Local History Online Headings and Categories

The several hundred thousand records included in the Local History Online catalog have been organized with specific headings and categories. These headings and categories are provided to assist the searcher to gather more accurate and meaningful results. The following is a brief description of how to successfully use these headings and categories within the Polaris platform.

Headings

Local History Online records are created with the following headings: Titles, Names, Subjects, and Geographic Names (such as street addresses, township section/quarter descriptions, or parcel/tax numbers). These headings are located within the following broad Polaris headings, which can be found under the “Catalog Home” tab or the “More Searches” tab in the “Search by” drop-down:

Title: “Title” includes all of the index record titles and catalog record titles of published materials

Author: “Author” includes authors of published works, persons indexed in Local History Online’s various records, and proper names for entities such as businesses, government agencies, localities, social clubs, organizations, property subdivisions, etc.

Subject: Topical subjects (for example “African American Clergy”) for all indexed records and cataloged published materials are located here. Additionally, street addresses, township section quarter descriptions (example: Urbana Township, Section 1, NW quarter), or property parcel/tax number.

Categories

In addition to the headings listed above, the index records of Local History Online offer categories as further access points for more precise searching. These categories offer patrons the opportunity to organize search results by record type. Category searches can be conducted by utilizing the “Limit by” drop-down under the “More Searches”tab (scroll past the “formats). Listed below are the Local History Online categories (in bold) some of the more popular types of records within each category .

Champaign County Historical Society mounted photographs
Digitized photographs
Individually indexed photographs
“L” collection photographs
Photographs envelopes

Champaign County Hospital childbirth register
Champaign County physician birth returns
Champaign County registers of births
News-Gazette individual birth announcements and cumulative listings

Sheriff’s Prisoner’s record book
Sheriff’s jail record books

Champaign County County Court record book entries
Champaign County Chancery Court cases
Champaign County Criminal Court cases

Indexed cemetery records
Indexed funeral home records
Indexed monument company records
Champaign County certificates of death and certifications of death
Champaign County Coroner’s inquest records
Champaign County Probate Court cases
Champaign County register of deaths
Indexed books of cumulated obituaries, funeral home records, and cemetery reading/records
Indexed Federal census mortality schedules
Indexed individual obituaries, death announcements, funeral notices, and notices of memorial services appearing in newspapers

Champaign County Chancery Court cases

Champaign County Probate Court estate cases
Champaign County Probate Court guardianship cases

A.B. Shuck and Successor Funeral Home (Urbana, Ill.) indexed funeral home records
Heath Funeral Home (Champaign, Ill.) indexed funeral home records
Mittendorf Funeral Home (Champaign, Ill.) indexed funeral home records
Mueller Funeral Home (Champaign, Ill.) indexed funeral home records
Owens Funeral Home (Champaign, Ill.) indexed funeral home records

Champaign County marriage licenses and marriage registers
Indexed individual marriage announcements and cumulative listings appearing in newspapers
Indexed individual anniversary announcements and cumulative listings appearing in newspapers

Indexed books containing information on soldiers and veterans

C.N. Clark and Co. (Urbana, Ill.) indexed monument company records
S.P. Atkinson and Co. (Champaign, Ill.) indexed monument company records

Courier and News-Gazette article title listings
Indexed individual newspaper articles, including obituaries, birth announcements, marriage announcements, building permit information

Champaign County Chancery Court cases
Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals cases
City of Urbana Building Code Board of Appeals meeting minutes and cases
City of Urbana Building Safety Code Board of Appeals cases
City of Urbana Community Development Commission meeting minutes
City of Urbana Community Development Services Dept. building permits and other associated permits, property cases, and property maintenance files
City of Urbana Development Review Board cases
City of Urbana Electrical Department permits
City of Urbana Engineering Department right-of-way permits
City of Urbana Existing Structures Code Board of Appeals cases
City of Urbana Historic Preservation Commission property inventories
City of Urbana Minimum Housing Board of Appeals cases
City of Urbana Plan Commission cases
City of Urbana Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals cases
City of Urbana Zoning Board of appeals meeting minutes and cases
Indexed books on historic buildings and inventories of historic structures
Indexed maps
PACA historic property inventories and PACA newsletter
Title abstracts
University of Illinois Urban Planning class inventories
Urbana Association of Commerce property inventories

High school yearbooks
Indexed books on class reunions and other rosters of students