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St. Clair County, Illinois, Research and Resources: A Genealogist’s Guide

  • Table of ContentsChapters include a select bibliography, and hints to further your research.
  • Updates appear on the member website, 22 illustrations, 3 maps, indexed, 133 pages.
  • ORDER – choose an option:
    • By mail as non-member on CD for $15.00 with a check and the Book order form, or  
    • ONLINE as digital download (4MB PDF)—select Research Guide for $15.00, or
    • ONLINE when bundled with a membership order. You pay for the membership plus only $10.00 for the Guide (again, as a digital download) 

The Guide identifies hundreds of county records from the latter 1600s through the 20th century. Some are found locally, others dispersed across the U.S. 

The intent is to widen your research possibilities, reduce ineffectual correspondence, and optimize your research experience.

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Cemetery Inventories


Links below may require the free Adobe Reader.

Township map (click here)

Courtesy of IRAD


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Fayetteville Township and Engelmann Township Cemeteries

Tombstone readings (Darmstadt Memorial, Trinity Lutheran, Trinity UCC, Old Trinity, St. Pancratius, Pulliam, St. Liborius, many smaller burial grounds), plot maps. 89 pages.

  •  Order ONLINE PDF download product (requires free Acrobat Reader) 89 pages. $10.00.

 

Freeburg Township Cemeteries

Tombstone readings of St. Joseph Catholic, St. Paul’s UCC, Silver Creek, Foulkes, Elmwood, Land, and many more smaller burial grounds, plat maps, histories,

Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form.  105 pages.  $15.00.

 

Index to Green Mount Protestant (non-sectarian) Cemetery Burials

Sometimes seen as Green Mount or Greenmount, this cemetery opened in 1873, located on Green Mount Road. Some burials were reinterred here from other cemeteries as Belleville’s city limits expanded, e.g., Harrison. This book contains two burial lists, one alphabetical, the other is arranged by lot number. See also Quarterly 28:3, “Belleville’s Early Cemeteries: Green Mount, Harrison, Old Burial Ground, Poor Farm and Walnut Hill”.

  • Order the e-Book ONLINE (requires free Acrobat Reader) 26 pages. $10.00.


Greenwood Cemetery, Caseyville Twp., circa 1911-1989

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Located in Section 31 of this township, this inventory was previously published in SCCGS Quarterly Volume 16 No. 3, 1993

  • Order the e-Book ONLINE (requires free Acrobat Reader). 37 pages plus index. $10.00.
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Holy Cross Cemetery, Fairview Heights, Illinois

Now in its third printing (December 2017), this cemetery includes people formerly buried at St. Henry Catholic Cemetery in East St. Louis. Holy Cross began in 1907 and is located in Section 25, T2N R9W, Canteen Township, near the intersection of Route 161 and Route 50.

 Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form.  $12.00.

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Lebanon Township Cemeteries

About 2,300 burials for St. Joseph Catholic in addition to many not found in church records or online databases. Summerfield City, Barton, Bradsby-Higgins, Bryan, Baer, Padfield/Schmahl, Pausche, Wittmer, and Whitaker-Pleasant Valley Road Methodist. Bonus – Plot maps included of St. Joseph and Summerfield City. Surname list (PDF).

Order ONLINE.  79 pages. $10.00.

Marissa Township Cemeteries (1860–1983)

Includes Marissa and four smaller cemeteries.  Order ONLINE. 119 pages. $10.00.

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Mascoutah City CemeteryMascoutah City Cemetery book

Chronicling more than 6600 burials in Mascoutah City Cemetery took more than four years to complete. A four-page cemetery plat map is included plus smaller cemeteries of Briesacker, Perrin/Home and Schnebelin family cemeteries. Order the print edition ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 168 pages.  $15.00

A companion to Mascoutah Township Cemeteries

Mascoutah Township CemeteriesMascoutah Township Cemeteries

Showcases an inventory of Fike and Lincoln Lake cemeteries along with burials in Holy Childhood of Jesus (Old and New) plus all smaller cemeteries in this township previously published in the Society Quarterly. Mascoutah township surnames (PDF).  Order the print edition ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 84 pages. $15.00.

