Cemetery Committee receives Illinois State Historical Society Award for Excellence – Shiloh Cemetery.
1990 – ISGS Community Service Award (to Rosemary Bechtoldt – Poor Farm book and Society service)
1990 – ISGS Special Recognition Award (to Robert Buecher)
1988 – St. Clair County History, Volume I published
1986 – SCCGS Quarterly awarded first place in ISGS Competition.
1985 – Newsletter and Quarterly each awarded 2nd place by ISGS
1982 – ISGS Local Service Award (to Marsden Eisloeffel)
1978 – Illinois State GS (ISGS) Local Service Award (to Robert Buecher)
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