Jacksonville historical society records move to public library for safekeeping

Jacksonville family historians will now find the city’s genealogical paper trail at the public library, after the Jacksonville Area Genealogical and Historical Society closed its 52-year run at 416 S. Main St. and moved its records for safekeeping.

The move matters because the society had long served as a hands-on stop for people tracing Morgan County roots. It operated as a nonprofit supported by dues and donations, and it once offered Saturday-by-appointment access to an extensive genealogical library. Rising costs, a lack of volunteers and a dwindling membership base pushed the closure, a familiar strain for small local groups that depend on steady community labor to keep records organized and available.

Now those materials sit in the middle of an existing research network at the Jacksonville Public Library. The library already provides in-library access to Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest Online, giving visitors a way to search census records, birth and death records, government files and family history sources. Its special collections page also points researchers to help at Illinois College and the Morgan County Clerk’s office inside the Morgan County courthouse building.

For descendants trying to piece together a family line, that combination can make the difference between a name on paper and a usable record. The library’s online genealogy resources also direct users to Morgan County family-history materials and Dr. Joe Squillace’s research page, reinforcing the library’s role as a local starting point for anyone chasing a Jacksonville address, a cemetery name or an old family connection.

The transfer keeps an important Morgan County resource in local hands. The Morgan County Historical Society, founded in 1951, says it preserves and shares county history through archives, photos and historic-site information, underscoring how much of Jacksonville’s memory work depends on volunteer institutions, libraries and clerks’ offices that still know where the documents are stored.