A companion to Mascoutah City Cemetery

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Millstadt Township Cemeteries

Includes inventories of Mt. Evergreen, Old Millstadt / Centreville, St. Thomas Catholic, St. James Catholic, Union Hill, Zion / Freivogel, Saxtown, St. Paul in Floraville, St. Michael’s Paderborn, and White cemeteries. Mt. Evergreen.

Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 121 pages. $15.00.

New Athens Township Cemeteries

Includes New Athens City and Oak Ridge Cemeteries 1860-1984. St. Agatha’s, and many smaller cemeteries.

Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 96 pages. $12.00.

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Prairie du Long and Smithton Townships Cemeteries

 Prairie du Long cemetery joins nine others in the township for which it was named together with the 21 cemeteries in Prairie du Long and Smithton Townships CemeteriesSmithton Township. 3,200 burials from 1815 – 2016 in 31 total cemeteries. Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 118 pages, $15.00.

Maps of Higgins-Phillips and Wiskamp, and new maps of Stehfest and St. Augustine Catholic cemeteries; updated maps of St. John the Baptist Catholic, High Prairie and Franklin/Smithton City cemeteries and a new overview map of Franklin / Smithton City and St. John the Baptist cemeteries.

Smithton Township cemeteries include burials through 2016, in addition to cemeteries of Brenner, Carr, Chewning, Eyman, High Prairie, Luetkemeyer, McClintock, Phillips, Rittenhouse, Short, Moses Short, Smith, Stein-Nagel, Thompson, and Turkey Hill.

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Shiloh Valley Township Cemeteries

Includes historic Shiloh Cemetery, resting place of many pioneers.  Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 86 pages. $12.00.

Note:  See the Mascoutah Township Cemeteries book which now includes the corrected inventory of Holy Childhood cemetery and updates to 2011 (the 2001 edition of Shiloh Valley Township Cemeteries has incorrect information for Holy Childhood cemetery).

St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery, Fairview Heights, Illinois, 1914-1997

2400 Polish burials including over 700 unmarked graves. St. Adalbert’s cemetery lies partly in section 30 and 31 Township 2 North Range 8 West, Caseyville Township, and part of section 36, Township 2 North Range 9 West, Canteen Township. The cemetery association opened their records allowing the compiler to document an additional 700 unmarked graves.

Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 65 pages.  $15.00.

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Church Records

One of the best substitutes for county vital records before 1916

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Church Records Volume One

Bundled on CD, PC and Mac compatible in Adobe Reader®, $25.00.

Records of five (5) churches are bundled on this CD. Mail a check with this form. OR

Order e-books separately:

Unity Baptist, Oak Hill Baptist, and Bethel Baptist e-Book trio $10.00.

Zion Lutheran Belleville (1861-1961) $15.00.

1. Unity United Baptist Church of Christ established in 1850 and attended by large numbers of Badgley, Phillips, Rettinghouse, Whiteside and others residing near the church just north and east of Belleville. Now called First Baptist Church Fairview Heights, it is believed Unity’s members had connections to some who attended Richland Creek Baptist near Messenger cemetery where baptisms by immersion took place in the creek after which that early church was named. The Unity church of 1850 first met in Anthony’s Grove about a mile north of the earlier church, and south of today’s Drake-Thouvenot road / Frank-Scott Parkway and Old Collinsville road intersection and recently celebrated its sesquicentennial. Unity and Oakhill church surnames (PDF).

2. Bethel Baptist Church Minutes 1806 – 1851, Excerpts from the Minutes 1851 – 1852, and Membership Lists 1809 – 1909. (1806-1909) near Caseyville, one of the earliest Baptist churches in southwestern Illinois and famed for its role along the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Excellent source for family groups before 1850 census, includes some vital stats. Located near the county border and includes St. Clair and Madison County residents. 4000 names. Surname index. (PDF)

3. Oak Hill Baptist Church Minutes (1851-1863) near O’Fallon. Established in 1850 and attended by large numbers of Badgley, Phillips, Rettinghouse, Whiteside and others residing near the church.  Unity and Oakhill church surnames. (PDF) 

4. Zion Lutheran, Belleville (1861-1961). Many families formerly of St. Paul’s UCC, Belleville or other UCC churches formed Zion Lutheran. 4200 baptisms with parents named, 2700 confirmation entries, 1268 marriages and 1360 burials, plus confirmations, all translated from German. Sample page (PDF 248kb). Also available an a standalone e-book.

