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Name Index to Illinois Local Governments

Entering Search Criteria
You may search the Name Index to Illinois Local Governments by Name of Local Government, Form of Government, County, or Form of Government & County.

By Name of Local Government
Enter a name in the first field to get a list of local governments with that name.
[Note: This is a unique search field which requires that Form of Government be set to "None" and County left blank.]

By Form of Local Government
Select a Form of Local Government to return a list of the following types of local governments:

County:	Lists all counties or a specific county entered in the County field.
Township:	Lists all townships or the townships in a specific county entered in the County field.
Precinct:	Lists all precincts or the precincts in a specific county entered in the County field.  [Note: Precincts are included only for counties that do not have townships.]
Municipality:	Lists all cities, villages, and towns or the cities, villages, and towns in a specific county entered in the County field.
City:	Lists all municipalities with city form of government or the cities in a specific county entered in the County field.
Village:	Lists all municipalities with village form of government or the villages in a specific county entered in the County field.
Town:	Lists all municipalities with town form of government or the towns in a specific county entered in the County field.
None:	Must be used with Name of Local Government searches; includes all forms of local government when used in combination with the County field.

By County
Enter the name of a county to return a list of all local governments in that county when Form of Government is set to "None," or to return a list of townships, precincts or municipalities specified in the Form of Government field.

Other Fields in the Database

Date Established
Gives the date a county was established by Illinois statute or the date a township was created under the township act.

County Seat
Gives the name of the county seat for a county or indicates whether a specific municipality is a county seat.

Date of Incorporation
Applies only to cities, villages, and towns. Includes incorporations prior to the general incorporation act which was in force beginning July 1, 1872 (if known) and incorporations under that act. Also includes the date a certificate of incorporation was issued by the Secretary of State.

Formerly
Gives former names of municipalities and townships which changed their name. 

[Note: The township organization laws provided that no two townships in Illinois have the same name. The auditor of public accounts had the responsibility of recording township names and requesting that counties submitting township names already taken select new ones. This explains many of the changes in township names. The auditor’s attempts to avoid duplicate names eventually failed, however, and there are several townships with the same name (for example, Liberty, Union, Salem).]
 

Sources

The Name Index to Illinois Local Governments was prepared from the following sources:

Illinois Counties & Incorporated Municipalities , Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Index, 1999.

County and Township Gazetteer , compiled by Secretary of State Fellow Sheila Kelly, with notes on the location of Illinois county seats by Secretary of State Fellow Lori Lovett, Illinois State Archives, 1988.

Back to Illinois State Archives Databases page