I received a question about the state's Civil War records and I thought this was a good time to remind everyone about them. The Secretary of State web site for online databases: http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/databases.html is the URL for all the databases. While you are there read the whole page and see if there are any other databases which are useful to you. It is a growing list. Regarding the Civil War database, you can search by name and get the unit, etc. You can get a copy of the record [such as it is] for free. The record is merely an entry in a ledger and they copy the page it is on. They don't get the whole page but a major portion. For example, I asked for Benjamin Harding. The page starts with a readable Alexander Douglas. Ben is about 25 down the page and that far down it is getting harder and harder to read. It gives the rank, age, description [height, hair, eyes, complexion, marital status], occupation, nativity [town, county, state], joined [date, location, by whom, period signed up for], mustered in [date, location, by whom], residence [town, county, state]. It appears there is a column for last pay but it is blank on all the examples I have. This record is different from the records for the same person that the National Archives has -- I like it because it gives a physical description. I happen to have pictures but not everyone does. A couple notes -- names may not be spelled correctly, particularly given names. The residence may not be what you expect. The residence they gave might be Salt Creek or a town that no longer exists rather than a town you know. Unless your ancestor was John Smith I suggest you search on the name only. Each database now comes with more detailed search instructions. It would be a good idea to read them if you haven't searched recently. Cheryl Rothwell LoganCty@mindspring.com