5. St. Peter’s Catholic Church Burials 1859 – 1909  Surnames in this book (PDF). Over 3800 burials, translated from Latin. [free on the Member website]

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Church Records of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Belleville, Illinois 1839–1939

CD-ROM or digital download. This mammoth tome, expertly translated from German by the late Martha Mae Schmidt, extracts births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and deaths for more than 18,000 entries overall. Parents, sponsors, witnesses, maiden names, clues to former marriages, and relationships are given. As the county seat, people from throughout the county traveled to Belleville to have the religious event performed at St. Paul’s. The specific German town of birth is given for many, many immigrants, providing the link needed to continue research in Germany and elsewhere. Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Surnames in St Paul UCC Belleville (PDF). 944 pages. $30.00.

CDROM or digital download Order ONLINE
CDROM only: mail a check with this form. 

Church Records of St. Paul United Church of Christ (1864–2013) FREEBURG

First named the “Free Protestant Church” in Urbana (now Freeburg) and later “The Evangelical St. Paul’s Congregation” this church was established by former members of the Turkey Hill church after it closed in 1858. St. Paul’s continues today in Freeburg.

Order ONLINE. 541 pages, e-Book $30.00.

  • Nearly 10,000 baptisms, marriages, confirmations, deaths, and family register entries were translated from German into English by St. Clair County Genealogical Society (SCCGS) member Cynthia Mueller over a period of five or more years and donated to the Society. Volunteers proofread the entire set of records.
  • Records exist for residents of Freeburg, Freeburg Precinct (now Township), Darmstadt, Mascoutah, Millstadt, and New Athens for example.
  • Birthdates as early as 1799, siblings, the place buried among 50 cemeteries, parents, and often-related sponsors and witnesses are mentioned.
  • The town or district of birth in the old country for many of this church’s German immigrants is found not only in St. Paul’s records but is commonly noted in that of other UCC church records published by the SCCGS.

Trinity Lutheran Church Records, Millstadt, Illinois

[Family Register of Early Members of Trinity; Marriages 1848 – 1911 and Burials 1849 – 1927] plus Holy Cross Lutheran Church Records, Sugar Loaf Township [Family Register of early members, and marriages 1841 – 1896].

Zion Lutheran Church Records (1861-1961), Belleville, Illinois.

Many families formerly of St. Paul’s UCC, Belleville, or other UCC churches formed Zion Lutheran. 4200 baptisms with parents named, 2700 confirmation entries, 1268 marriages and 1360 burials, plus confirmations, all translated from German.

 

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church Census 1888–1895.

The first parish established within the confines of Belleville in 1842. This census was taken just after St. Peter’s was designated the Cathedral for the new Diocese of Belleville, and includes about 4050 parishioners among the parish’s 895 families. This resource helps fill the genealogical void created for the burned 1890 federal census. In addition to family groups and relationships, birth and marriage dates and places, rare genealogical information included are parental surnames for the majority of 45 adopted or “quasi-adopted” children, birth parents’ given names; divorce or separation. The German town of birth, marital status for widows and widowers, death dates of prior spouses and individuals that died between censuses is also included. Translated from Latin. Surnames in this book (PDF).

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Methodist Church Records of Belleville, Illinois, 1840-1998

[Full title: Records of German Methodist–Jackson Street Methodist Church 213 South Jackson Street, First Methodist Episcopal Church, 10 East Washington Street, [and] Union United Methodist Church, 721 East Main Street, Belleville, Illinois]. Features baptisms, marriages and burials of the these churches records. All German language records are abstracted in English. Includes histories of these churches and an index to the immigrant’s German place of birth. Indexed, perfect bound,

Darmstadt, Holy Ghost United Church of Christ, 1843-1977

Baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths, church history, translated from German with birthplace/residence.
Indexed.

