The Genealogy & Local History Library

Genealogy & Local History

The Hayner Public Library District provides a variety of genealogy-related services and local history resources to support your research efforts. Our collection includes books on local railroads and streetcars, steamboats on the Mississippi, notable Altonians, local architecture, and more. Special events and ongoing programs are also held at the Genealogy & Local History Library. Program and event topics and dates are published in our library newsletter. You may also call the Genealogy & Local History Library for more information.

Contact Information:

Genealogy & Local History Library
401 State Street
Alton, IL 62002-6137
618-462-0677, option 3
genealogy@haynerlibrary.org

Current Hours:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Closed Sundays

Alton ABC and Color Me Alton: Seasons

In 2019, a small group of Alton High School students and their teacher, Mrs. Lexa Browning-Needham, collaborated with our own Reneé B. Johnson of the Genealogy & Local History Library to publish Alton ABC. The rhyming alphabet picture book is designed to delight and inform, acknowledging the present and the history of our area. The hardbound books cost $20 each, and the proceeds are split between Hayner Library and the Alton School District.

They also published Color Me Alton: Seasons, a multi-generational coloring book exploring the seasons in the Alton area. Student illustrators worked to illustrate text written by Reneé B. Johnson, highlighting seasonal activities and events in Alton, Godfrey, and Fosterburg, Illinois. The students drew pages depicting the Alton Memorial Day Parade, Juneteeth Celebration in James H. Killion Park, Alton Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market, the Rose Garden at Gordon Moore Park, the All-Wheels Drive-In Classic Car Show, the Great Godfrey Corn Maze at Glazebrook Park, and other wonderful local traditions.

Both books are available for purchase at the Genealogy & Local History Library, located at 401 State Street, Alton, IL. Copies of Alton ABC are $20 each and copies of Color Me Alton: Seasons are $10 each. Please note: We accept cash or check payments only.

Links to a Few of our Online Resources:

Ancestry Library Edition Available at the Hayner Genealogy & Local History Library.
Fold 3 Military records remote access also available with your Hayner Library card.
Newspaper Archive Illinois Newspapers Includes the Alton Telegraph from 1836-2012 and The Edwardsville Intelligencer. Remote access also available with your Hayner Library card.
Alton Telegraph November 2012-December 2019 In-library use available at all Hayner Library locations. Not available remotely due to copyright restrictions.
Alton Telegraph from NewsBank January 2020-Present Includes text (no images) for the Alton Telegraph from 2007-present and full-color newspaper pages from January 1, 2020-present. Remote access available with your Hayner Library card.
Archive.org Digitized books from the Hayner Library collection. Includes yearbooks, Alton city directories, and other items. Remote access available without a library card.
Illinois Digital Archives Alton Area Local History Collection Photographs digitized by the Genealogy & Local History Library staff. Includes photographs from the Alton Evening Telegraph.

Get a Library Card

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State Genealogy Research Guide

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Madison County Cemetery Maps

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Our History at Hayner Blog

Our Future Outlook

We’re digitizing city directories, local yearbooks, and other items from the collection and making them available through archive.org and through links on the online SHARE catalog when we can. See what we’ve digitized so far.

We partnered with the Illinois State Library to create an “Alton Area Local History Collection” on the Illinois Digital Archives website. We’re adding more material all the time. The Illinois Digital Archives is a fantastic resource for Illinois history and includes photographs, oral interviews, books, newspapers, and other items.

We’re also extremely excited about partnering with the Edwardsville Public Library and the Madison County Historical Society for the 2020 Historian Project. Originally aimed at teens, the project is open to everyone, and we encourage you to share your experience. This current moment in time will be in future history books. Your unique daily observations will serve as primary sources for people in the future. We hope this project will encourage you to contemplate and think critically about the state of the world and give you an outlet to process information, ideas, and feelings. Be authentic. Be honest. Be reflective. Pay attention to the details. Your job is to chronicle the changes you observe as your community, the country, and the world responds to COVID-19.

