Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society
“…increasing and enriching public knowledge of our heritage”
Ehrlicher Research Center
719 N. Eleventh Street
Pekin, Illinois
(309) 477-3044
Mailing Address:
PO Box 312
Pekin, Illinois 61555-0312
| Monday | Thursday |
| 9:00 am-1:00 pm | 9:00 am-1:00 pm |
| Tuesday | Friday |
| 9:00 am-1:00 pm | 9:00 am-1:00 pm |
| 7:00 pm-9:00 pm | |
| Wednesday | Sunday |
| 9:00 am-4:30 pm | 2:00 pm-4:30pm |
Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is now a FamilySearch Affiliate Library! Visitors to our library have free access to many millions of additional digital images on the FamilySearch website than they can access from home.
Upcoming Events
Welcome to the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society!
The Society was established in 1978 to “stimulate interest; to collect, preserve, and safeguard records; and to provide related educational services for the purpose of increasing and enriching public knowledge of our heritage.”
Our library is staffed with one or more trained volunteer genealogists. Our collection currently contains almost 13,000 volumes.
Unexpected closings can occur but are very rare (usually to inclement weather and worldwide pandemics) – any unscheduled closing will be listed prominently on this page. If you are coming through town and can't stop by during our normal hours, email us in advance and we'll try to make arrangements to meet you at the library.
Our meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm. Our monthly meeting starts with a one hour presentation about a genealogical or historical subject followed by a short business meeting. The public is welcome to attend any of our meetings/presentations.
A good way to get a general idea of what's available here on tcghs.org is to review our website map. Thanks for stopping by!
App Family Stories Added
Larry App has documented many of his family’s stories in his blog, Stories Retold.
Larry App believes capturing and preserving a life story is one of life’s greatest accomplishments. Therefore, it's not surprising that he has graciously allowed us to share his family stories with the Society.
And, what stories! John Mathias App going west during the California gold rush – later prospecting for silver near Death Valley, California. And, Solomon & Jeremiah App’s 1862-1865 service in Company G of the 147th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, participating in many of the major battles of the Civil War.
Larry is planning more additions including more details about John App’s life in California after locating the App gold mine and marrying Leanna Donner
There is a lot of rich history that the people in Tazewell and Sangamon Counties would be proud of regarding the Apps and related families.
Be sure to check out the new App Family Stories page.
May 2021 Mystery Photo
Identified!
Thanks to member Mary Faux who owns a copy of the 1914 newspaper
the photo of the ABC baseball team originally appeared in.
Click on photo to see it full-size!
Front (L-R): William Smith, H. Albrecht, Fritz VonBoeckman, Ben Juchems
Middle (L-R): ___ Hasse, George Callahan, Mickey Grant, Ben Dirksen
Back (L-R): Allen Lester, Ira Smith, Oscar Weghorst, Clyde Bennett, Bill Janssen
August 2021 Mystery Photos Posted!
Unfortunately, we have many photographs in our collection that are undated with unnamed persons taken at an unknown location. We have dubbed these as our Mystery Photo Collection
We publish one or more photographs each month in The Monthly newsletter and on our website. All additional details we have accompany each photo. Click on photo to see it full-size!
Here's the mystery photos from the August 2021 issue of The Monthly:
Please contact us even if you are not 100% sure of your information—sometimes a tiny tidbit can lead to big results! Thanks for your help!
Also, take a look at the Mystery Photos we have posted over the past several months! Perhaps you can identify one of them.
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