Order ONLINE.  230 pages. $10.00.

 

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Church Records of St. John United Church of Christ, Smithton, Illinois, 1870 – 1986

Baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths, church history, translated from German with birthplace/residence, fully indexed.

 

Concordia United Church of Christ (1851–1986)

Baptisms, confirmations, marriages and deaths, church history, translated from German with birthplace/residence, fully indexed.

  •  Order ONLINE PDF download product (requires free Acrobat Reader) 227 pages. $10.00.

 

Friedens United Church of Christ, Marissa

  •  Order ONLINE PDF download product (requires free Acrobat Reader). $10.00.

 

St. John United Church of Christ, Mascoutah

Baptisms 1849-1855, and marriages 1840-1876. Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. Indexed. 46 pages, $13.00

St. John United Church of Christ, New Athens (1878–1979)

Baptisms, marriages, confirmations, deaths, parents, sponsors, birthdates. Order ONLINE (PDF). 351 pages, $10.00.

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St. Liborius Catholic Church Records

St. Libory. Free on this website

 

St. Paul United Church of Christ, Floraville, 1859-1986

Baptisms, marriages, confirmations, deaths, parents, sponsors, birthdates. Order ONLINE (PDF). 107 pages, $10.00.

 

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Trinity United Church of Christ Church Records, Fayetteville, Illinois, 1878-1983

  • Order digital download only ONLINE .  Compiled from several articles in Volume 7 of the Quarterly.

Zion United Church of Christ, Millstadt, Illinois

Baptisms 1835–1845, marriages 1836–1871, and family register for early members of Zion Church. Also Salem Evangelical Baptisms, Sugar Loaf Township, 1868–1871. Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 90 pages, $15.00.

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School

The Graduating Classes of the Closed Catholic High Schools East St. Louis, Illinois: 1894 through 1989

Includes 10,000 graduates from four East St. Louis and French Village area high schools: St. Teresa Academy 1894 – 1974; Central Catholic High School 1929 – 1953; St. Mary High School 1949 – 1953; and Assumption High School 1953 – 1989. An aggregate of 132 graduating classes span 144 years of instruction. Each school is a chapter with graduates listed by year, and when available, the parish or church/city name is noted. Indexed.

Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 156 pages, $15.00.

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Other

Birth and Death Records, 1843-1870, St. Clair County, Illinois

Exact transcription. Order the e-Book ONLINE (requires free Acrobat Reader). 72 pages. $10.00

Note: Extracts of Birth certificates (1874–1916) filed at the courthouse are a Member benefit on that SCCGS website (available up to 1909 as of 1Aug2022).

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Dutch Hill Prairie History

Dutch Hill Prairie land is in the southeastern part of St. Clair County, Illinois. The land lies in Township 3 South Range 7 West 3rd P.M. , and called Lenzburg Township.Revised edition. Two and three generations lived in the area known as Dutch Hill (Township 3 South Range 7 West in St. Clair, roughly the southeastern boundary of the county). Many settlers were members of what later became Darmstadt United Church of Christ. Burials in several pioneer cemeteries are included. As testimony of her dedication to the SCCGS, the late Martha Mae Schmidt (author) donated these hard bound books to the Society. All proceeds will be used for acquisition of genealogical materials and placed in the Society’s holdings at the library.

Limited quantity. Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 364 pages, $25.00

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Freeburg Tribune Obituary Index, 1904-1939

Print copies limited. Order ONLINE  or mail a check with this form. 64 pages, $9.50, See also our Newspapers webpage.

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Court

Naturalization Index 1816–1906, St. Clair County, Illinois

Compiled by Robert Buecher from the Circuit Court Record book at the courthouse plus a few from other Circuit Court files. The record book was the only item this court was required to keep. The original certificates were destroyed between 1972–1976.

Order the ONLINE (PDF requires free Acrobat Reader) 45 pages. $10.00

Probated and Unprobated Will Index, 1772-1964.

FREE on our member websitejoin SCCGS. Read more about this important record set and other acquisitions and projects funded by SCCGS members and friends.

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St. Clair County Genealogical Society, PO Box 431, Belleville, IL 62222-0431.
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