Cemeteries
The
following four cemeteries have over 70% of the Jewish burials in
Chicagoland:
Waldheim
(Forest Park): 150,000 burials from 1860s-present
Westlawn
(Chicago): 48,000 burials from 1937-present
Silverman
& Weiss (Forest Park): 26,000 from 1888-present
Free
Sons (Forest Park): estimated 12,000 burials from late 1800s-present (now
part of Waldheim)
Zion Gardens (Chicago) over 25,000 burials from early 1800s (Mt Maariv section)
The oldest cemeteries in Chicagoland are:
Hebrew
Benevolent Society: 1500 burials from 1854-2001
Jewish
Graceland: 5000 burials from
1857-2000
Rosehill:
estimated 10,000 Jewish burials from 1860s-present
Waldheim,
Silverman & Weiss,
Free Sons, Zion
Gardens (Mt Maariv): shown
above
Jewishdata.com is
a commercial website which
has digitized photos of grave from a number of cemeteries.
Currently, there are about 135,000 headstone images from Chicago
area Jewish cemeteries.
Chicago area:
Waldheim - 105,224*
Rosemont/Mt. Zion - 10,611
Rosehill - 10,978
Memorial Park, Skokie - 6102
New Light, Lincolnwood - 1,609
Westlawn - 2,634
It is offered at no cost to members of the
Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois.
JGSI Online Death Index
is an index to over 73,000 Jewish burials from 22
cemeteries/sections of cemeteries including over 46,000 from
Westlawn Cemetery.
Anshe Motele Cemetery (1,676)
Beverly Cemetery (1,048)
Chewra Kadisha Cemetery (2,586)
Chicago Tribune Obituaries 1994-1998 (9,347)
Jewish Graceland Cemetery : Hebrew Benevolent Society, Sections
2 & 3 (2,197)
Jewish Graceland Cemetery: Sections 1 & 4 (1,446)
Keheleth Jacob Cemetery (132)
Knesset Israel Cemetery (610)
Lawn Manor Memorial Plaques (635)
New Light Cemetery burials through August 2011 (1,896)
Oak Woods Cemetery burials through 1991 (1,339)
Oak Woods Cemetery: Ohave Sholom Mariampol section (1,275)
Oak Woods Cemetery: Ohave Sholom Mariampol section On Cards (51)
Oak Woods Cemetery: Beth Hamedrosh Hagadol West (1,214)
Oak Woods Cemetery: No Stone (21)
Rockford Illinois Hebrew Jewish Cemetery (364)
Skyline Cemetery (11)Ticktin Cemetery (813)
Waldheim Cemetery: Erster Krinker Verein (First Krinker Aid
Society) (371)
Waldheim Cemetery: Keidaner gravestones (94)Waldheim
Cemetery: Ostrow Mazowiecka (370)
Waldheim Cemetery: Satinover Unterschttizungs Verein (203)
Westlawn Cemetery (46,121)
JOWBR is
the Jewishgen Online World Burial Registry. In Illinois it
contains an index to 7126 burials from 24 cemeteries/sections of
cemeteries:
| Region: Illinois (24 cemeteries, 7126 burials)
| City: Bloomington (1 cemetery, 340 burials) |
| City: Blue Island (1 cemetery, 1049 burials) |
| City: Champaign (1 cemetery, 391 burials) |
| City: Danville (2 cemeteries, 374 burials)
|
| City: Elwood (1 cemetery, 129 burials) |
| City: Forest Park (9 cemeteries, 3187 burials)
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Anshe Motele (1221
burials) (data online 13 December 2013) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Cong. Beth Israel Anshe Yanova (178
burials) (data online 13 December 2013) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Erster Krinker Verein (First
Krinker Aid Society) - Gate 225 (372
burials) (data online 7 January 2010) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Kadaner Unt. Verein, Gate #233 (97
burials) (data online 15 April 2005) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Kovner Verein, Gate #4J (116
burials) (data online 14 June 2014) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Ostrover (Section 1 Gate 109,
Section 2 Gate 110A, Section 3 Gate 120) (338
burials) (data online 24 June 2004) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Portuguese Israelite (Sephardic) (418
burials) (data online 6 June 2010) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Satinover Unterschttizungs Verein (204
burials) (data online 14 June 2014) |
|
Waldheim Cemetery, Slawatycze / Domachevo (243
burials) (data online 17 July 2009) |
|
| City: Galesburg (1 cemetery, 149 burials) |
| City: Lincoln (1
cemetery, 80 burials) (data online 6 June 2010) |
| City: Mattoon (1 cemetery, 13 burials) |
| City: Monee (1 cemetery, 11 burials) |
| City: Mound City (1 cemetery, 3 burials) |
| City: Rock Island (1 cemetery, 76 burials) |
| City: Rockford (1 cemetery, 325 burials) |
| City: Springfield (1 cemetery, 23 burials) |
| City: West Peoria (1 cemetery, 976 burials) |
|
Find-A-Grave
(http://www.findagrave.com/
)
List of Cemeteries in Illinois Entries
Beth
Jacob 5o
Beth-El Cemetery 1720
Beverly 1900
B'nai Brith (see Zion Gardens)
Hebrew Benevolent 3107
Isiah Israel (see Zion Gardens)
Menorah Gardens * 407
Mount Mayriv (see Zion Gardens)
New Light 1332
Oakwoods* 23064
Ridge Lawn 1720
Rosehill * 24162
Shalom 2239
Waldheim 66,460
Westlawn 4015
Zion Gardens 7203
as of 12 Nov 2014
* Includes non-Jewish
sections
Complete
list of Jewish cemeteries
We have also compiled an
alphabetical list of all organizations and Congregations which
have sections at one of the Jewish cemeteries in Chicagoland. By
accessing this list you can determine which cemetery has the
section you are interested in finding. This list can be found
at:
Organizational
Cemetery Sections
|
Funeral Homes
Three
funeral home companies exist today which have historical records. Their records may include address of
deceased, next of kin including address, phone number, burial plot location,
Social Security number of the deceased, clergy, ...
Piser
Chapels: records from 1900 holding files of former Original Weinsteins, Hartman-Miller,
Gratch-Mandel, Albert & Jaffe, and J. (Jacob) Weinstein.
Weinstein
Family Services: records from 1894 holding files of former
Weinstein Bros., Palmer-Lauer, and Robert A. Weinstein.
Furth
& Company: records from 1930s |
Death Records including Certificates/Notices/Obituaries
Death
certificates were not required by law in Illinois until after 1916. Some records do exist,
however, going back as far as the
great Chicago Fire in 1871.
Earliest
(1871-1950):
Modern
(1940-present):
All Years:
|
Joe Beine maintains an index of Cook County
Records on
his website
|