Immigration and Citizenship Research (January 10, 2022)

U.S. Military Research (November 29, 2021)

Cemetery Research (November 15, 2021)

Property Research (October 18, 2021)

Newspaper Research (September 20, 2021)

Courthouse and Church Records (August 16, 2021)

Family Search (July 9, 2021)

Ancestry.com: Research, Trees, DNA (May 28, 2021)

Sharing and Collaborating on Social Media (April 16, 2021)

Digital Family Trees and Files (March 30, 2021)

Organizing Our Genealogy Research (January 29, 2021)

Check out this article from Family Tree Magazine for suggested filing systems.

A library card issued from an Illinois Heartland Library System member-library provides access to the computers.

Guest passes are available with a photo ID.

Our Collection Includes:

Abraham Lincoln

Multi-volume collection of Abraham Lincoln references

City Directories

City of Alton—Oldest is 1858; incomplete set for the late 1800s to present
Wood River/East Alton—Incomplete set for 1926 to present

Databases

Ancestry® Library Edition—Worldwide records: vital, military, census, immigration, etc.
Fold3—Historical military records

Genealogical Books

American State Papers: Land Grants & Claims
Madison County Illinois Federal Census Indexes for 1820 through 1930
Madison County Illinois State census indexes for 1845 and 1855
Illinois Census Returns for 1810, 1818, 1820
Most Madison County Cemetery Inventories; cemetery records for surrounding counties
Madison County Naturalizations and Intentions 1816-1900
Plat Maps and Atlases for Madison County and surrounding counties
Madison County Marriage Index 1813-1882
Various genealogical records of Jersey, Greene, Macoupin, Montgomery, Calhoun, Bond, Pope, Williamson, Hamilton, Franklin, Perry, Pulaski, Union, and other counties in Illinois and of St. Charles, St. Louis, Franklin, Perry, and other counties in Missouri
Madison County, Illinois, birth record index 1850-1879, death record index 1878-1881
Marks Funeral Home Records

Local History

Area family histories
Madison County history, including “Centennial History of Madison County, Illinois and Its People” 1812-1912 and “History of Madison County…with Biographical Sketches…”, 1880
Most Illinois county histories and local town histories
Alton Property Research File
Locally published cookbooks
Local church histories

Military Records

“Adjutant General of the State of Illinois: Annual Report 1863-1872″
Alton Military Prison records
Civil War CD-ROM (a compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies)
Selected Records of the War Department relating to the Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865
Records of Veterans from Madison County and surrounding counties

Newspapers and Periodicals

Digitized Alton newspapers from 1836—2012 including obituaries, births, deaths, marriages, probate, etc.
Illinois newspaper digitization—articles of newspapers from other cities in Illinois, including The Edwardsville Intelligencer
Madison County Genealogical Society Newsletter
SAGA (Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois quarterly)
Stalker (Madison County Genealogical Society quarterly)

Yearbooks

Alton High School—Tatler: various years starting 1905
Marquette High School—Explorer: various years starting 1961
Monticello Seminary College—Echo: various years starting 1838
Shurtleff College—Retrospect: various years starting 1911
Western Military Academy—Recall: various years starting 1924 plus CD
Yearbooks and other items digitized and uploaded by the Hayner Genealogy & Local History Library
Instructions for Viewing Online Yearbooks

Additional Genealogy Websites

Illinois Research:

United States Research:

Missouri Research:

Missouri State Archives Databases

Global Research:

Genealogy Research Information and Tutorials:

Donations of materials pertaining to Illinois history are greatly appreciated. We’re always on the lookout for yearbooks and locally published cookbooks. We also appreciate the donation of your family history resources when you are finished with them, including house abstracts. These items can help someone in the future discover their family origins. To discuss your donation, please call (618) 462-0677, option 3.