Boone County Historical Museum

Boone County Historical Museum: Digitization of Obituary Archives 1851-present

The Boone County Historical Museum is located in Belvidere Illinois. One of the main roles of the Museum is to provide a venue for citizens to research genealogical and other historic documents.  An important type of document used in this type of research are obituaries.  Over the years, the Museum has archived over 30,000 obituaries going back as far as 1851.  However, because these documents have been stored on microfilm and newspaper articles, they have remained very difficult for citizens to access.

In an effort to support the Museum with its mission of providing historic documentation to the citizens of Boone County and beyond, funds from the Schwemm Family Foundation have been awarded and used by the Museum to digitize the entire collection of these 30,000 obituaries.  The result is a complete digitized, on-line record of these obituaries that can be accessed by anyone pursuing historic or related genealogical research related to this area of Northern Illinois. http://boonehistory.org