Chicago Birth Certificate Lookups, 1878-1922

About these records
The Chicago birth certificates, sometimes titled "Return of a Birth," were filled out by someone who attended the birth, usually a physician or midwife, and returned to the county clerk. Some certificates mention a penalty fee for not filing a birth report, but even so, many early Chicago and Cook County births weren't registered. In many cases there may not be a birth certificate to be found.

Indexing
The birth certificates are indexed in the Cook County Birth Index, 1871-1916 and also online at FamilySearch.org, but these indexes don't cover 1917-1922. For those years, use the indexes at the Cook County Clerk's Genealogy Online site or the index on Ancestry.com. (Important Note: The Ancestry.com site says that the records are "only" available from the county clerk's office but up through 1922 they are accessible through Family History Library films.)

Many Chicago births also appear as extracted records in the International Genealogical Index.

Format
906 microfilm reels

Arrangement
Certificates are arranged numerically by a certificate number that can be found in the Cook County Birth Index or the Chicago Birth Registers.

FHL Catalog
View Entry

Information generally found on these records
 register number
 child's name
 child's sex
 no. of child of this mother
 race or color
 place of birth (street address)
 father's nativity and age (may have more specific birthplace than the birth register entry)
 mother's nativity and age (may have more specific birthplace than the birth register entry)
 father's name
 mother's name (maiden name is generally provided)
 mother's residence, if other than place of confinement
 father's occupation
 name of party attending and making return

Search tips
There may be two or more repeating sets of certificate numbers within a single year. When this is the case, it's likely that the first group is for Jan-Jun and that the second group is for Jul-Dec (or Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sep-Dec, if there are three divisions), however this rule doesn't always hold true. During the teens, for example, December birth certificates are sometimes found in the first group of films for the following year and when this happens, all of the months may shift, meaning that an April certificate might fall into the second group of certificate numbers rather than into the first.