Guide to Cook County, Illinois ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth, cook county recorder, death, census, family history, and military records. Location of Illinois in the U. Statewide registration for births and deaths started 1916.
Some alternate records are available for these records prior to 1871, which were destroyed in the Chicago fire. County records are most often kept at the County Courthouse or another local repository. For further information about where the records for Cook County are kept, see the Cook County Courthouse page. Cook County was named for Daniel P. Cook who was the first Attorney General of the State of Illinois and Representative in Congress from 1819 to 1827. When the county was formed in 1831, it’s total population was about one hundred people, spread over 2,464 square miles. The county was named for Daniel Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history.
He served as the second U. Representative from Illinois and the state’s first Attorney General. The County Seat is Chicago and was founded January 15, 1831. It is located in the Northeast area of the state. 15 January 1831: Cook County was created from Putnam County by an act of the Illinois State Legislature as the 54th county established in Illinois. The unincorporated Fort Dearborn settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River became the new county’s seat.