Henderson County, Illinois A USGenWeb Genealogy Site

Facts About Henderson County

Henderson County is located in the Mississippi River Basin in west-central Illinois. It is bounded on the west by the Mississippi river and Iowa.Imagine acre upon acre, mile after mile of corn fields with a bit of timber and a few sleepy rural towns mixed in and you will have a fairly accurate picture of Henderson County. It is made up of gently rolling prairie with a few bluffs near the river. The soil is a rich black loam over clay, which makes this a very fertile farming region. The primary crops are corn and soybeans, but beautiful melons, apples and other fruits and vegetables are still grown. The climate is Mixed humid, which means we experience hot, moist summers and VERY cold winters.
When our ancestors arrived in the area, they would have found the same bit of timber and river bluff, but the bulk of the area would have been filled with tall prairie grasses. I am sure that they were lured by the promise of that fertile soil and the river, which in the days before the railroad existed was a major means of transportation and shipping. Aside from farming, shipping, hunting and trapping, early industries included saw and flour mills. There were also Newpapers in the area in the 1850's and I look forward to getting some of the information from them posted.

A family tree can wither
if nobody tends it's roots

The Illinois motto is "Land of Lincoln" and he was an early visitor in the county. Illinois originally belonged to the French and British. It was part of the NorthWest Territory. Having been part of several other counties, lastly Warren, it became a county in it's own right in 1841. The county seat is in Oquawka Illinois.

Whats New

We Now Have male Marriages posted for the county. I will be posting them for females also, but it may be awhile before that is accomplished. In the meantime, I have added a search on the main page on the bottom of the left hand pane. Hopefully you can use that to find a female name in the interim. I have also added some maps for Henderson county. One shows the location of Henderson county within the state of Illinois, One that shows the location of townships within the county and the last has the major roadways within the county marked. I will be adding more maps soon as I want to show locations and give directions for cemeteries within the county. I will continue to add things, so please check back and thanks for your patience.

Whats New

I have added the search box to each of the pages on the site to make it easier to navigate. I have also started to add cemetery pictures. These are pictures that I had taken quite a while back, before I had the site, so they are not all inclusive. I hope to add more soon.

I am working on posting obituaries

I have been and will be working on getting some obits posted during the next few days. If you have been to the main obits page, please keep in mind that you may wish to hit the refresh button on the browser so that you can see the latest work posted. Also, keep in mind that I may have added items that the freefind search engine has not gotten logged as yet, so when you search the new obits may not show up in your search results.

We have a new Lookup Volunteer!

I am happy and excited to announce that we now a couple who have volunteered to do lookups! Their names are Gary L. and Joyce Barnett. His family is from Henderson County and Gary and wife Joyce are already members of the Warren and Henderson County Genealogical Societies, as well as volunteers in Henderson County. Gary states that both sides of his family came from Henderson county and they have extensive knowledge of early families in the area. His wife Joyce has been hard at work in the Genealogy room at the Henderson County Library doing Obituary cards. I am told there are over 9000 cards currently on file in the Biggsville Library. Please see the Lookup page for contact information and guidelines for your request.

I have added a new Cemetery Page

I have added a new Cemetery page with pictures that is titled "other." These pictures are ones that I have taken in area cemeteries that are very close to or on the border of Henderson County. Please be aware that the pictures are ones I took a long time ago while researching my own family. I will continue to add pictures and organize the page a bit as I have time. I also continue to add Obituaries and death notices. I tend to work in fits and starts as I have time, so please bear with me and keep checking back. Earlier today I did update the freefind engine, so everything added up to that point should show up when you use the search box.