Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society has a large collection of newspapers on microfilm.
The Ehrlicher Research Center Library currently contains almost 13,000 volumes. Here’s parts of our current collection we would like to highlight:
Notable Men Photos
Pioneering photographer H.H. Cole created a historical picture gallery of notable Tazewell County residents—displayed at one time on the hallway walls of the Tazewell County Courthouse. Many of these photographs are of early Tazewell County notable men. Our archivists scanned over 1500 of the 5″x7″ photos that had been stored in the basement of the Tazewell County Courthouse for decades. Here’s your chance to own a photograph of your Tazewell County ancestor taken by the same man who photographed Abraham Lincoln.
Ortssippenbücher (OSB) Collection
Many of the early settlers of Tazewell County emigrated from the Ostfriesland area of Germany. Ortssippenbücher (OSB) and Ortsfamilienbücher (OFB) books contain important genealogical information for Ostfriesen researchers such as family names, social status; occupations; family relationships; and dates of births, marriages, and deaths for families found in a specific church in an Ostfriesen village. Our OSB collection is currently thought to be complete and the largest in the State of Illinois.
World War I Soldier Photos
Included in the Society’s L Sidney Eslinger Glass Negative Collection are over one hundred glass plate negatives of identified Tazewell County area soldiers in uniform—probably from around World War I (1918). Our archivists have scanned these negatives (archival tiff format, 200 dpi). The original photographs were taken by Henry H. (“H.H.”) Cole—a pioneering Tazewell County photographer.
