Coles County Illinois Genealogical Society

Among The Coles, is mailed to members January, March., May, July, September, and December.

If you have items which would be of interest the members of CCGS, send them to:

Coles County Genealogical Society
PO Box 592
Charleston, IL. 61920-0592

The marriage books are indexes to Coles County Marriages.

Coles County marriage dates are marriage license applications dates. In some cases they may be the actual dates of marriage but usually marriages occur a few days later. This is not unusual in genealogical publications.

"An even more valuable source for the genealogist is an original application for a marriage license. Together these two records marriage certificate and marriage license could contain the names of parents, dates and places of birth of the bride and groom, relatives who appeared as witnesses or bondsmen, places of residence, and clues to religious affiliation (which could lead to church records of children, burial records of other family members, etc)." [www.Genealogy.com "Finding a Marriage Date" by Karen Clifford 6 August, 2002]

In some cases the date of marriage is not available in county records because the information was never returned to the county after the license was purchased. For marriage license copies, the date of application may be sent to the county. The Coles County Genealogical Society will soon amend its marriage books to include information available on both the license application date and marriage date. This new publication will be made available for purchase both in a CD and hard copy format.

1831 - 1850 Coles County Early Marriages
Published 1976; 63 pages.
Alphabetized by Surname of Male & Female for each year. Includes Date and Official.

1851 - 1870 Coles County Early Marriages
Published 1978, 187 pages
Alphabetized by Surname of Male & Female for each year. Includes Date and Official.

1871 - 1890 Coles County Early Marriages
Published 1987, 218 pages
Alphabetized by Surname of Male & Female for each year. Includes Date Official, Book and Page Number.
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1840 Coles County Census
Published 1984; 71 pages plus Index
Lists Head of Family and ages of members of household as in original census,

1850 Coles County Census - 2nd Edition - Book
Published 2003; 203 pages including footnotes and Surname Index.
Includes: Page, Family and Household Number; Every Individual; Age, Sex, Race, Occupation; Profession, or Trade; Place of Birth; Value of Real Estate; and Place of Birth.

1850 Coles County Census - CD (PDF Format)
Published 2003; includes the 1850 Coles County Census - 2nd Edition - Book as above which is fully searchable. Also includes enhanced images of the 1850 Census Microfilm. Move from the book to the images and back seamlessly.

1860 Coles County Census
Published 1979; 296 pages; Including Index and Mortality Schedule
Includes Page, Line, House Number,every Individual, Age, Sex, Profession, Birth place, Real and Personal Property.

1870 Coles County Census
Published 1993; 576 pages Including Index
Includes House Number, Family number, every Individual, Age, Sex, Profession, Birth place, Real and Personal Property.
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The Prairie Sleeps Volume I
Cemeteries of Lafayette, Paradise & Pleasant Grove Townships
Published 1984; 225 pages
Listed alphabetically for each cemetery.

The Prairie Sleeps Volume II
Cemeteries of Humboldt, North Okaw, and Mattoon Townships
Published 1985; 494 pages
Listed alphabetically for each cemetery.

The Prairie Sleeps Volume III
Cemeteries of Charleston and Hutton Townships.
Published 1994; 443 pages
Listed alphabetically for each cemetery.

The Prairie Sleeps Volume IV
Cemeteries of Ashmore, East Oakland and Morgan Townships.
Published 1997; 276 pages
Listed alphabetically for each cemetery.

The Prairie Sleeps All Volumes - CD (PDF Format)
Includes images of the entire set of original books (as listed above) on one CD. You can print the pages as needed. There are bookmarks for each cemetery. Over 1400 pages. Includes new compilations for select cemeteries.

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The History of Coles County, Illinois - 1879
Our Society has produced a CD of the 1990 reprint of the history book originialy published by Wm. Le Baron, Jr., & Co., in 1879.
This includes images of the entire original book (over 700 pages) plus 82 pages of 3-column every name index.
A History of the County-its Cities, Towns; a Directory of its Tax-Payers; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map of Coles County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated; Constitution of the United States and Miscellaneous Matters.
The CD is for Windows in PDF format produced with Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat Reader (which is a free download from the internet and is included on the disk) can be used to view the files. The disk contains images of all pages in the original book, Index of Biographical Sketches, and an Every Name Index.
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Historical Plat maps of Coles County, Illinois
A CD with images from the book compiled by Ronald Nichols and Originally Published in 1982 by our Society.
Contains the following: Short History of Coles Co., IL.; Historical Map of Illinois 1846 & 1883; Maps listing Post offices, Cemeteries, Churches and Schools; Illinois Central Railroad; Land Description; Metes and Bounds; Plat Maps of The Original Plat, 1869, 1893, and 1913; Index of Maps and Name Index; Annotated Bibliography.
The CD is for Windows in PDF format produced with Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat Reader (which is a free download from the internet and is included on the disk) can be used to view the files. The disk contains images of all pages in the original book.
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