Welcome to Marshall County Illinois
History and Genealogy

Hi, my name is Nancy Piper and I am the host for Putnam, Bureau, LaSalle and Marshall Counties. My ancestors came to Illinois over 150 years ago and settled in the tiny village of Florid, which is no longer even a name on a map.  I've always been a "history buff" and these pages let me help share the world my "findings".  On these pages you will find the information pertaining to the history of  Marshall County.  Our goal is to have available free of charge as much information as possible and will be adding continuously to these pages, so check back often.  

If you are interested in hosting a county, state or just donating new information that you feel would be of interest to others, please visit
Genealogy Trails.

If you have any information to add, please E-mail me.  

December 2008 Updates Obituary of Private Bert D. Rodewald of Toluca - Contributed by Amy Robbins-Tjaden Biographies:  John Allen Keedy, Abraham Keedy, George Sanwald, Samuel Buck William Brown - Revolutionary Soldier - Contributed by Bill Brown (Under Pioneer Tidbits) Yankee Lane Cemetery - Contributed by Tracy Kyle (Found under Genealogy) November 2008 Updates  Dobson Cemetery - Contributed by Nancy Sundra (Found under Genealogy) 1952 Mid-County Football Team - Contributed by Terri Taylor (Found under Village History- Lacon) Unknown School Photo - Contributed by Rick Elgin (Found under Village History - Toluca)

Search Marshall County, Illinois History and Genealogy

• George Laible Family Photo (Courtesy of Arleen (Laible) McClanahan)

• The Somerfeld Family (Photos and family history donated by Dawn Coen)

• Smoky Mountain Ancestral Quest (Website by David Beckwith - has information on the Alfred Mateer family of Marshall/Lasalle county)

• The Frain Family Genealogy (Website by Joseph Frain devoted to research on families of Luke Frain and Elizabeth Bird)

• The Sargent Family of Steuben Township    Email Berlin Sargent  (Berlin Sargent is the family historian of the Sargent Family and has a copy of the Sargent Genealogy written in  1895. She has graciously offered to do lookups for anyone interested in the Sargent family.)

• The Shoof/Coen Family Tree
  Great website by Dawn Coen.  Dawn states on her website "Most of the family members contained in this subset lived and died in Illinois (Marshall County area), Wisconsin (Portage County area) or Pennsylvania (Beaver County). This main surnames contained here are Coen, Schoof, Schaefer, Cain, Bercich, Rice, Shellman, Buchanan, Cisewski, Damask, Simonis, Ewing, Hutchison, Johnson, Koziczkowski, Quiram, Sluder, Suydam, Wehling, Coombs and Schoppe."

• NEW!!  The Hollenback Family Website   {LouAnn Cameron writes " We have created a Hollenback family website which includes families in Marshall county.")

(If you have a Marshall County Family  Genealogy or History Homepage and you'd like to have linked here, please let me know .)
 EMAIL

Marshall County Information

Marshall County and Community Links

•  ILGenweb - Marshall County, Illinois (Good genealogy site hosted by DaVe Leininger)
• Henry, Illinois Public Library
• Marshall County Historical Society
• City of Toluca

Helpful Links and surrounding counties

• Putnam County, IL History and Genealogy

• Bureau County, IL History and Genealogy

• LaSalle County, IL History and Genealogy

• Woodford County, IL History and Genealogy

• Peoria County IL History and Genealogy

• Stark County IL History and Genealogy

• The Illinois State Archives  (On-line data bases of the following records:  Public Domain Land Sales, Spanish-American War, Black Hawk War, Civil War)

• Illinois State Genealogical Society Cemetery Project  ( lists numerous cemeteries by County and Township including active, inactive, and deteriorated.)

Information Sources

Henry, Illinois Public Library
702 Front Street
Henry, Illinois 61537
Phone: (309) 364-2516
Fax: (309) 364-2717

Hours: Mon, Thur, Fri - 1-5 PM;  Tue. 10 - 5 PM; Wed. 1 - 8 PM, Sat. 10-3 PM
Closed Thurs

The Illinois State Archives  
Margaret Cross Norton Building
Capitol Complex
Springfield, IL 62756

Telephone: (217) 782-4682
Fax: (217) 524-3930

Hours: Monday–Friday    8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.   Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.   (except on holiday weekends)

The State Archives serves by law as the depository of public records of Illinois state and local governmental agencies which possess permanent administrative, legal, or historical research values.   This includes birth, death, and census records.  

The Illinois State Archives, has indexes for most of the nineteenth century censuses and the federal Soundexes for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920. The Archives also has the Illinois state and federal census records for the years 1810 1880, 1900 1920. The 1865 and 1870 censuses have not been indexed. Its collections do not include manuscript, newspaper, or other nonofficial sources.  

These records are made available to the public, officials, and scholars at the Norton Building and at seven regional depositories located on state university campuses throughout Illinois. The Archives provides access to them through a series of printed and electronic guides, and by in-person, mail, telephone, FAX, and Internet database reference services.

ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY
Old State Capitol
Springfield, IL 62701

Hours:  Monday-Friday  8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

General Information

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